23 October 2025
Journey's End: An Interview With the Last Burma Star Filmmakers
We are very proud to be the official legacy partner for The Last Burma Star, a new documentary that shines a light on one of the toughest and most important campaigns of the Second World War.
The Last Burma Star
This partnership is part of our commitment to global commemorative storytelling. By spotlighting Kohima War Cemetery, the documentary highlights contributions too often overlooked in mainstream history and supports our vital work to ensure these stories are never forgotten.
The Last Burma Star pays tribute to the last surviving veterans of the campaign, especially those from Burma (now Myanmar) who fought alongside British and Commonwealth forces.
The documentary follows Major Levison Wood, whose grandfather served in the Far East, and historian Alex Bescoby. Levison and Alex travel to India’s border with Myanmar in search of one particular survivor, a veteran from Burma who has never received proper recognition for his service, to deliver his long-overdue campaign medal, the Burma Star.
We spoke to Levison and Alex more about the film ahead of its release.
What drew you personally to seek out the last surviving veterans of the Burma Campaign, and how did your own family histories shape the way you approached their stories?
Alex Bescoby:
I first met veterans of the Burma Campaign while living and working as a filmmaker in Myanmar between 2013 and 2020. I was struck by how little we are taught in Britain about the war in the East, despite its enormous human cost.
That discovery led me to make Forgotten Allies, a film about those men and the small UK charity, Help for Forgotten Allies, that was caring for them. It became a deeply personal journey of understanding and respect, but it only scratched the surface. Since releasing that film in 2019, the Burma Campaign has continued to fascinate me, and teaming up with my old friend Levison to tell this story for the 80th anniversary felt both urgent and necessary.
While I do not have a direct family link to the campaign, countless people I have met since do, and through their memories I have come to see how profoundly it shaped families across Britain and beyond.
Levison Wood:
My personal connection to the Burma Campaign runs through my own family. My grandfather, also named Levison Wood, left Stoke-on-Trent to fight in Burma between 1944 and 1945.
The experience had a profound effect on him, and the stories he later told me about those years in India, Burma and Japan left a deep impression. They inspired my own desire to travel, to understand the world, and ultimately shaped the career I have built. They also influenced my decision to join the British Army and serve as an officer.
For me, this story has always felt unfinished. The veterans of the Burma Campaign from Britain and across the Commonwealth often did not receive the same recognition as those who fought in Europe. It is a story that deserves to be told, and revisiting it now, eighty years on, feels like setting that record straight.
When you visited Kohima War Cemetery, what moments on-site most changed or deepened your understanding of the Burma Campaign’s human cost and legacy?
Alex Bescoby:
This was my second visit to the Kohima War Cemetery, and I am so grateful I had the chance to return. The first time was back in 2019, when I was driving from Singapore back to London for a TV series. I passed through Kohima almost by chance and was completely unprepared for how powerful it would be. It remains one of the most profound and beautiful places I have ever been.
What struck me most, both then and now, was the extraordinary diversity of those buried there: Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Jains; men from the Punjab, Gurkhas from Nepal, and even soldiers from the Manchester Regiment, my own hometown. Seeing that connection so far from home brought the campaign’s human cost into sharp focus.
I am deeply grateful to the CWGC for preserving the site with such care and dignity. To stand there, where unimaginable suffering once took place, and find a sense of calm and order, is deeply moving. It reminds me that the Burma Campaign was fought by one of the most diverse armies in history, people from across the Commonwealth united in a common cause.
Levison Wood:
It was my first visit to Kohima, but it is a place I will never forget. I had wanted to go ever since hearing my grandfather’s stories about the Burma Campaign. Standing there, you realise why the Battle of Kohima is so iconic.
What struck me most was the intimacy of the site, especially the famous tennis court, still there, now marked in marble. It is shocking how small it is, and how close the opposing forces were to each other. They fought almost hand-to-hand across that tiny space. You can read about it in history books, but it is only when you stand there that you truly grasp the scale of the suffering and the courage it must have taken to hold that ground.
Which contributions from Burma/Myanmar and other Commonwealth communities felt most overlooked in mainstream histories, and how did you ensure those voices were centred in the film?
Alex Bescoby:
It is hard to overstate how much the narrative has changed in recent years, and for the better, around the role of Commonwealth troops in the Allied victory, particularly in the war in the Far East. The 14th Army was, after all, overwhelmingly made up of men who were not British: soldiers from across India, from East and West Africa, and from Burma itself. It has been particularly heartening to see people of South Asian descent in the UK rediscovering their ancestors’ part in that story and reclaiming their place in Britain’s wartime history.
But for me, the most overlooked group remains the veterans from Myanmar themselves. We call it the Burma Campaign, yet we rarely stop to consider what that meant for the people of Burma, those who fought, those who suffered, and those forced to choose sides as war consumed their homeland. Many of today’s bloody divisions in Myanmar can trace their roots back to that period.
Our film tries to give those men and their descendants the recognition they were denied, and to acknowledge the lasting legacy of that conflict. It is a debt of memory we still owe, and I am proud that through the work of small but vital organisations like Help for Forgotten Allies, those bonds between Britain and Burma are finally being honoured.
Levison Wood:
When I set out on this journey with Alex, my first goal was personal, to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps through northeast India, where he trained before heading into Burma. But the film quickly became about something much bigger. It would not have felt complete without hearing from those who actually fought alongside him.
With Alex’s help, I was able to meet one of the last surviving veterans of the campaign, a man from Burma itself, and that encounter changed everything. There are so few of them left now, most around a hundred years old, many living in remote and difficult conditions across Myanmar and northeast India.
For me, it was vital that The Last Burma Star centred on their voices, not just ours. These men carried the true weight of the campaign, and it was an honour to help share their story before it is lost forever.
With CWGC as the Legacy Partner, what did the collaboration make possible that you might not have achieved otherwise? And how should audiences engage with CWGC sites after watching the documentary?
Alex Bescoby:
Having the CWGC as our Legacy Partner felt like the perfect fit.
For decades, they have been quietly preserving some of the most important sites of remembrance around the world, including Kohima, which we visited during filming, often in incredibly challenging environments. Their support, both in granting us access and through the dedication of their staff on the ground, made one of the film’s most moving moments possible.
But what makes the CWGC so special is not just the care they give to physical places, it is their commitment to protecting the stories, voices, and memories of those who served. As the film goes out on Remembrance Sunday, we hope it sparks a wider conversation about VJ80 and the global nature of the Burma Campaign. This partnership is just the beginning, and we are excited to keep working with the CWGC into 2026 to ensure these stories continue to be told and remembered.
Levison Wood:
The work of the CWGC is something I feel a very personal connection to. My first ever job was actually with the Commission, in Staffordshire, tending to war graves, so their mission has stayed with me ever since.
My family has a long military history, and I have always admired how the CWGC quietly preserves not just graves, but dignity and memory in places that were once torn apart by war. Partnering with them on this film felt like coming full circle.
For anyone watching The Last Burma Star, I would say: if you ever have the chance, go and visit one of these sites. Whether it is Kohima, Imphal, or somewhere closer to home, every headstone tells a story, and seeing them in person changes the way you understand history.
What specific actions would you like viewers to take after having watched The Last Burma Star?
Alex Bescoby:
As Levison says, if you ever get the chance, go to Kohima or Imphal at least once in your life. For anyone interested in that chapter of the Second World War, it is an experience you will never forget. But there are CWGC sites all over the world, each one telling a part of the same story, and they are all worth visiting. I would also encourage people to explore the CWGC website, which is an extraordinary resource for learning about the men and women who served. It is a wonderful way to connect personally with history and to understand just how global that effort really was.
Levison Wood:
I would echo that, and add that the CWGC is an organisation that deserves our continued support.
What they do at places like Kohima is remarkable, often on limited resources and in difficult conditions. Visiting these sites is one of the most powerful ways to honour the fallen, but so is helping to preserve them for future generations.
If the film moves you, consider donating to their Foundation or simply spreading the word about their work. It is a small gesture that makes a lasting difference.
Kohima War Cemetery
In April 1944, the Japanese advance into India was stopped at the town of Kohima. The fiercest fighting took place on Garrison Hill, a long wooded ridge just west of the village. Here, a small Commonwealth force held out against repeated attacks from a much larger Japanese division.
Some of the most desperate hand-to-hand combat happened in the garden of the Deputy Commissioner’s bungalow, especially around its tennis court. Later, when reinforcements arrived, the Japanese were finally pushed off the ridge, reopening the vital road to Imphal.
Kohima War Cemetery now stands on the very ground where this battle was fought. The bungalow itself was destroyed, but the outline of the tennis court has been permanently marked in white concrete to preserve its place in history.
The cemetery contains 1,420 Commonwealth graves from the Second World War, along with one non-war burial. At its highest point stands the Kohima Cremation Memorial, which honours 917 Hindu and Sikh soldiers whose remains were cremated according to their faith.
Near the entrance is a memorial to the British 2nd Division. It carries the famous inscription: “When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”
There is also a memorial to the 2nd Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, along with several other regimental memorials placed on and around Garrison Hill. The cemetery itself was designed by the architect Colin St. Claire Oakes.