Thiri Pyanchi Ba Than FRCS FACS FICS (, ; 9 May 18954 November 1971) was a Burmese medical surgeon, educator and administrator. The first Burmese police surgeon in British Burma, Ba Than founded and ran the main hospital in Rangoon (Yangon) as well as the wartime medical and nursing schools during the Japanese occupation of the country (1942–1945). After the country's independence in 1948, Ba Than served several terms as dean and rector of the main medical universities in Rangoon and Mandalay until two months before his death in 1971.
He is also known for his autopsies of famous politicians, including those of Aung San and Tin Tut. His daughter Khin May Than, third wife of General Ne Win, was the First Lady of Burma from 1962 to 1972.
Early life and career
Ba Than was born to U Kinn and Daw Swei in May 1895 in Pyuntaza, a small town about northeast of Yangon (Rangoon), in what was then British Burma.Khin Thet-Hta et al 2005: 84 His parents were apparently well-to-do as he graduated from Rangoon's St. Paul's English High School, went to Rangoon College in 1914,Kyaw Myint 2020 and went on to study medicine at the University of Calcutta where he received an MB in 1922. (Burma's first MBBS program began only in 1923.) He started out as a Civil Assistant Surgeon (CAS) in the Health Department in 1922,(Khin Thet-Hta et al 2005: 84) says Ba Than received his MB and became a CAS in 1922. But (Civil List 1942: 56) says he became a civil surgeon in the Indian Medical Department on 23 July 1921. The seeming discrepancy may perhaps be due to one of the following: (1) Ba Than joined the service as a resident before he got his degree; or (2) (Khin Thet Hta)'s 1922 date is incorrect. However, given that Ba Than was only a first year student at Rangoon College in 1914 per (Thane Oke Kyaw Myint 2020), he most probably went to Calcutta only in 1916 and received his MB in 1922. He apparently joined the service as a resident in 1921. and received his FRCS certification from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1932.Myint Swe 2014: 5, 82
By then, Ba Than was part of the tiny colonial era medical community made up mainly of foreign-born physicians and specialists that existed primarily in Rangoon.(Myint Swe 2014: xi–xii): About half of the physicians and most of the specialists at Rangoon General Hospital were foreign born. To see a specialist, everyone in the country needed to go to RGH. The "small medical system was run mainly by foreigners and the tiny elite for foreigners and the tiny elite." (Myint Swe 2014: 134–135): It was exceedingly difficult to get into medical school even in the late colonial period. The class size was disproportionately small for the size of country's population (13.2 million in 1921 and 16.8 million in 1941 (per Saito and Lee 1999: 1)). Between 1922 and 1941, a grand total of 543 students graduated from Rangoon Medical College (RMC), or 27 new graduates on average each year. Of the grand total, the number of indigenous Burmese graduates was only 228 (42%), or less than a dozen per year. Known for his extreme work ethic—his motto was "zwe" (ဇွဲ, lit. "perseverance, persistence"),Myint Swe 2014: 5–6 the surgeon by the late 1930s had risen to be the deputy head of the surgery department at Rangoon General Hospital (RGH)Myint Swe 2014: 5–6 and the first Burmese police surgeon.Kyaw Myint 2006 His first high-profile case came in 1938 when he led the autopsy of Aung Kyaw, a student leader killed by the colonial police, amidst nationwide protests against the colonial government.Secretariat 1939: 14
In 1937, Ba Than also began teaching at Rangoon Medical College as a lecturer in forensic medicine. He was an inspiration for Burmese medical students. According to Myint Swe, who studied at RMC from 1939 to 1942, Ba Than and one Henry Aung Khin(India and Burma Office List 1945: 242): Lt. Col. Henry Aung Khin (born 8 December 1887; MB, FRCS) was first commissioned as an IMS medical officer on 1 November 1920, started at Rangoon General Hospital in October 1924, and retired in December 1942. (Crawford 2012: 572): Aung Khin received his M.B. Ch. B. in 1911; joined the IMS as a Temporary Lt. in 1915; became a permanent Lt. in 1920; promoted to Major in 1926; became an FRCS in 1926. (Burma Civil List 1942: 55): Aung Khin was promoted to Lt. Col. in 1934. (Myint Swe 2014: 5): Lt. Col. H. Aung Khin was a lecturer in surgery at Rangoon Medical College in the 1930s. were the only two surgeons of indigenous Burmese descent he knew of at the time. (Myint Swe apparently did not recall that there was at least one other Burmese practicing FRCS surgeon at the time. She was Dr. Yin May, who received her FRCS in gynecology from RCS Edinburgh in 1929,Who 1961: 103 three years before Ba Than. Another FRCS surgeon was Dr. Saw Sa, who became the first woman legislator in the colonial parliament in 1937.Kolås 2019)
Japanese occupation period (1942–1945)
Ba Than is best remembered for founding the main hospital in Rangoon to serve non-Japanese patients during the Japanese occupation of Burma (1942–1945) during World War II. The hospital served Burma Independence/Defence Army (BIA/BDA) and Indian National Army (INA) officers and troops as well as the general public. He also founded the wartime medical and nursing schools.
Wartime hospital Ba Than came to found the hospital out of sheer necessity in wartime Burma. He was one of the few physicians, and of even fewer specialists, who had not evacuated the country along with the British administration.Myint Swe 2014: xii Furthermore, the city lost its main hospital when the Imperial Japanese Army seized and reserved Rangoon General Hospital only for the Japanese (soon after the IJA and their allies Burma Independence Army (BIA) took the city on 7 March 1942). The incoming Japanese administration sent Dr. T. SuzukiDr. T. Suzuki was not Maj. Gen. Keiji Suzuki, who recruited the Thirty Comrades. Per (Myint Swe 2014: 20), Dr. T. Suzuki was a Japanese national who operated a private medical clinic ("Suzuki Maternity Clinic") in Rangoon before WWII started. When the Japanese Army came, Suzuki became the Chief Administrator of the BIA Hospital with the rank of "major general" (presumably a military physician rank) for a brief period. Suzuki went on to open a new clinic called Dojingai in the Kandawgalay section of Rangoon. to ask Ba Than to found a new hospital for the BIA. Ba Than agreed, and in late March, with one other physician and an assistant, opened a "hospital" in the building of Anglican Diocesan School of Rangoon, with an outpatient clinic and a few beds.Myint Swe 2014: xiii
Ba Than faced several challenges from the outset. The most pressing was staffing. With most trained personnel gone, he had to resort to taking in final year medical students and nurse trainees. He was able to persuade most of the few remaining doctors and nurses in the country to join his fledgling outfit. Three highly experienced specialists—Dr. S. Sen (as Head of Internal Medicine), Dr. Yin May (as Head of Maternity Unit) and Dr. Chan Taik (as Head of Ophthalmology)—did join. Indeed some like Dr. Yin May, Dr. Sen and senior nurse Khin Kyi had chosen to return to Rangoon.(Maung Wa 2009: 121–122, 213–215): Yin May and her family fled to Upper Burma but she somehow got separated from her family. (Myint Swe 2014: 98): Yin May returned to Rangoon. (Myint Swe 2014: 63): Dr. S. Sen (MB Calcutta, FRCP Glasgow, MRCP London, FCCP US, DTM&H London) was in Mogok but came to join his former RGH colleague Ba Than's outfit. According to Myint Swe, Sen was rumored to have had a hand in the escape of Ba Maw from prison in Mogok. This suggests that Sen may have been collaborating with Ba Maw and Ba Maw's allies, the INA. (Wintle 2013: 111–112): Khin Kyi was already in Calcutta in February 1942, and took what turned out to be the last boat back to Rangoon. To be sure, not everyone who remained joined. Myint Swe, who joined the hospital as a resident in April 1942, recounted an exchange in English between Ba Than and a former colleague of Ba Than who came to see the "hospital": the man reportedly remarked that "a handful of fellows can't do anything" to which Ba Than responded "it's the determined few that command the crowd."Myint Swe 2014: 133
Ba Than was determined to prove his skeptics wrong. He worked tirelessly at the hospital, often sleeping at the hospital throughout the years. In the early days of the hospital, he handled all types of cases, not just surgery ones.Myint Swe 2014: 7 Over the next six months, he pieced together the staff, equipment, and supplies to have a semblance of a functioning hospital. Under his leadership, the hospital became the main to-go place for all non-Japanese patients, not only the BIA/BDA and INA brass but also the ordinary servicemen and the general public. Founded as the BIA Hospital, the hospital was renamed as the Public General Hospital of Rangoon on 1 November 1942, and placed under the Ministry of Health.Myint Swe 2014: 97
One constant headache for Ba Than was Japanese surveillance and interference. The hospital operated under the watchful eye of Japanese agents, who planted themselves as longterm patients till the end.Myint Swe 2014: 162–163 However, the bigger issue for the staff was the constant disruption by the Japanese troops from the nearby barracks, who would barge in and mistreat patients and staff, nurses in particular. Ba Than himself was interrogated by the soldiers on a whim.(Myint Swe 2014: 138–139): One day, two Japanese servicemen (not officers) barged in and brought Ba Than out of the classroom in which he was teaching, sat him down in a chair, and interrogated him as to why the barracks were not receiving enough water. According to Myint Swe, the Burmese students and staff were all humiliated but felt totally powerless to do anything. In 1943, the Japanese began sending doctors from the hospital to work on the Death Railway at the Thai-Burmese border, which most people took as a death sentence.Myint Swe 2014: 177 According to Myint Swe, everyone felt powerless and humiliated but no one could do anything about it.Myint Swe 2014: 138–139
What Ba Than did do was to keep his overworked staff motivated and entertained by organizing musical performances. Ba Than was an avid pianist and Burmese xylophonist, and he found time to organize small musical and opera performances by his staff for the patients. His two young children, Katie and Georgie, who were accomplished pianists, also performed at the shows.Myint Swe 2014: 66–67
The hospital was the place where historically important people were treated, including Aung San, Ne Win, Bo Letya, Bo Setkya, Thakin Than Tun, Thakin Mya, Thakin Po Hla Gyi, Ba Cho, Kyaw Nyein, S. C. Bose, and J. R. Bhonsle.Myint Swe 2014: xxi–xxii It was also the place where Gen. Aung San met his future wife Khin Kyi during his brief hospitalization in mid 1942. Ba Than organized the wedding reception at the hospital, and even gave a song-and-piano performance.(Myint Swe 2014: 55): Ba Than played the piano and sang the inaugural wedding song called "Thet Wai" (သက်ဝေ), a prewar hit by Pyi Hla Pe and May Shin.
Wartime medical and nursing schools