Burma did not want to stay British after the war. The Japanese occupation during the war meant it was not going to have to. It also wanted to stay Buddhist so was not going to join India. Could the politicians work together enough to form a more perfect Union? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp from newly independent Burma shows the throne from pre British Burma. The problem there was that the Royals were not coming back. Instead politicians who had collaborated with the Japanese turned on them and put themselves under a anti fascist banner and jockeyed for position. How do you put that on a stamp? I think it would be fun to try.
Todays stamp is issue A19, a one Rupee stamp issued by the Union of Burma on January 4th, 1949. It was part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.
U Nu, then just U, went to college at the British founded University of Rangoon. There he met other young well off Burmese who were interested in ending British rule. The group was expelled from the University after they published a work called “Hell Hounds let Loose” making fun of the Rector. U’s work got more political but he also made a living translating English books to Burmese. Most were communist but one was Dale Carnegie’s work, “How to win friends and influence people”. U translated that title into How to take advantage of man by man. Born politician right.
During the war, the Japanese occupied Burma and gave it independence. U served as the puppet government’s Foreign Minister. When the tide turned against the Japanese the independence leaders abandoned them and united under the banner of the anti-fascist peoples freedom league and went to British held territory. The prewar British Governor came back and put them on a commission to work on independence. When the Governor changed the police and civil service went on strike to hurry along the process. The British were anxious to get out as well and a deal for independence was signed by Ang Sang and British Prime Minister Atlee. Before the turnover could happen, Ang Sang was assassinated by a shut out rival. The last British Governor appointed U Prime Minister and quickly got out. U had taken the title of Thakin but that was an old fashioned title and so he replaced it with Nu.
The anti fascist league pretended to speak for a diverse group but many ethnic minorities and hard core communists formed armed resistance groups. U tried to hold on to power. His faction of the anti-fascist league was rebranded the clean anti fascist league. U was also faced with Nationalist Chinese forces that vacated to Burma after losing the Chinese Civil War. American support for these Chinese damaged relations with Burma.
All the fighting tired the Army of the politicians and there was a coup against U Nu. He first was held “for his safety” and then allowed to go into exile in London. From London in 1969 he declared that he was still Prime Minister of Burma. Well a British Governor had appointed him 20+ years before. In 1981 figuring U Nu was now U old, the military allowed U to return to Burma. where he taught religion at his old University. In 1989, he made them regret that by declaring that his 1969 London declaration still held and he was still Prime Minister. Even other regime opponents were laughing at him by then and the military confined him to his house until his death in 1996.
So what ever happened to the old Royals. The last King Thibaw was exiled to India in 1886. He embarrassingly was on his knees before the British and many of his subjects begging for his life upon leaving. The British paid him a pension in India but that ended with his generation. One of his granddaughters was found in India in 1995. She was poor, married to a mechanic and didn’t speak Burmese or practice Buddhism. She did have a poster up in her home that showed her mother as a child in the Palace. A brother was more successful. He moved back to Burma and lived a quiet non political life as a merchant. He did take care to marry his first cousin to keep the Royal blood line pure. In his nineties in 2007, he came out of the closet by appearing in a local documentary titled “We were Kings”. He died this year but there is a male heir. In case Burma tires of U old and his clean league and is ready for a U Turn.
Well my drink is empty and I will patiently await tomorrow when there were be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.