On the Burma front of the Greater East Asia War, the bodies of Japanese soldiers, lying on their backs after being killed by British and Indian troops, drift down the Shweli River in northern Burma in February 1945. The British and Indian forces conducted the heaviest air and land bombardment against the Japanese forces in the Shweli River area. The British and Indian troops then forced the bombers to cross the Shweli River to the village of Myitsone for more air and land strikes. The Shweley River was the last river that prevented British and Indian troops from invading central Burma. Japanese troops fiercely resisted the crossing of the ferry. British and Indian troops invaded the village of Myitsone through the jungle after crossing the Shweley River on February 1, 1945.
The Shweley River formed part of the boundary between Burma and China's Yunnan Province. Japanese troops moved from Rangoon in southwestern Burma to Lashio in early 1942 by rail to the north, cutting off the supply route for supplies across the border with China via the Burma Road. The Japanese occupied Burma and closed the Burma Road in 1942, cutting off the supply of Chinese Nationalist troops from Allied forces by land. The Allied forces dispatched troops to the upper reaches of the Shwe Li River in northern Burma to reach the Burma Road. On the Burma Road, the Japanese forces fiercely resisted the invasion of the Allied and Chinese forces. In early January 1945, the Allied soldiers drove the Japanese from the slopes overlooking the Burma Road. In early January 1945, they drove the Japanese out of the slope overlooking the Burma Road, firing on the Burma Road with cannons and mortars and laying mines.
On December 26, 1941, Aung San established the Burma Independence Volunteer Army and invaded the Japanese and British-controlled Burma. Under the Japanese occupation, the Burmese nation became independent from August 1, 1943 to March 27, 1945. After the Japanese were defeated at Imphal in July 1944, Aung San's Burmese National Army recaptured the occupation by the Japanese on March 27, 1945. The British reoccupied the country until after the war when Aung San was assassinated on July 19, 1947. The Burmese military government was replaced by the official name of Burma, Myanmar, after 1989, and the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, took over the civilian government in 2011. Suddenly, on February 1, 2021, the national army seized power in a coup d'état, and Supreme Commander Min Aung Hlaing took over the power of the Myanmar state.
