Nu's involvement in the nationalist movement deepened during his university years, and he quickly emerged as a leading figure advocating for Burma's independence from British colonial rule.

He played a crucial role in the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), the primary political organization leading the fight for independence.

His tenure was marked by efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation, establish democratic governance, and navigate the complexities of ethnic and political divisions within Burma.

Nu's administration faced numerous challenges, including economic difficulties, internal insurgencies, and the task of unifying a diverse population.

During his time in office, Nu implemented several significant reforms, including land redistribution policies and initiatives to promote education and healthcare.

Nu's legacy is remembered for his dedication to Burma's independence, his efforts to establish democratic governance, and his complex role in the nation's turbulent political history.

Nu's political life started as president of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU) with M. A. Rashid as vice-president and U Thi Han as the general secretary.

Aung San and Nu became members of the nationalist Dobama Asiayone (Our Burma Association) which had been formed in 1930 and henceforth gained the prefix Thakin ('Master'), proclaiming they were the true masters of their own land.

In 1937 he co-founded with Thakin Than Tun the Nagani (Red Dragon) Book Club which for the first time widely circulated Burmese-language translations of the Marxist classics.

[3] From August 1943, when the Japanese declared nominal independence for Burma under a regime led by Ba Maw, Nu was appointed foreign minister.

[5] Nu was nearly killed on August 12, 1945, when Allied pilots strafed and destroyed the house Ba Maw had been given by the retreating Japanese, but both escaped the residence during the attack.

As a popular figure with early connections to Aung San and other nationalists from their student days, however, Nu was drawn back into the politics of the AFPFL where he initially struggled to keep its Communist contingent within the party.

[6] After the assassination of its political and military leader Aung San along with his cabinet ministers on 19 July 1947, U Nu led the AFPFL and signed an independence agreement (the Nu-Attlee Treaty) with the British Premier Clement Attlee in October 1947.

[10] Among others, on the day of the military coup on 2 March 1962 President Mahn Win Maung as well as Chief Justice U Myint Thein (22 February 1900 – 3 October 1994) was also put in 'protective custody'.

[citation needed] U Nu then used former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official Bill Young to help him raise international funding for founding the United National Liberation Front (UNLF).

U Nu's 'resistance group' consisted of no more than several hundred or at most a few thousand at its peak and his avowal to fight and overthrow Ne Win from the Thai border met with abject failure.

In 1950, with the Karen Uprising, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League controlled Parliament launched a Peace Within One Year campaign, involving various military actions and governmental reforms.

U Nu toured the relics around the country, reaching into the stable parts of the countryside were ethnic unrest was still present, hoping to inspire peace through the power of the Buddha.

[15] He had the Kaba Aye Pagoda and the Maha Pasana Guha (Great Cave) built in 1952 in preparation for the Sixth Buddhist Synod that he convened and hosted in 1954–1956 as prime minister.

[18] Beyond stately actions, U Nu also took to fulfil the Buddhist ideal of the Chakravartin by engaging in personal merit-making and increasingly strong vows of celibacy to atone for the sins of the nation and to bring stability to his rule through religious devotion.

An earlier version had been published in 1974; it was translated into English by U Law Yone, Editor of the (Rangoon) Nation till 1963 and who, like U Nu, was jailed by the Revolutionary Council in the 1960s.

The play The Sound of the People Victorious (Ludu Aungthan) that U Nu wrote while he was Prime Minister is about the havoc that Communist ideologies can wreak in a family.

In the play Thaka Ala, published just before the 1962 coup, U Nu paints an extremely ugly picture of corruption both amongst the high-ranking politicians in power at the time as well as among the communist leaders who were gaining ascendancy.

The journalist Ludu U Hla was the author of numerous volumes of ethnic minority folklore, novels about inmates in U Nu-era jails, and biographies of people working in different occupations.