Japan's blitzkrieg and Indian freedom struggle helped Lanka win independence

The Japanese-led resistance to Western colonialism under the catch-cry ‘Asia for Asians’ awakened the spirit of Asia.

Sri Lanka won freedom in step with other Asian countries at the end of the Second World War in 1945.

Many factors contributed to the collapse of Western domination of Asia. But the most notable was the massive attack of Japan on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, followed by attacks on American and European military bases in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Japan stunned the world by defeating the British Imperial Army and the Royal Navy in Singapore and Malaya in heroic battles and by sinking prestigious British ships such as the ‘Prince of Wales’.

Japan achieved the unthinkable by ending Western control of Burma, Indonesia, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Vietnam, Andaman Islands, and several Pacific countries in 1942. It was a monumental achievement for a non-European country. Japan disproved the self-serving theory of ‘Manifest Destiny’ which was used by Euro-Christian countries to justify their conquest and occupation of territories of non-white and non-Christian people.

Japanese victories inspired the national liberation movements in Asia and even Africa to awaken and fight for their freedom. In 1939, the entirety of Asia was under Western occupation bar Japan and Siam (Thailand). However, after 1945, Southeast Asian and South Asian countries won their freedom as the direct outcome of the Second World War.

Japan under Prime Minister Hideki Tojo played a seminal role in this effort being the only major world power to declare that one of its primary goals was the liberation of European colonies from Western imperialism. No other country either in the West or the East gave a pledge to free people (black, brown, and yellow races) then in colonial bondage. It was a unique effort in the annals of freedom struggles. The Japanese-led resistance to Western colonialism under the catch-cry ‘Asia for Asians’ awakened the spirit of Asia.

Sri Lanka’s road to Independence

Sri Lanka gained independence on the back of the Indian independence struggle and Japan’s blitzkrieg. The fighting Sinhalese spirit displayed in the uprisings of 1818 and 1848 had evaporated. People were very weak, dispirited, and incapable of giving ultimatums to the British to vacate the country. Our then leaders did not seek ‘Purna Swaraj’ (total freedom), only dominion status. Full political freedom was gained only in 1972 with the declaration of Sri Lanka as a Republic.

British occupation of India ended in 1947. The British were forced out of the country as there was a likelihood of an Indian mutiny in 1946 bigger than the one in 1857. It was this threat that finally convinced the Labour Government of Clement Atlee to quit India. This was the ‘push’ factor.

If India did not gain independence on August 15, 1947, neither Burma nor Ceylon would have been granted independence on January 4, 1948, or on February 4, 1948, respectively. When Britain lost the jewel in its Crown ie, India, it decided to vacate South Asia altogether.

(The writer is an Attorney-at-Law. In 2018 he was invited by the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact to speak on ‘Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western domination - Time to express Asia’s gratitude to Japan’ at a committee room of the Japanese Parliament, Diet).