A work at once scholarly and panoramic , it is as precise in dissecting , say , the logistical problems the Japanese Army confronted during the 1944 campaign in northern Burma -LRB- '' the worst defeat in Japan 's military history '' -RRB- as it is arresting in examining such sweeping events as the 1942 trek of some 600,000 Indian , Burmese and Anglo-Indian refugees from Burma through the high passes of Assam into India , fleeing the advancing Japanese .