worsened as overcrowding increased in major cities like Rangoon, and foreign cultures and religions came to be more prominent. Furthermore, many of the various ethnicities that were once ruled by the Bamar empire were more supportive of British rule and thus offered higher-paying government jobs. This left many Bamars unemployed and vulnerable to abuse at the hands of their colonial rulers. To the British, migrants from India were a way to solidify a veneer of solidarity with the colonized population as well as increase Burma’s overall productivity and expend its colonial economy. The British also introduced wide-scale secularism to Burma. With the complete separation of church and state, Buddhism as a religion and social institution suffered immensely. The links between religion, ethnicity, and anti-foreign sentiment began to grow. All of this has contributed significantly to today’s negative sentiment surrounding the Rohingya population, which is regarded as residing illegitimately in Burma and threatening Burmese life. The outbreak of World War II brought with it a staunch anti-colonial movement in Burma. In December 1941, Burmese general Aung San and a group of young military men traveled to Japan for military training. Soon after their return to Burma these “Thirty Comrades” announced the formation of the Burma Independence Army (BIA) and its alliance with Japan. Burma was a strategic objective of the Japanese government at the time because Japanese occupation of Burma would interrupt China’s primary supply line and weaken the Allies’ strength in Asia (Smith, 1991). Eventually the BIA came to serve as an auxiliary to the larger Japanese army when Japan invaded Burma in 1942. According to Seekins, the BIA’s original leader, a Japanese general by the name of Suzuki, had a great psychological impact on the Burmese: 6