Story of Friendship between Sri Lanka and Japan 5/8

If I'm ever reincarnated, I wish to be Japanese!
     Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) witnessed remarkable progress of Japan during his three visits. He got to think about the necessities of education of techniques in various fields in order to become independent from Great Britain, and he established a financial group for the purpose of sending young Sinhalese to Japan.
     His last visit to Japan was in 1913 and he dropped in at Korea and Manchuria on his way back to Sri Lanka. Japan had invested a generous large sum of money in developing these countries at that time. He pointed out the difference between the policy of Japan and that of Great Britain, which had looked at Sri Lanka only for the purpose of ripping them off. He said that it would take more than 50 years for Great Britain to accomplish what Japan had done in just a few years.
     His activity had caused the resurgence of Sinhalese nationalism based on Buddhism. The colonial authorities of Great Britain feared him and took him into custody for five years. His younger brother was also arrested and killed in jail. Nevertheless, he didn't give up his action and died at the age of 69 in 1933 before the independence day of Sri Lanka. He used to say that he wanted to be re-born as a Japanese person if he could. (next page)

(Vocabulary)
Anagarika Dharmapala (1864‐1933) スリランカ建国の父
if I am ever reincarnated  もし生まれ変わるなら
witness  〈人が〉〈重要な出来事・変化など〉 を経験する, 目にする
financial group  財団
Sinhalese   シンハラ人
anchuria   満州
generous  惜しみない
exploitation / rip-off   搾取
resurgence  (思想･活動などの)復活、再燃

 

Comments

[Sarah]

This was a great story. You had said maybe 8 parts, so I'm not sure if there is more. However, what I've read has been really good. I think when you choose to use colloquial terms, you use them very well.