Renzo Sawada, Japan’s ambassador to Japanese-occupied Myanmar, was so arrogant that then-Foreign Affairs Minister U Nu left his job to become information minister.

Though criticized for its harsh wording, the address by Myanmar’s independence hero on the reconstruction of Myanmar and public morality remains popular after all these years.

Colonel Suzuki Keiji was summoned back to Japan in 1942 amid fears that he was placing Myanmar’s independence struggle before Japan’s wartime interests.