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Page last updated at 08:57 GMT, Tuesday, 13 December 2011

1940s 'Burma exodus' remembered

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Sixty-nine years ago, Japanese troops landed in Burma, with soldiers disembarking at Victoria Point in the south and making their way to Rangoon.

Nearly half a million civilians, mainly British and Indian, embarked on an arduous trip north, mainly by foot and thousands died along the way.

Felicity Goodall, author of Exodus Burma, and Pamela Backhouse, who fled with her mother through Burma to reach Calcutta when she was five years old, reflect on this momentous event.


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