Although Shojiro Iida was mainly militarily attacking Burma, he also played a lot of political cards, and the most crucial card was to use the nationalist sentiments of the Burmese to incite them to rebel against the British colonialists. With the support of the Japanese, the Burmese "Independent Volunteer Army" led by Aung San came into being. In the subsequent Burma Campaign, they actively led the way for the Japanese army, and cooperated with the Japanese army to attack the British army and its allies, and the memories of the Chinese Expeditionary Force generals often mentioned the Burmese traitors who helped the Japanese attack our army, which basically referred to this group of people.
Shojiro Iida was then the commander of the 15th Army of the Japanese Army. Before he attacked Burma, he reached a so-called peace agreement with Thailand, and the Japanese occupied Thailand without major battles. As a result of his rapid capture of Burma, in August 1942, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun, First Class. In addition to inciting the Burmese rebellion, the Japanese army also carried out a series of air raids on the Burmese capital, Rangoon. The real invasion of Burma began in mid-January 1942, when they crossed the Thai-Burmese border, crossed the Thana Mountains, and then pointed their swords directly at The City of Mawlamyine, Myanmar's third-largest city, located in southern Burma, on the west bank of the Salween River. Previously, the British had built fortifications in Mawlamyine, and once threatened to turn Mawlamyine into a second Tobruk, just as in North Africa in the face of Rommel's onslaught, they could still hold out for more than two hundred days, so that the enemy could not cross the thunder pool. However, the British greatly underestimated the Japanese combat strength, on January 26, the Battle of Mawlamyine began, although the battle was very fierce, but the result was one-sided, the Japanese 55th Division easily encircled the opponent, the defenders of the 2nd Burmese Brigade were defeated, and the final battle lasted only 4 days, january 30, the city of Mawlamyine was occupied by the Japanese. It can be said that as soon as the war broke out in Burma, the Allied side was at a disadvantage. At the same time that the Japanese 55th Division captured Mawlamyine, the 33rd Division also marched north, breaking through the British salween and Milin river defenses on February 11, defeating the British And Indian 17th Division and encircling Madaban from the flank. In a desperate attempt to lose a series of battles, Wavell sent a message to Churchill: "We must fight these Japanese devils at some point and place at some point, repeat, fight. Burma is not an ideal place geographically, and it is almost our last chance to show the Japanese devils and the world that we are indeed ready to fight. Of course, a series of military defeats, such as the fall of Mawlamyine and the breakthrough of the Salween River, were not a big problem, but the fall of Singapore on February 15 gave Burma a fatal blow to the war situation.
British soldiers captured by the Japanese army after the fall of Singapore. On February 15, 1942, the Singaporean defenders surrendered to the Japanese army, which had a great impact on the Allied camp at that time, which not only discredited the British Empire and caused Australia to refuse to send troops to Burma, but also caused a serious blow to the morale of the British army in Burma, resulting in a worsening of the burmese war situation. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Singapore remained Britain's most important port in the Far East. As long as Singapore remained under British control, Allied defensive strongholds in the Indian Ocean would be given priority access to strategic material assistance. Yamashita's 25th Army captured Malaysia and Singapore, forcing the British colonial authorities to surrender, shocking the entire Allied camp. Although Yangon had become the most important British port in the Far East by this time, it was difficult to hold Yangon with the British military strength in Burma alone. At this point, the forces of the ally Australia became the hope of the British army in Burma. On the evening of 17 February, Churchill wrote to the Chief of Staff that "the best remedy for Burma is to transfer the (Australian) 7th Division to Yangon". However, it was precisely because of the fall of Singapore that Australia's confidence in the war situation was shaken, and they feared that Britain's strategic deployment throughout the Far East would be destroyed by the Japanese blitzkrieg attack, and they were unwilling to fill in the army as cannon fodder. Therefore, on the day after the fall of Singapore (16 February), the Australian General Staff recommended that the Australian troops who had been transferred to the Far East return to Australia. Soon after, the port of Darwin in northern Australia was bombed by Japanese aircraft, prompting the Austrian government to more firmly determine a plan to withdraw its troops to the mainland.
Among Britain's allies, China was the most aggressive in sending troops to Burma. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the National Government in Chongqing expressed its willingness to send two armies into Burma to fight, but this request was rejected by the British side at that time. Mainly because Chiang Kai-shek visited The Indian national revolutionary leader Gandhi during his visit to India, coupled with the special relationship between China and Burma in history, Churchill had to be jealous. Of course, Chiang Kai-shek was active in sending troops to Burma, nor was he selflessly assisted by the Grand Duke for his allies, but more importantly, in order to defend the Burma Road and avoid this major artery of aiding China in the War of Resistance against China from being cut off by the Japanese army. Chiang Kai-shek has never had a good feeling for the British, and the British also believe that the Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek are people who occupy the pit and do not. So although the U.S.-British-Dutch-Australian Central Command was proclaimed as early as January 15, 1942, the alliance between countries itself was fragile, and since its inception, it has been doomed to struggle due to unforeseen problems, which in turn affected the war situation throughout Burma.