Senaka Weeraratna

For many years it was the propaganda of the Victors full of hate speech directed towards the losers i.e., Axis powers, Germany and Japan, and demonizing one of them i.e.Japanese, as cannibals and savages that characterized the WW2 narrative. 

The people of Asia no longer accept the Western sponsored narratives as Gospel truths. There is increasing resistance to propaganda masquerading as historical fact.

The Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact based in Japan is a striking illustration of such resistance. 

People of former European colonies are demanding accountability for rapacious colonialism. 

Unfortunately, the conversation in Asia having international impact is basically an echo of conversations that are manufactured and manipulated in the West.

It is being corrected however slowly. The most dramatic correction is the recent elevation of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose to the No. 1 position in India’s narrative on how freedom was won. The highly revered Mahatma Gandhi has been demoted to the No. 2 rank. 

While the West glorifies their military commanders as national heroes their admiration for Asian and Africans is limited more or less to the likes of Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King of the non – violent creed. These are people who have never won a single battle on the battlefield. 

If non – violence is the right way to settle conflict, why that is not promoted to douse the fire raging in Ukraine and Russia  remains a mystery. Those who wanted a ceasefire and return to the negotiating table during the 30 year civil war in Sri Lanka are the very countries 

that are now pouring fuel to the raging fires in Eastern Europe, at the expense of innocent lives of both countries. 

Acknowledging Japan

Japan helped Subash Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army(INA) to attack British military bases and occupation of India.

The battles for India’s independence fought by INA with the support of the Japanese 15th Army at Kohima and Imphal is part of the National Story of India today. Though the combined liberation forces comprising Japanese soldiers and INA lost to superior enemy forces in numbers and military equipment, the ramification of the daring war efforts led eventually to the grant of independence beginning with India and later other South Asian countries like Burma and Ceylon. 

Indian Children learn the valour of their Netaji at their mothers knee.

But that is another story.

Japan was the only non-European country that defeated imperial western countries in battle in the sea, land and air. That itself was  inspiring for those who could only stand and watch in dismay their nations being conquered and occupied for centuries by Western imperial nations.

Japan awakened the enslaved people of Asia and Africa and bewildered them with daring military exploits. 

That is the true legacy of the Japanese during WW2 in respect of which expression of gratitude is long overdue from Asian countries that benefited unmistakably from the former’s efforts. 

Senaka Weeraratna