06-25-2006, 01:42 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Netaji's army as seen by a Ceylonese recruit
COLOMBO DIARY | PK Balachandran
April 17, 2006
It was in 1945, the year of the decisive defeat of the Japanese Imperial Army and its auxiliary, the Indian National Army (INA) founded by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Netaji's dream of freeing India (and incidentally Ceylon too) from the British yoke, lay shattered.
The place was Singapore, which British Indian forces had taken back from the Japanese in a swift operation. What was "Syonan" during the Japanese occupation, got back to being the familiar "Singapore".Â
Angry with the INA, the first thing that the returning British did was to blow up the 15 ft monument for the dead of the INA, which, to the Indians, was the hallowed Azad Hind Fauj or the Free Indian Army.
But the shocking part of the blowing up episode was that the British had got the job done by the Indian troops under their command!
Tissa Indrasoma, a 25-year-old Ceylonese ex-trooper of the INA, was an eye witness to the vandalism.
In his diary entitled: Syonan: The fall of Singapore and how I coped under Japanese occupation, he says: "Indian Sappers with rifles fixed with bayonets surrounded the place and drove away the few people who were there, including me. They then fixed their explosive charges and blew off the top of the monument."
"The memorial built for the war dead of the Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose, our Netaji, our hero, was unfortunately blown up by Indian troops of the British army under an Indian Major."
"He (the Major) should be ashamed to be such a slave to the British and to blow up the memorial built for the Indian war dead," Indrasoma comments.
The Ceylonese's reaction is poignant, especially because he was no fanatic follower of Netaji's.
He was not entirely in agreement with the objectives of the INA. He disliked Netaji's faith in the Japanese promise to let Indians and Ceylonese rule their countries independently of the Japanese after liberation.
As a Ceylonese, he wondered if it was the right thing to latch on to the INA, since its focus was India and not Ceylon.
Yet his reaction shows the deep attachment members of the Azad Hind Fauj, had for Netaji, whether they were Indians or Ceylonese; at the centre or the periphery of the outfit.
Insecurity drove Ceylonese to INA
It was insecurity, which drove many Ceylonese to support the Indian Independence League (IIL) and the INA in Singapore and Malaya.
"The Japanese suspected the Ceylonese to be pro-British. Some of us think it is better to go as Indians to save our skins," writes Indrasoma.
Fortunately for the Ceylonese, the Japanese tended to confuse them with the Indians and always called them "Indians".
The fear of persecution was stark. Kempetai the notorious Japanese Intelligence Service, and many of the officers of the Japanese Army were extremely cruel to pro-British elements in the population.
Instant retribution in the form of public beheading was the order of the day, says Indrasoma.
Most of the victims were of course the Chinese. But strictly speaking, no community, other than the Indians, was exempt.
Joining the IIL meant not only security but perks, small mercies actually.
"I too thought of joining the Indian Independence League as I was aware that the membership card entitled one to some privileges.
For instance, when you go to buy a railway ticket it is an easy matter if you produced this card. On some days at their headquarters, one could buy hard-to-get items like tooth paste, soap etc, at reasonable prices."
IIL membership also meant that one could get letters from, and send letters to, Ceylon, as the IIL was allowed to work with the Swiss Red Cross.
But Indrasoma, like many Ceylonese, was not in a great hurry to join. His policy was to "wait and see".
Of the four Ceylonese communities in Singapore, the Sinhala Buddhists were more sympathetic to the IIL and INA and Asian nationalism in general, than the Sinhala Christians, the Jaffna Tamils and the Ceylon Moors, Indrasoma says.
The Jaffna Tamils and Sinhala Christians generally tended to be very pro-British. They trashed any suggestion that the Japanese were the new dominant power in Asia and that British would not be able to stage a come-back, he adds.
As far as the Indian community in Singapore was concerned, the atmosphere was surcharged with high expectations from the IIL and the INA in the early days of the War in the East.
Writes Indrasoma: "The daily newspapers are full of accounts of Subhas Chandra bose, Rash Behari Bose and the Indian Independence League. The Indian community is excited about some future great happening and goes about greeting each other with their 'Jai Hind' (Victory to India)."
"Then, on the 4th of July we heard that Subhas Chandra Bose had arrived in Syonan. He was to meet the local Indian leaders. The conference was scheduled to be at Cathay Building.
A ticket to attend the meeting costs one hundred dollars as a contribution to the Indian cause. The Indian merchants were paying thousands, instead of a hundred."
But he adds that the Ceylonese "discretely kept away." For the skeptics, the INA stood for "I Never Advance".
But for the Indians and a few Ceylonese, the INA was ready to fight the British in India, drive them out and set up a national government.
There was a parade of the INA, which was reviewed by Subhas Bose and General Hideki Tojo, the Prime Minister of Japan.
"We were able to see two world class leaders on the same day," writes Indrasoma, who admired the Indian leader but thought it prudent to keep a distance.
The next day, Netaji formed the Azad Hind or Free India Provisional Government at a ceremony in Singapore.
"Bose in his speech asked for the full support of the local Indian community, and fortunately or unfortunately, we the Ceylonese too were included as local Indians," Indrasoma notes.
"Our firm (a Ceylonese firm of jewellers) being a well known institution in Syonan, is expected not only to make contributions in money but also in men."
"That was where I was concerned. If they start recruiting men, we in our age group, will be the first to be roped in," he fears.
The Japanese were already using Indrasoma and many others for guard duty. Soon it was made known that the Japanese wanted young men for the construction of the Payar Lebar airport.
Indrasoma was drafted into the labour gang. But the work was hard and his palms were full of sores. Since he had acquired a smattering of Japanese, he was able to play truant from work and smoke with the Japanese gang leader.
But soon another, deeper, fear crept into the mind of Indrasoma and other non-Japanese in Singapore.
"Everyone said this volunteer labour racket of the Japanese will not end here in Payar Lebar. Their ultimate intention, the Chinese said, was to select young men in small groups and send them to work in airports in North Malaya and eventually they will be transported to the death railway in the Siam-Burma border. From there, no one comes back," he writes grimly.
Incidentally, the 1950s Hollywood movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" with David Niven as the hero, was about the death railway, and it was shot in Ceylon!
"This (apprehension) also helped the Indian Independence League to recruit volunteers for the INA where you are treated well. It is usual for people in Syonan to refer to the local entrants to the INA as rice soldiers."
"It was certainly better than getting caught to the Japanese labour force and eventually ending up in Burma may be never to return."
"Life in Syonan for the youth is getting a little tough. We have to think of ways to save our skin. It is not going to be easy," Indrasoma writes.
Enter Gladwin Kotalawela
It was at this time that Gladwin Kotalawela, a Sinhala from Malacca, who had the right connections in Ceylon and was a friend of Subhas Chandra Bose's, appeared in Syonan.
He had been given the task of organising a Ceylon Department in the IIL and recruit Ceylonese for the "Lanka Unit" of the INA.
Kotalawela was a familiar figure in Indrasoma's shop, and before long, he enrolled in the IIL.
According to Indrasoma, Kotalawela became pro-Japanese only to show them that he had nothing to do with his employer, Pemadasa, who had been executed for listening to the BBC and spreading the news broadcast over it.
As PV Krishnamoorthy, a former broadcaster in All India Radio, Delhi, said, the first thing that the Japanese did when they took over an area, was to take away the short wave radio sets.
Therefore, all that was broadcast to South East Asia from New Delhi, day after day, went unheard!
The Japanese tended to behead people on the slightest suspicion for the smallest crimes or indiscretions.
All military officers carried a Samurai sword with which they beheaded people at will, with one neat stroke. There was no appeal.
Kottalawela was Secretary of the Ceylon Department, Weeraratne was the Assistant Secretary and Dodampe was the clerk.
But the IIL also used veiled threats to secure the obedience of its members.
A circular from one MV Pillai to the new recruits, asked for cooperation but added that disregard for this request was "likely to result in a good deal of inconvenience in the future."
In late 1943, when it was publicly announced that a Lanka Unit was being formed as an adjunct to the INA, Kotalawela asked Indrasoma to join it.
Indrasoma, however, felt that such a unit would be too small to make any difference to the proposed Japanese invasion of Sri Lanka and that it only served to show the world that Ceylonese were also fighting with the Japs and Indians in Burma and Imphal.
According to Indrasoma, Kotalawela also thought on similar lines, but decided to organize the unit as a "ruse to save our own skins".
The Ceylon Department in the IIL had some top Ceylonese journalists working for it. Francis Cooray, a top Sinhalese journalist from Kuala Lumpur, and his son Dodwell, were in it.
They were sent to Burma to broadcast to Ceylon in the Sinhala language.
Chat with Netaji
Deceber 8, 1943 was a red letter day in the life of Indrasoma.
Though a Doubting Thomas as regards the INA and the Lankan Unit, he was thrilled to have a meeting with Netaji at his private residence on East Coast Road, courtesy Kotalawela.
"We were introduced to him and he spoke to some of us. Then we had tea, often Netaji himself pouring the tea for us and offering us pastries and cakes. It was very informal and he looked a simple person, unlike when he is in uniform and speaking to crowds from a platform."
"He was very soft spoken and he treated us like an uncle treating his nephews."
"He told us that he was glad that we volunteered for a noble cause, to liberate our country from foreigners."
"I thought he emphasized 'foreigners' meaning that he did not mean only the British but even the Japanese if they wanted to get India to replace the British as they have done here in Malaya."
"I remember in all his talks with us, he referred to Ceylon as 'Lanka'. I thought it was a great honour to have met this great leader and to have listened to him." Indrasoma writes.
In the Lanka Unit, the trainers were all ex-Indian army men who had joined the INA after the surrender of Singapore and Malaya.
They were friendly but the food was unpalatable because it was Indian Chapatti, Dal and Dosai and not Sri Lankan.
They were taught Hindustani and Japanese martial arts, apart from the handling of small arms.
Controversy over Indian anthem
The Ceylonese recruits had a problem singing the anthem of the INA because it made no reference to Sri Lanka and also on ideological grounds.
Sumathipala Punchiwewa refused to sing it because he was in the Lanka Unit to fight for the freedom of Lanka and not India.
Gunapala said that he was glad that the song made no reference to Lanka because, at any rate, India and Lanka were two different places altogether.
But Henry Perera, who "hero worshipped" Netaji sang the song with gusto.
Gunapala then composed a Sinhala song based on the lyrics and tune of the INA's anthem, substituting Indian places and rivers with Sri Lankan places and rivers.
Places mentioned in the Sinhala anthem were Sripada, Mahanuwara, Anuradhapura, Yapana, Trincomalee, Galle and Matara. Mahaweli Ganga replaced Jamuna and Ganga.
Instead of Jaya Ho, Jaya Ho, it was Jaya Wewa, Jaya Wewa!
"WE thought it was a jolly good song. Unfortunately, I never learnt it by heart and don't even seem to have recorded it anywhere. What a pity, it is, I think, lost for ever," Indrasoma says.
INA, Japs lose interest in Ceylon
When the India campaign seemed to be getting ahead, the Japanese lost interest in Ceylon. And when things were going badly everywhere in 1942-43-44, the Japanese lost interest in the INA itself.
With this, the trainers too lost interest in the recruits. Ceylonese volunteers were opting for releases.
Indrasoma also did, on medical grounds. The INA's doctors understood the plight of the Ceylonese recruits and had no hesitation in giving them the required medical certificates.
Indrasoma got one and quit. He later returned to Ceylon.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7752_16...04100180006.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
COLOMBO DIARY | PK Balachandran
April 17, 2006
It was in 1945, the year of the decisive defeat of the Japanese Imperial Army and its auxiliary, the Indian National Army (INA) founded by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Netaji's dream of freeing India (and incidentally Ceylon too) from the British yoke, lay shattered.
The place was Singapore, which British Indian forces had taken back from the Japanese in a swift operation. What was "Syonan" during the Japanese occupation, got back to being the familiar "Singapore".Â
Angry with the INA, the first thing that the returning British did was to blow up the 15 ft monument for the dead of the INA, which, to the Indians, was the hallowed Azad Hind Fauj or the Free Indian Army.
But the shocking part of the blowing up episode was that the British had got the job done by the Indian troops under their command!
Tissa Indrasoma, a 25-year-old Ceylonese ex-trooper of the INA, was an eye witness to the vandalism.
In his diary entitled: Syonan: The fall of Singapore and how I coped under Japanese occupation, he says: "Indian Sappers with rifles fixed with bayonets surrounded the place and drove away the few people who were there, including me. They then fixed their explosive charges and blew off the top of the monument."
"The memorial built for the war dead of the Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose, our Netaji, our hero, was unfortunately blown up by Indian troops of the British army under an Indian Major."
"He (the Major) should be ashamed to be such a slave to the British and to blow up the memorial built for the Indian war dead," Indrasoma comments.
The Ceylonese's reaction is poignant, especially because he was no fanatic follower of Netaji's.
He was not entirely in agreement with the objectives of the INA. He disliked Netaji's faith in the Japanese promise to let Indians and Ceylonese rule their countries independently of the Japanese after liberation.
As a Ceylonese, he wondered if it was the right thing to latch on to the INA, since its focus was India and not Ceylon.
Yet his reaction shows the deep attachment members of the Azad Hind Fauj, had for Netaji, whether they were Indians or Ceylonese; at the centre or the periphery of the outfit.
Insecurity drove Ceylonese to INA
It was insecurity, which drove many Ceylonese to support the Indian Independence League (IIL) and the INA in Singapore and Malaya.
"The Japanese suspected the Ceylonese to be pro-British. Some of us think it is better to go as Indians to save our skins," writes Indrasoma.
Fortunately for the Ceylonese, the Japanese tended to confuse them with the Indians and always called them "Indians".
The fear of persecution was stark. Kempetai the notorious Japanese Intelligence Service, and many of the officers of the Japanese Army were extremely cruel to pro-British elements in the population.
Instant retribution in the form of public beheading was the order of the day, says Indrasoma.
Most of the victims were of course the Chinese. But strictly speaking, no community, other than the Indians, was exempt.
Joining the IIL meant not only security but perks, small mercies actually.
"I too thought of joining the Indian Independence League as I was aware that the membership card entitled one to some privileges.
For instance, when you go to buy a railway ticket it is an easy matter if you produced this card. On some days at their headquarters, one could buy hard-to-get items like tooth paste, soap etc, at reasonable prices."
IIL membership also meant that one could get letters from, and send letters to, Ceylon, as the IIL was allowed to work with the Swiss Red Cross.
But Indrasoma, like many Ceylonese, was not in a great hurry to join. His policy was to "wait and see".
Of the four Ceylonese communities in Singapore, the Sinhala Buddhists were more sympathetic to the IIL and INA and Asian nationalism in general, than the Sinhala Christians, the Jaffna Tamils and the Ceylon Moors, Indrasoma says.
The Jaffna Tamils and Sinhala Christians generally tended to be very pro-British. They trashed any suggestion that the Japanese were the new dominant power in Asia and that British would not be able to stage a come-back, he adds.
As far as the Indian community in Singapore was concerned, the atmosphere was surcharged with high expectations from the IIL and the INA in the early days of the War in the East.
Writes Indrasoma: "The daily newspapers are full of accounts of Subhas Chandra bose, Rash Behari Bose and the Indian Independence League. The Indian community is excited about some future great happening and goes about greeting each other with their 'Jai Hind' (Victory to India)."
"Then, on the 4th of July we heard that Subhas Chandra Bose had arrived in Syonan. He was to meet the local Indian leaders. The conference was scheduled to be at Cathay Building.
A ticket to attend the meeting costs one hundred dollars as a contribution to the Indian cause. The Indian merchants were paying thousands, instead of a hundred."
But he adds that the Ceylonese "discretely kept away." For the skeptics, the INA stood for "I Never Advance".
But for the Indians and a few Ceylonese, the INA was ready to fight the British in India, drive them out and set up a national government.
There was a parade of the INA, which was reviewed by Subhas Bose and General Hideki Tojo, the Prime Minister of Japan.
"We were able to see two world class leaders on the same day," writes Indrasoma, who admired the Indian leader but thought it prudent to keep a distance.
The next day, Netaji formed the Azad Hind or Free India Provisional Government at a ceremony in Singapore.
"Bose in his speech asked for the full support of the local Indian community, and fortunately or unfortunately, we the Ceylonese too were included as local Indians," Indrasoma notes.
"Our firm (a Ceylonese firm of jewellers) being a well known institution in Syonan, is expected not only to make contributions in money but also in men."
"That was where I was concerned. If they start recruiting men, we in our age group, will be the first to be roped in," he fears.
The Japanese were already using Indrasoma and many others for guard duty. Soon it was made known that the Japanese wanted young men for the construction of the Payar Lebar airport.
Indrasoma was drafted into the labour gang. But the work was hard and his palms were full of sores. Since he had acquired a smattering of Japanese, he was able to play truant from work and smoke with the Japanese gang leader.
But soon another, deeper, fear crept into the mind of Indrasoma and other non-Japanese in Singapore.
"Everyone said this volunteer labour racket of the Japanese will not end here in Payar Lebar. Their ultimate intention, the Chinese said, was to select young men in small groups and send them to work in airports in North Malaya and eventually they will be transported to the death railway in the Siam-Burma border. From there, no one comes back," he writes grimly.
Incidentally, the 1950s Hollywood movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" with David Niven as the hero, was about the death railway, and it was shot in Ceylon!
"This (apprehension) also helped the Indian Independence League to recruit volunteers for the INA where you are treated well. It is usual for people in Syonan to refer to the local entrants to the INA as rice soldiers."
"It was certainly better than getting caught to the Japanese labour force and eventually ending up in Burma may be never to return."
"Life in Syonan for the youth is getting a little tough. We have to think of ways to save our skin. It is not going to be easy," Indrasoma writes.
Enter Gladwin Kotalawela
It was at this time that Gladwin Kotalawela, a Sinhala from Malacca, who had the right connections in Ceylon and was a friend of Subhas Chandra Bose's, appeared in Syonan.
He had been given the task of organising a Ceylon Department in the IIL and recruit Ceylonese for the "Lanka Unit" of the INA.
Kotalawela was a familiar figure in Indrasoma's shop, and before long, he enrolled in the IIL.
According to Indrasoma, Kotalawela became pro-Japanese only to show them that he had nothing to do with his employer, Pemadasa, who had been executed for listening to the BBC and spreading the news broadcast over it.
As PV Krishnamoorthy, a former broadcaster in All India Radio, Delhi, said, the first thing that the Japanese did when they took over an area, was to take away the short wave radio sets.
Therefore, all that was broadcast to South East Asia from New Delhi, day after day, went unheard!
The Japanese tended to behead people on the slightest suspicion for the smallest crimes or indiscretions.
All military officers carried a Samurai sword with which they beheaded people at will, with one neat stroke. There was no appeal.
Kottalawela was Secretary of the Ceylon Department, Weeraratne was the Assistant Secretary and Dodampe was the clerk.
But the IIL also used veiled threats to secure the obedience of its members.
A circular from one MV Pillai to the new recruits, asked for cooperation but added that disregard for this request was "likely to result in a good deal of inconvenience in the future."
In late 1943, when it was publicly announced that a Lanka Unit was being formed as an adjunct to the INA, Kotalawela asked Indrasoma to join it.
Indrasoma, however, felt that such a unit would be too small to make any difference to the proposed Japanese invasion of Sri Lanka and that it only served to show the world that Ceylonese were also fighting with the Japs and Indians in Burma and Imphal.
According to Indrasoma, Kotalawela also thought on similar lines, but decided to organize the unit as a "ruse to save our own skins".
The Ceylon Department in the IIL had some top Ceylonese journalists working for it. Francis Cooray, a top Sinhalese journalist from Kuala Lumpur, and his son Dodwell, were in it.
They were sent to Burma to broadcast to Ceylon in the Sinhala language.
Chat with Netaji
Deceber 8, 1943 was a red letter day in the life of Indrasoma.
Though a Doubting Thomas as regards the INA and the Lankan Unit, he was thrilled to have a meeting with Netaji at his private residence on East Coast Road, courtesy Kotalawela.
"We were introduced to him and he spoke to some of us. Then we had tea, often Netaji himself pouring the tea for us and offering us pastries and cakes. It was very informal and he looked a simple person, unlike when he is in uniform and speaking to crowds from a platform."
"He was very soft spoken and he treated us like an uncle treating his nephews."
"He told us that he was glad that we volunteered for a noble cause, to liberate our country from foreigners."
"I thought he emphasized 'foreigners' meaning that he did not mean only the British but even the Japanese if they wanted to get India to replace the British as they have done here in Malaya."
"I remember in all his talks with us, he referred to Ceylon as 'Lanka'. I thought it was a great honour to have met this great leader and to have listened to him." Indrasoma writes.
In the Lanka Unit, the trainers were all ex-Indian army men who had joined the INA after the surrender of Singapore and Malaya.
They were friendly but the food was unpalatable because it was Indian Chapatti, Dal and Dosai and not Sri Lankan.
They were taught Hindustani and Japanese martial arts, apart from the handling of small arms.
Controversy over Indian anthem
The Ceylonese recruits had a problem singing the anthem of the INA because it made no reference to Sri Lanka and also on ideological grounds.
Sumathipala Punchiwewa refused to sing it because he was in the Lanka Unit to fight for the freedom of Lanka and not India.
Gunapala said that he was glad that the song made no reference to Lanka because, at any rate, India and Lanka were two different places altogether.
But Henry Perera, who "hero worshipped" Netaji sang the song with gusto.
Gunapala then composed a Sinhala song based on the lyrics and tune of the INA's anthem, substituting Indian places and rivers with Sri Lankan places and rivers.
Places mentioned in the Sinhala anthem were Sripada, Mahanuwara, Anuradhapura, Yapana, Trincomalee, Galle and Matara. Mahaweli Ganga replaced Jamuna and Ganga.
Instead of Jaya Ho, Jaya Ho, it was Jaya Wewa, Jaya Wewa!
"WE thought it was a jolly good song. Unfortunately, I never learnt it by heart and don't even seem to have recorded it anywhere. What a pity, it is, I think, lost for ever," Indrasoma says.
INA, Japs lose interest in Ceylon
When the India campaign seemed to be getting ahead, the Japanese lost interest in Ceylon. And when things were going badly everywhere in 1942-43-44, the Japanese lost interest in the INA itself.
With this, the trainers too lost interest in the recruits. Ceylonese volunteers were opting for releases.
Indrasoma also did, on medical grounds. The INA's doctors understood the plight of the Ceylonese recruits and had no hesitation in giving them the required medical certificates.
Indrasoma got one and quit. He later returned to Ceylon.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7752_16...04100180006.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->