Battle of Kohima - Aftermath

Aftermath

After ignoring army orders for several weeks, Sato was removed from command of Japanese 31st Division early in July. The entire Japanese offensive was broken off at the same time. Slim had always derided Sato as the most unenterprising of his opponents, and even recounted dissuading the RAF from bombing Sato's HQ because he wanted him kept alive, as doing so would help the Allied cause. Japanese sources, however, blame his superior, Mutaguchi, for both the weaknesses of the original plan, and the antipathy between himself and Sato which led to Sato concentrating on saving his division rather than driving on distant objectives. Sato refused an invitation to commit seppuku and demanded a court martial to clear his name and make his complaints about Fifteenth Army HQ public. At the prompting of Mutaguchi's superior, Lieutenant General Masakazu Kawabe, commander of Burma Area Army, doctors declared that Sato had suffered a mental breakdown and was unfit to stand trial. He was replaced as commander of the 31st Division by Lieutenant General Tsutshitaro Kawada. Major General Miyazaki was promoted, and appointed to command the Japanese 54th Division, serving in Arakan.

The huge losses the Japanese suffered in the Battles of Imphal and Kohima (mainly through starvation and disease) crippled their defence of Burma against Allied attacks during the following year.