While Chang’s murder made some headlines in the papers, Rose and Maung Ba felt that it was time to get married.   Their living together was no more a secret. 

     Meanwhile, the political and economic situation was deteriorating.  Unemployment was on the rise and there seemed to be no alternative other than choosing the path of communism or any leftist ideology that ran contrary to capitalism.  The accumulation of wealth by exporters of rice led to the impoverishment of the village farmers who labored strenuously in its cultivation without being adequately compensated.

     At this juncture, the imperial government of Japan felt that it was time to exploit the misery of the Burmese villagers by disseminating propaganda that a near-explosive situation was in the offing.

     Student newspapers were literally splashed with articles that the one and only nation on the continent of Asia, namely Japan, was ready, willing and able to uplift the status of the poor people of Burma.  Rumors were afloat that Japan was, in fact, getting prepared to fulfill its promise to liberate Asia and restore its erstwhile status of independence.

     The idea of expansionism had already taken root in Japan, mostly on account of its population explosion. Japanese militarists agreed that it was necessary to make territorial gains in Asia in order to ease the pressure on their own economy.  Ba Sein reminded the students that Suzuki’s letter had indirectly indicated that only through Japan’s military prowess could Burma be liberated from colonialism.