[2] At the time of the massacre, the Andaman Islands were technically under Azad Hind control, although in fact, the Japanese were very much in charge.

The Japanese maintained a hefty garrison on the islands until the end of World War II.

They wanted to use the Andaman Islands as a strategic outpost on the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean, and use it as a naval base.

The Japanese wanted to prevent the British from using the islands as a naval and air base to attack the maritime supply line between Singapore and Rangoon (now known as Yangon).

The British also saw the islands to have military value, especially because they could launch both air raids and invasions against Burma and Malaya (both occupied by Japan).

Led by Captain Kawasaki Harumi, the Japanese quickly dispatched an invasion force coming from Penang.

They arrested eight senior officials in Port Blair and forced them to dig pits up until only their heads would show.

Other British officials and officers were detained and shipped to Singapore, where they spent the rest of the war in Changi or Sime Road jails.

The Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose visited Port Blair in 1943 and the islands were given governors appointed by him, as well as new names but no authority was handed over to Azad Hind by the Japanese Navy.