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by Aryadasa Ratnasinghe

It was the Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942. Time about 8 a.m. The Christians were on their way to the church to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ. Being a holiday, not much people were on the road at that hour except those who had left their homes on different errands.

On that decisive day, RAF squadron leader Leonard Birchill had taken off in a Catalina war plane, from the Koggala airbase on a reconnaissance mission, when he caught sight of a Japanese armada, heading towards Sri Lanka, some 350 miles off-shore, from the southern direction. He immediately signalled the impending danger to the Army Headquarters in Colombo.

Immediate action was taken to clear the Colombo harbour of ships that were berthed there and to hide them at Addu Atol, about 500 miles south-east of Colombo. Adolf Hilter, the architect of World War II, had encouraged Japan to invade Sri Lanka, in view of the island's strategic position in the Indian Ocean. But, the Japanese plan was to attack the British eastern fleet, lying anchor in Colombo.

The Japanese air battle over Sri Lanka lasted for nearly 20 minutes, and aircrafts of both sides were shot down. The Ceylon Garrison Artillery, stationed in Colombo, were able to shoot down a number of Japanese war planes. One dropped near the S. Thomas' playground at Mount Lavinia, one at Pita Kotte, one at the Racecourse in Colombo, one near the Kelaniya temple, and some at other different places.

The most unfortunate incident was the bombing of the Mulleriyawa Mental Hospital at Angoda, which damaged the building, killed about 17 patients and wounded many. After this unhappy incident, the Japanese government had expressed their sympathy.

Since then, it was made a rule to paint a 10 ft.x 10ft. Red Cross on the roofs of hospitals, and schools to protect them from wrong targets. The Japanese had bombed the hospital thinking it was the Army barracks at Echelon Square, Colombo. In the air battle, about 90 people had died wounding over 80 civilians.

It is said that the raid was conducted by Vice Admiral Chulchi Nagumo and Commander Mitsuo Fuchida of the Japanese squadron, who were responsible for the bombing of the Pearl Harbour, a deep-water naval base on the island of Oahu in the US Pacific Ocean State of Hawaii, adjacent to Honolulu. It happened on December 7, 1941.

In 4 months, the Japanese were able to overrun the whole of South-East Asia including Burma (now Myanmar). On April 14, 1941, Trincomalee was also attacked by the same armada.

Sri Lanka was not prepared to face the situation, although ack-ack guns were installed at vulnerable points, including Galle Face. The RAF had only 22 planes, which were quite inadequate to face any serious offensive. Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton, was at once summoned to assume duties to organise operations in the event of an repeated attack. He observed that Sri Lanka was not armed to the teeth, and except for the big guns at Galle Face, the defence was practically non-existent. The Colonial governor, Sir Andrew Caldecott, took immediate action to place the country under a war footing, organised civil defence, food rationing, military camps, evacuation of school children to safer places, and many other matters that were found essential. One of the major commands in the war, i.e., the South-East Asia Command (SEAC) was established in the island, with Lord Louis Mountbatten as the 'Supremo'. When Malaya fell to the Japanese, the danger of a Japanese invasion of the island became a possibility. Admiral Layton was appointed Commander-In-Chief of Sri Lanka.

There was a shortage of food because Sri Lanka depended on imported rice and country's paddy fields were in a forlorn condition. After the out-break of the war, imports declined sharply and the shortage was supplemented by consignments from Egypt and America. Condiments were received from India. to overcome the dire situation, 'Grow More Food' campaigns were started, specially to supply the staple food.

Sir Oliver Goonetilaka was made the Civil Defence Commissioner, and his responsibility was to put up air raid shelters and fire-fighting equipment, first-aid depots and large water thanks for Colombo.

Assistant Government Agents were made responsible for the food drive which was considered vital when there was shortage of food items, and blackmarkets were operating in secret to sell their goods at prohibitive prices. Most families in Colombo closed their homes and went to distant places through fear of another air attack.

All hotels in Fort and Pettah were closed for business, and the public were deprived of having even a cup of tea. Sir Oliver Goonatilaka, the Civil Defence Commissioner, took immediate action, exercised his powers under the military law, and handed over most of the closed hotels to people who would run them. These men became the lawful owners of the premises, and the former had no right to ownership.

For school children to save their lives during an air raid, trenches 3ft. deep and 2ft. wide were cut in school play grounds. At the sound of the siren, they were advised to get into the trenches, kneel down with their fingers in their ears to prevent possible damage to the ear-drum by the explosion of the bombs. Test calls were seldom given to check their performance at the sound of the siren.

Food were rationed and issued weekly, on a token, by the co-operative stores, at the rate of 1 1/4 measures for a working adult, 1 measure for an ordinary adult, 3/4 measure for a child and 1/2 measure for an infant. The rice supply was augmented by the issue of wheat flour and gram. Sugar, chillies, dhal, dried-fish etc., as essential foods, were also rationed and distributed weekly. Blackout was enforced islandwide, and in every home, lights had to be covered, so that the rays would not fall outside the house. It was to prevent air attacks at night on target positions.

The war came to an end with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan. One was over Hiroshima, city in south Honshu island, with a population over 1 million, on August 6, 1945, and the other over Nagasaki, city in West Kyushu, with a population of nearly 400,000, on August 9, 1941. It is said that atomic bomb is a nuclear explosive device, which achieves its destructive effect through energy released during the fission of heavy atoms (as in uranium 235 or plutonium 239).

An unconditional surrender by the Japanese was signed, and all countries taken over by the Japanese had to be given back.

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