LIGHTLY ARMED JAP INFANTRY, LED BY TWO MOUNTED OFFICERS, ADVANCES NORTH OF MOULMEIN THROUGH MARTABAN, PAST SQUATTING ROWS OF BURMESE FIFTH COLUMNISTS.

THREE OF THE FEW JAP TANKS IN BURMA, 8-YEAR-OLD 14-TONNERS, COME OVER A PLANK BRIDGE PAST A WRECKED BRITISH AMBULANCE. NOTICE HORSE TRANSPORT MIXED IN.

Last week the first original pictures of the Jap invasion of Burma reached the U.S.  The date was early February.  Singapore was about to fall.  Bataan was still magnificently holding.  And the British felt super confident of keeping at least Burma.  They were sure the Japs would fight along the roads and railroads.  Instead, the hardened little men shown here were just as ready to advance along ridges and through jungle.  They traveled light but usually not, as dispatches had it, in shorts and undershirts.  By June 1, they had driven the British and Chinese out of Burma.  Today the monsoons are sweeping over Burma and seriously impeding the British and American efforts to bomb the invaders from the air.
  The No. 1 Japanese conqueror in the Southwest Pacific was, however, the conqueror of Singapore who then went on to reduce Bataan and Corregidor, Lieut. General Tomoyuki Yamashita (below).  He is supposed to have been the first Japanese to swim the Johore Strait to Singapore Island.  A brutal, puffy-faced, unsmiling megalomaniac.  Yamashita haughtily received surrenders of Singapore's General Percival and Corregidor's General Wainwright.  He helped Germanize the Japanese air force, which has in turn taught the Germans many a trick.  Yamashita knows his military business.

MOST VICTORIOUS JAP GENERAL, TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA, CONQUEOR OF SINGAPORE AND BATAAN, IS SEEN STEPPING THROUGH RUINS IN MALAYA WITH STAFF AND PHOTOGRAPHER.

JAP COLUMN IN BURMA CROSSES FOOTBRIDGE BESIDE WRECKED RAILWAY BRIDGE, SOUTH OF MOULMEIN. TROOPS WEAR SUN HELMETS, CARRY LIGHT PACKS AND STEEL HELMETS.

Adapted from the June 29, 1942 issue of LIFE.
Portions copyright 1942 Time, Inc.

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