When Netaji first raised the question of the I.N.A. participating in the proposed Japanese campaign against Imphal in India, Field-Marshal Count Terauchi, the Commander of all the Japanese forces in South-East Asia, expressed unwillingness to accept the proposal. Its soldiers, he said, had been demoralized by defeat in Malaya; they could not stand up to the rigours of a Japanese campaign, and would have an irresistible compulsion to cross over to their old friends and easier circumstances. He proposed that the Japanese army should do all that was necessary to liberate India, that Bose himself should assist by enlisting the goodwill and cooperation of the Indian population, and that the main part of the I.N.A. should be left in Singapore.