“Deshprem Divas” Organized by HSS Japan & Team Netaji Japan on Netaji’s 125th Birth Anniversary

GG News Bureau

Tokyo, 24^th Jan. “Deshprem Divas” is been organized by HSS Japan & Team Netaji Japan since 2012 on Netaji’s birth anniversary as well as to pay tributes to Shri RashBehari Bose who departed on Jan-21, 1945. While Netaji has been hailed as National Hero, Japan’s Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu hailed him as “Hero of Asia ” during December 1953.

Similarly, Shri RashBehari Bose was once a household name in Japan who spent more than 30 years of His life in Japan and successfully led the foundation of Indian Independence League (later reorganized as Indian National Army) with the Japanese assistance.

Initially, Deshprem Divas was planned to be conducted in physical mode but due to the sudden increase in the COVID cases it was decided to be celebrated virtually just around 10 days ago. All the participants and performers promptly started preparing for the virtual mode of celebrations to leave another memorable experience for everyone as if the event was always planned in virtual mode.

This year’s celebration was very special due to 125^th birth anniversary of Netaji coinciding with Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav as well as 70^th year of Indo-Japan friendship.

Keeping this in mind, a patriotic costume parade was organized where children donned the costumes of their favorite Leaders and freedom fighters. While this includes illustrious leaders like Netaji, Savarkar and Doctor Ji, it also includes many unsung Heroes like RashBehari Bose, Kumar Veerendra, etc.

There were also some innovative cultural programs that included rich tribute to the defense forces as well as Doctors and health care workers for their contributions in need. The Bengali Association of Tokyo Japan has also participated and performed on Bengali tunes to pay tributes to Netaji and RashBehari.

One of the Japanese groups also gave an energetic patriotic performance by innovatively creating the Indian flag with full honor.

Event was also graced by the family members of Mitsuru Toyama, Shigemaru Sugiyama and Netaji Bose.

It is worth mentioning that Mr Toyama & Mr Sugiyama were the famous Japanese Nationalist leaders who protected RashBehari Bose and provided all possible support to enable Him to continue His efforts for Indian independence from the land of the rising Sun.

The Honorable Ambassador of India to Japan also attended the event and conveyed His greetings to all the participants. More than 250 people participated via virtual means and the event was witnessed by more than 1000 viewers from Japan, India, Germany and other parts of the globe.