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When the sounds of air raids and bombing by Japanese airplanes were heard for the first time at Imphal on 10th May, 1942, it was alarmingly clear that Manipur was going to be one of the important theatre of World War II as Imphal holds key to both the opposing fronts in their future scheme. Manipur's strategic importance and the necessity to control or defend it were, in fact, going to determine the course of the War. Both the Japanese and more so to the Azad Hind Fauz of Subhas Chandra Bose Imphal hold the key to their victory. For Subhas Bose, if Imphal was liberated, his dream of liberating India is almost a certainty, and for the Japanese, it heralds the demise of British colonial rule in Asia. Manipuri thus became one of the bloodiest and toughest battles of the Second World War in history. The natives of Manipur and Naga Hills lived through and experienced the battles, which could be epic in the sense of the violence, loss of lives, and displacement that the War had brought in. This book, which altogether compilation of 33 chapters is a humble effort to reconstruct the life of Manipur during the Second World War and how natives responded to it along with the experiences of individuals who worked or volunteered for Indian National Army (INA) with the hope that in doing so, they got inspired by an idea called Azadi or freedom; freedom from foreign rule and domination by outsiders of their land.