Burma Research Society

   Established by John S. Furnivall in 1909 and holding its first meeting the following year, the society's goal was to promote scientific and cultural studies on the country. It sponsored seminars and conferences and published The Journal of the Burma Research Society, which contained articles in both the Burmese (Myanmar) language and English and was the principal scholarly publication in Burma until Ne Win closed down the Society in 1980, claiming it was an unneeded relic of British colonialism. BURMA ROAD. Constructed between 1937 and 1939, the Burma Road was the main route along which Western countries supplied the Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jyeshi) government in Chongqing (Chungking) with weapons and materiel during China's war with Japan. An engineering marvel, it wound through steep mountainous terrain, from the railhead at Lashio, Shan State, to the Chinese border at Wanting (Wanding), and continued on to Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. Thence another road carried supplies to Chongqing. Its importance grew after Japanese forces occupied most of China's east coast ports and closed down an alternate supply route from northern Vietnam (French Indochina) in September 1940. Between 1938 and 1940, the volume of supplies brought up by road or rail from the port of Rangoon (Yangon) grew from 2,000 to 10,000 tons a month. Tokyo saw closure of the road as essential to a speedy resolution of the "China Incident," and, when diplomatic pressure on Britain failed, sought a military solution. Neglected after the war, the Burma Road was reconstructed when the State Law and Order Restoration Council established close relations with China in 1989, largely for purposes of overland trade.

   See also Japanese Occupation; Ledo Road; Minami Kikan; Suzuki Keiji, Colonel; World War II in Burma.