The West hates those who fight against them and their rapacious Colonialism
Posted on February 18th, 2023
Senaka Weeraratna
The wartime Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was clearly in the forefront of that fight. His fault was that his side lost. But that should not de-legitimize the worldwide struggle to end Western colonial domination and rule in Asia and Africa which was finally achieved at huge cost mostly to the Japanese people. The demonization of the Japanese soldiers as ‘savages’ , cannibals, and ‘barbarians’ in a non ending propaganda war against Japan now sprouting on the social media sponsored by mostly Anglo – American academics and historians in the most shameful way, must stop.
The people of Asia and Africa must confront the historical truth at some point in time sooner than later that if WW2 did not take place the entire world would have become a Western ‘ white’ colony. Whatever ‘mischievous’ intention is attributed to Japan by its detractors the plain simple truth is that Japan is the only non – white country during the last 500 years that fought effectively and as well as the white imperial countries that stunned the western world. Not only that when the Japanese armies marched into Singapore, Jakarta, Saigon, Kuala Lumpur in 1942 the first thing they did was to dismantle ‘ whites only’ apartheid clubs. What was continuing in South Africa until Nelson Mandela stopped it in 1994 was already happening in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in 1942. The natives (local Indonesians) were not allowed to walk on the same side of the Road as the Dutch. There are eye witness accounts to this day.
Nobody likes to be second class citizens in one’s own country. That is why people of Asia supported the catch cry invented by Japan ‘ Asia for Asians’ . It was valid then and it is even valid today.
The pivot that brought the liberation of the black man, brown man and yellow man was the second world war. In 1939 there was not even an empty promise to give freedom to the subjugated people in European colonies. The end of WW2 in 1945 saw an array of countries being granted independence. Thanks to Japan and the freedom fighters of India, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, Malaya, etc. who achieved in the mid 20th century what was thought impossible at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Sri Lanka we are told to forget colonial history because it is the darkest chapter in the country’s history which is both morally and even legally indefensible. Colonialism under the Portuguese, Dutch and British was in essence a strict form of religious despotism though differing in degrees of ferocity with each other. The Catholic Inquisition was introduced to Ceylon by the Portuguese after Father Francis Xavier brought it to Goa. The objective of European colonial rule overall was not only to convert the locals to their religion i.e. Christianity, but also to suppress other religions especially Buddhism and de- legitimize Buddhist ways of thinking and the right of the Buddhist Sinhalese to assert their culture. This was most profound in the Portuguese era (1505 – 1658). In missionary Schools the notional wisdom that was planted in school children in their impressive age was that European civilization was the only true and authentic civilization and all others were primitive and / or Satanic. The Portuguese and the Dutch saw Buddhism as ‘ Devil worship’ and, for example, promulgated Dutch ‘Placaats’ to prohibit the practice of Buddhism. The most insidious injury was the creation of a mindset of ‘coloniality ‘ in the locals from the time of school to grave. It is this state of mind that underpinned and drove European colonialism in Sri Lanka. .
Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948 was helped greatly by external factors
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Senaka Weeraratna
Justice has nothing to do with victor nations and vanquished nations, but must be a moral standard that all the world’s peoples can agree to. To seek this and to achieve it – that is true civilization -Hideki Tojo (1894-1948)
Prime Minister of Japan