Kigwema

Kigwema

During World War II, Japanese troops arrived in Kigwema on 4 April 1944, at 4:00 PM. The Japanese commander, General Kōtoku Satō, was stationed in Kigwema during the Battle of Kohima.

“It was a long war, we were warned by the Brits and were very apprehensive about the Japanese, but they were friendly. They lived with the families, paid for everything and unlike the British, they had no relationships with local women. They never misbehaved. General Saito was a very nice man. For us teenagers, the war was an adventure,” recalls Kuose Kere, an elder from Kigwema village whose grandfather had witnessed the invasion of Japanese troops.