Imphal War Cemetery

The Imphal War Cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and holds the graves of 1,597 soldiers, most of them Indian, British, and West African, who died in the 1944 Battle of Imphal. The cemetery is beautifully maintained, with rows of white headstones on a green lawn backed by the hills that mark the edge of the valley. It is a deeply moving place, and the scale of the names — so many barely twenty years old — makes the abstract statistics of the battle suddenly real.

The cemetery is open daily, admission is free, and the register of graves is available at the entrance. Pair it with a visit to the Manipur State War Museum nearby for broader context on the campaign.

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The Battle of Imphal in 1944 was one of the largest land battles of the Second World War in Asia, and one of the most decisive. The Japanese assault on Imphal and Kohima — intended as the first step in the conquest of India — was repelled at enormous cost. Of the 85,000 Japanese soldiers who began the campaign, fewer than 20,000 returned to Burma. The Imphal War Cemetery holds the graves of nearly 1,600 Commonwealth soldiers who died in the surrounding hills.

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