400 years of being colonized:
I guess, Japanese people of that time probably wondered why a Sri Lankan diplomat cheered for Japan like that. The answer will appear if you see the history carefully. Let's look at the history.
The word "Sri Lanka" means, "shining island", and the country is also called "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" from its rich nature. There are 20,000,000 people living on the island. At about 5th century B.C., Sinhalese immigrated from northern India and built a kingdom. After being affected by Buddhism in the 3rd century B.C., they kept Buddhism as their backbone.
However, Sri Lanka has always been an important hub of trade on the Indian Ocean and had been exposed to the invasion of European superpowers. The Portuguese stepped onto this beautiful ingenuous island in 1505 and had ruled the seashore area for about 150 years. The ruler was replaced by the Dutch in 1658 and they became the colonial administrator for about 140 years. After that, Great Britain came to the island and seized the control of the whole island in 1796. This cruel superpower generated the agony that has been continuing up until the present. They changed this whole island into the factory for their tea and the result was that people had to import even their fundamental food, rice. The big insurgencies broke out three times, but all of them were suppressed by military means. Great Britain gave favorable treatment to Tamils immigrated from southern India, educated them, adopted them as officials and made them rule the majority of Sinhalese. This clever divided government is the source of the present ethnic strife. At the same time, they gave a warm reception to Christians and suppressed Buddhists. Sinhalese were Buddhist and had no chance of education. (next page)
(Vocabulary)
Sinhalese シンハラ人
keep his faith 信仰を守る
Indian Ocean インド洋
Portuguese ポルトガル語 the Portuguese (pl.) ポルトガル人
adj. ポルトガル(人)の ポルトガル語の
ingenuous 純真な, 無邪気な, すなおな
Dutch オランダ（人）の, オランダ語の オランダ語
the Dutch (pl.) オランダ人
colonial administrator 植民地の統治者
insurgency (政府に対する) 反乱, 暴動
by military means 力で
Tamil タミル人
give favorable treatment/ give a warm reception 優遇する
clever 巧妙な
divided government 分割統治
ethnic strife 民族闘争
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