The Burmese preferred to be the ruling empire rather than ruled by one. For a while they were the largest one in Southeast Asia, but then they bumped up against the largest on in the world, and the British occupied them, too. So they remained until the 1940s, when the quickly-expanding Japanese, in an aggressive search for resources, set their sights on the British colony.

On this day, January 20, 1942 the Japanese Imperial Army landed in Burma. They were welcomed as liberators by many of the Burmese, having already helped to establish the pro-indepence Burma Independence Army. The Japanese, it was thought, would help Burma break away from Britain — which they did, putting the country under control of Japan.

Burma was made independent shortly after the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII. It has been under a military dictatorship of various severity since. Most recently, starting from the early 1990s a democratic political party has formed under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was placed under house arrest before her party declared an election victory. She remained under house arrest for 15 of the subsequent 21 years until her final release in November of 2010.