A leader of the radicals from his student days, during World War II he accepted Japanese assistance and secret military training for his supporters. Returning to Burma in 1942 he became leader of the Japanese‐sponsored Burma National Army, which defected to the Allies in the closing weeks of the war in the Pacific. As leader of the postwar Council of Ministers, in January 1947 he negotiated a promise of full self‐government from the British; in July of that year he and six of his colleagues were assassinated by political rivals during a meeting of the Council.