 He became a civilian attaché in 1943, serving as procurement officer within the Arms & Ammunition Department of General Aung San’s War Ministry, in Rangoon, Burma under Japanese Army occupation.He joined the resistance movement against the occupying forces as the Allies advanced into Burma.Maung Maung Ta joined the post-independence Regular Burma Army in 1948 as a private soldier, then was commissioned in the field and became the Burma Army's first military administrator in the Insein District.