The following morning we went off with the twins to Calcutta
to see what damage was caused by the bombing. On our way we were met by the
astonishing sight of a great exodus from Calcutta. Men, women and children,
cars and lorries of all descriptions, donkeys, goats tethered to carts, parrots
in cages on top of lorries, one solid mass of humanity were moving along the
trunk road, all terrified out of their wits trying to reach a place of safety
anywhere away from Calcutta. We continued on our way but apart from a small
hole in the road in front of the Great Eastern hotel there was nothing much to
see.
—Eugenie Fraser, A Home by the Hooghly.
When I lived in Kolkata from 1989-92 (not continuously) , my manager lived close to my house. For few weeks, I used to go to his house in the morning to accompany him to come to our office on Shakespeare Sarani. His multi-storied house was built and decorated by his forefathers. There were number of showcases in drawing room. And there were large number of Japanese-Chinese artifacts in them. I was always curious why there was so much Oriental influence there.
David Lockwood , “Calcutta Under Fire: The World War Two Years”, 2019:
“December 20, 1942, was a Sunday. On that day, Calcutta’s ‘Oldest Nationalist Daily’ (according to the masthead), the Amrita Bazar Patrika, reported that in Burma there was a possibility of ‘the end of defensive warfare on this frontier [by the Allies] and the beginning of a war of attack.’
Meanwhile, in the Don-Volga area, ‘the Soviet ring is drawing tighter around the enemy.’ Despite this optimistic note, the paper reflected evidence of wartime stringencies. The Imperial Tobacco Company appealed to its customers to accept cigarettes without packets in order to alleviate the paper shortage. The Government denied a shortage of rice. Women were told that they were ‘the Inner Wall of Defence’ and as such they should join the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (India). Indian political problems were also evident in the shape of the continuing Quit India campaign. An attack on a police station, bombs in Baroda and acid attacks on the police were reported.
The Calcutta races, however, went ahead as normal and were graced by the presence of the Marchioness of Linlithgow, His Excellency the Governor of Bengal, and Lady Mary Herbert. There was cricket on Saturday and Sunday and a tennis carnival to look forward to on Thursday. Cinemas catering to English-speakers were featuring Chaplin in Goldrush, Robert Taylor in Her Cardboard Lover and Abbott and Costello in Pardon My Sarong. The paper reported an increase in the production of Indian films for ‘the surging crowds during yuletide hungry for entertainment.’
That night Calcutta was bombed by the Japanese air force. The structural damage was minimal, but the panic that ensued was widespread. Large numbers of Calcutta residents fled. Fear was exacerbated by indications that neither the Government of India nor the Government of Bengal nor the Calcutta municipality were prepared for the defence of the city….”
Indians on large scale started leaving the places they thought were endangered by likely Japanese bombing.
"The lack of Indian confidence in British defence, which had led to flight, was partly due to the Indian attitude to the war. From the British point of view, especially before the entry of Japan, this left much to be desired—and seemed, if anything, to be steadily deteriorating. Perhaps because of India’s involuntary participation in the conflict, the authorities were hard put to arouse the interest of the population, let alone its enthusiasm. ‘There has been little in the course of the war to arouse particular interest,’ reported the Chief Secretary of Bengal in early 1940, followed by ‘little on which to comment in the public attitude to the war’ a month later. This tended to produce a complementary reaction from the British that nothing could be done to change the situation: ‘the question has been raised whether propaganda is either necessary or useful amongst them’—Indians in general, but in this case the villagers of the Dacca Division. What reaction there was to the war was confined to ‘uneasiness’ (but again, not ‘panic’) or demands for reform: ‘the claim that Bengalis shall receive military training or that one or more Bengali battalions shall be recruited’ was raised."
Worse, Brits thought Indians would welcome invading Japanese!
"Worse than that, the British felt that Indians might actually welcome the invaders. According to the Inspector-General of Police in Calcutta, ‘the populace was ready to welcome the Japanese with open arms should they walk into the city.’"
