This is radio Singapore, broadcasting for brothers and sisters in India and Sri Lanka:
Somasiri Devendra, retired Lieutenant Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, was born in Colombo in 1932 and left the comment as follows:
The people in Sri Lanka were cheering for Japan and feeling sympathy at the same time in 1941, when Japan started to fight the Allies. At the beginning of 1942, Japan's Navy was very strong and beat enemy's vessels on the Indian Ocean one after another, but unfortunately for Japan, those ships were old-fashioned and were built in the era of World War 2. On April in 1942, they finally reached Sri Lanka and battered military ships of Great Britain anchored in Sri Lanka. This aviation unit was transferred from the Pacific Ocean just after the sudden attack at Pearl Harbour, and their bombing technique was supposed to be the No.1 in the world those days. There is a tomb in the official cemetery in Colombo. That is for the three Japanese soldiers who crashed at that time.
Japan attacked and seized Singapore quickly, and after that, gathered deserted Indian soldiers and made up the Indian National Army out of them. Their purpose was to get the freedom back from their colonial master. Part of the army consisted of Sri Lankan soldiers, so they started broadcasting toward the people in India and Sri Lanka.
12-year-old Somasiri Devendra often listened to this broadcasting, Radio Singapore. It began with this phrase, "This is radio Singapore, broadcasting for brothers and sisters in India and Sri Lanka," and often aired songs that encouraged the people in India and Sri Lanka. This airing was supposed to change the mentality of those people. (next page)
(Vocabulary)
Somasiri Devendra スリランカ海軍の軍人
desert to the enemy 敵に投降する
colonial master 宗主国
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