thousands of villagers who knew nothing of that law, but only how they were unable to pay their taxes in time, and their homes and villages were wrecked..." Politics In 1934, Ba Maw served as education minister, and then in 1937, he became premier under the new Burmese constitution. In July 1940, Ba Maw resigned from the Legislature of Burma. During a conference of the Sinyetha, he issued seven orders, one of which was, "to refuse to participate in the war in any way as long as freedom was refused to the Burmese." On 6 August 1940, he was arrested for violating the Defence of Burma Rules, and taken to Mandalay for trial. According to Ba Maw, "My trial in itself was a ritual sort of affair, brief and formal and without any touch of drama in it. All the drama was taking place outside [...] where people everywhere had begun to speak with greater racial feeling and defiance." On 28 August, Ba Maw was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for a year. Originally jailed in Mandalay, he was later relocated to Mogok, in northern Burma. On 13 April 1942, Ba Maw escaped from Mogok during the Thingyan festival. He and his wife Kinmama hid out in the hills of Mang Lon until the third week in May, when they established contact with the Japanese. On 4 June, during the Japanese occupation of Burma, Ba Maw was made Chief Civilian Administrator, while Aung San agreed to reform the Burmese Independence Army as the Burma Defense Army. On 1 August 1942, Ba Maw was inaugurated as the head of the Burmese government. As the war situation gradually turned against the Japanese, the Japanese government advanced its previously vague promise to grant Burma independence after the end of the war. The Japanese felt that this would give the Burmese a real stake in an Axis victory in the Second World War, creating resistance against possible re-colonization by the western powers, and increased military and economic support from Burma for the Japanese war effort. A Burma Independence Preparatory Committee chaired by Ba Maw was formed 8 May 1943. The nominally independent State of Burma was proclaimed on 1 August 1943 with Ba Maw as "Naingandaw Adipadi" (head of state) as well as prime minister. The new state quickly declared war on the United Kingdom and the United States, and concluded a Treaty