Overview

• Japanese and eyewitness accounts describe a takeoff crash at Taihoku on August 18, 1945—reportedly after a propeller blade broke—with Bose suffering severe burns, slipping into a coma at Nanmon Military Hospital, and dying that night before cremation in the city.
• Testimony cited by News18 details the interim steps: plans to fly the body to Tokyo were abandoned on August 20, cremation was ordered locally, ashes were gathered on August 21, and Tokyo finalized the announcement for Domei on August 22–23.
• Three official inquiries—the 1946 Figges Report, 1956 Shah Nawaz Committee, and 1970 Khosla Commission—concluded Bose died in the crash, a finding reinforced by a Japanese government report declassified in 2016.
• The 2005 Mukherjee Commission disputed the crash narrative, citing missing hospital and funeral entries and lack of local press reports and asserting the Renkoji Temple ashes were not Bose’s, but the Indian government later rejected its conclusion.
• Skepticism accompanied the August 23 Domei announcement, with British authorities and some associates suspecting a clandestine escape, keeping questions about Japan’s delay in public view.