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General Aung San, image by an unknown author on

Top 10 Facts about General Aung San

General Aung San was born on 13^th February 1915 In Natmauk, Magway District Burma. He was known as Htein Lin during his birth, he was also known as Thakin when he was a student leader. He was primarily known by his Japanese name Omoda Monji and during the resistance period, his code name was Myo Aung.

Aung San was born in a well-off family and he graduated from one of the high schools set up by Burmese nationalists. He proceeded to get a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rangoon. At the university, he served as president of the student union. He was also the editor of Oway, the university student magazine.

Aung San was the leading young nationalist before World War 2 and was a key political figure in the country.

He traveled to China where he studied Japanese Pan-Asianism and later joined the Japanese army and later returned to Burma.

In 1941, left for Japan with 29 young nationalists who formed the Burma Independence Army later known as the thirty comrades.

Aung San was made the minister of war after Burma gained independence. He later formed the Anti-fascist Freedom League which was the country’s governing party for the first ten years after independence.

In 1947, he led a delegation to London where he negotiated the Panglong agreement. He was later assassinated among his cabinet members six months before the country’s independence.

1. He was elected a student leader in the University

Rangoon University. Image by Aunghtike –Wikimedia

Aung San joined Rangoon University in 1933 he was elected to the executive committee of the Rangoon University Student Union {RUSU].

He was the editor of Oway, the university’s student magazine but was later expelled from the university along U nu.

He served as secretary of the student boycott council and the student representative for the government’s University act.

Aung San was later elected the vice president of the Rangoon University Student Council.

2. General Aung San was an Editor

He was the editor of Oway, the university’s student magazine, and was in charge of publishing the magazine’s articles.

General Aung San wrote well in Burmese and English and was a founding member of the anticolonial Red Dragon book club.

He was an editorial staff member of New Burma, the only English newspaper at the time.

3. General Aung San was very poor

General Aung San was never paid as a student or political leader and lived most of this time in a state of poverty.

He never drank alcohol and was sometimes criticized by his peers for his arrogance and poor public relations skills.

4. He was the founder of the ‘thirty comrades’, the current Armed Forces of Myanmar

Thirty comrades on

In February 1941, at just 25 Aung San managed to contact and recruit thirty of his old revolutionary colleagues.

He smuggled them out of the country to Japan where they were trained for six months by Japanese Intelligent officers.

Aung San received special training from the Japanese and by November 1941, he and his party had recruited 3500 Burmese volunteers. On December 28, he and the thirty comrades inaugurated the Burma Independence Army in Bangkok.

5. He was constantly arrested

General Aung San was regularly on the wrong side of the law since his university years. On 23^rd January, Aung San was arrested for a conspiracy of trying to overthrow the government and was held in prison for fifteen days.

In 1940, the Burmese government issued a warrant for the arrest of Aung San and his colleagues. The district superintendent offered a reward of 500 rupees to anyone who could capture Aung san but he managed to escape the country in time.

6. General Aung San collaborated with the Japanese

Aung San. Image by unknown author on

He met a Japanese intelligent officer, Suzuki Keiji, and spent a year learning Japanese political ideologies and language.

He recruited Burmese nationals to work for the Japanese army and managed to smuggle them to Japan where they were trained by the Japanese.

7. He founded the Anti-Fascists People’s Freedom League

In 1945, General Aung San and three other political leaders founded the organization with aim of gaining independence and liberating Burma from the Japanese. Aung San led a delegation of Anti-Fascists People’s Freedom League leaders to London to negotiate for independence.

AFPFL led in the 1947 general elections unopposed and General Aung San headed the constitutional assembly.

The party ruled the country from 1951 to 1958 until its leaders split the party into two other parties.

8. He worked for the British

British soldier. Image by Keating G-

After the Japanese declared Burma an independent state in 1943, General Aung San made contact with the British.

He was displeased with the Japanese treatment of the Burmese people and made plans with the British to drive them out.

He was appointed the Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Burma. He became in charge of defense and national affairs.

9. General Aung Sang was assassinated

On July 10, 1947, a jeep carrying armed men broke into the Secretariat building where Aung San and his cabinet were. They sprayed all the members present with bullets. 

U saw, a political rival, carried out the orders which left Aung San and eight others dead.

In September 1948, a year after General Aung San’s assassination, Burma gained its independence from the British.

10. General Aung San is considered a national hero

General Aung Sang statute. Image by mohigan-

He is considered the father of Burmese independence and his actions and ideas have influenced political thoughts.

His portrait was featured in Burma’s currency for forty years before his daughter’s political ascent.

Yangon’s most famous market, Scott Market was renamed after his name, Bogyoke. His place in history as a national hero and father of Burmese Independence continues to the present day.

A martyr’s mausoleum was built in his honor at the foot of Shwedagon Pagoda.