72 State power and identification schemes in Rakhine into Burma, in these narratives, enabled Arakan’s Buddhist, Muslim, and other populations to repatriate to their homes in Arakan/Rakhine (see also Hall 1945). Oral histories of this period reflected how local populations were caught up in the conflict between the British and Burmese. In explaining the need for solidarity and compassion for today’s Rohingya refugees, a Bangladeshi Buddhist Lord Abbott in Ramu and a Bangladeshi artist together reflected on local shared histories.12 They told stories to Rohingya of the Buddhist refugee Arakan King, Chinbyan,13 who in the early 1800s sheltered in the local caves and raised a multi-religious following that rebelled against the Konbaung and, at the same time, evaded the British East India Company troops in the area. In his earlier years, the Lord Abbot rediscovered these caves whilst meditating and later introduced the artist to them.14 The stories of the caves were also a part of their own historically grounded notions of Bangladesh’s sovereignty and independence, in which Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine alike played a part. Conflicts between warring state powers and resulting forced displacement of this period were themes repeated throughout Rohingya oral histories. The most frequent reference in the narratives relating to the collision of imperialisms across shared lands was the Second World War (WWII). Rakhine State was the site of some of the fiercest fighting of WWII as imperial Britain clashed with imperial Japan resulting in aerial bombings and scorched-earth tactics. Troops allied with the British fought to defend British India against Japanese assaults. British troops were predominantly non-white colonial forces (African and Asian). Meanwhile, the Burma Independence Army was formed with the support of the Japanese. This pitted local populations against one another in Arakan and elsewhere in Myanmar (Irwin 1945). As one research participant explained: It was during World War II that the relationship really soured (between local populations in Rakhine)—that was because the British predominantly used the Muslims and the Japanese predominantly used the Buddhists.15 During the Japanese occupation, refugees and evacuees fled to British-controlled areas in India in 1942. These populations were Indians and Burmese-Indians from other parts of Burma, as well as the multi-religious and multi-ethnic populations of Arakan. 1942 was a time of communal violence that led to mass and indiscriminate killings of both Muslim and Buddhist populations (Aman Ullah 2024). These populations, including Indians, were granted the right of return between 1945 and 1948 when the British resumed administrative control of Burma after the war (Mohan 1955). The trip to Shahpuri island, mentioned earlier, took place a few weeks before the first anniversary of the launch of the military campaigns of genocidal violence against Rohingya (25 August 2017).16 It was an act of remembrance