Hoe left Burma with the British administration to India during the Japanese occupation of Burma (1942–1945). He was part of the exodus of medical professionals that evacuated the country along with the British administration.Myint Swe 2014: xii His wife remained in Burma, and ended up founding and running the main maternity hospital in Rangoon throughout the war years.Myint Swe 2014: 98–99 (Hoe, Yin May and their son fled Rangoon in early 1942 to escape the invasion but the family somehow got separated in Upper Burma. He made it to India but his pregnant wife returned to Rangoon alone.(Maung Wa 2009: 121–122, 213–214): Maj. Min Sein, Yin May and their son Thein Htut were in Mandalay on 25 March 1942. (Maung Wa 2009: 150): Yin May was in Indaw on 17 April 1942 without her family, and Min Sein sent her brother Thein Kyaw to fetch her. (Myint Swe 2014: 98): Yin May gave birth to a baby in late 1942 in Rangoon as a single mother; Min Sein by then was in India.) He served in the 14th Army from 1942 to 1946 as an Assistant Director, Medical Services (ADMS) and Deputy Director, Medical Services (DDMS).
