Episode Details

Aung San negotiated Burma's independence from Britain, built the army that would dominate the country for decades, and was assassinated at thirty-two — six months before the independence he had fought for was officially declared. His murder removed the one leader with enough credibility to hold the country together, and the military state that filled the vacuum has defined Myanmar's tragedy ever since.

This episode traces Aung San from his student activism through the Japanese collaboration during World War II, the switch to the Allied side, the independence negotiations, and the assassination that left Burma without its founding father.

• Aung San's student radicalism and the "Thirty Comrades" who trained with the Japanese
• The wartime collaboration with Japan and the strategic switch to the Allied side
• The independence negotiations with Attlee's Britain and the Panglong Agreement with ethnic minorities
• The assassination at thirty-two and the power vacuum that led to decades of military rule