Memories of WW II days in Kandy

Kandy: 1939 to 1945

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I decided to write my memories of World War II years though it betrays my age.

However, I am proud to be as old as I am. I presume not many are still alive and writing as I am hence this article to inform the present generations who don't even recall the Korean or Vietnam wars, to know how things were in this colony of the British Empire when almost the entire world was embroiled in war. Ceylon gained its independence from the British Raj in 1948 while India self-ruled a year earlier. Thus, both countries were involved in the war. At first it was that many joined the Allied Army — more the Indians like the warrior Gurkhas. I had a distant relative who was a soldier in Sudan. Later the involvement of our nations was severer.

SEAC

Ceylon became an important axis when the South East Asia Command (SEAC) was established in November 1943 as a major Allied military command to oversee operations against Japan in SE Asia; to liberate occupied territories and ultimately defeat the Japanese forces in the region. Led by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, it encompassed a vast area including the Malay Peninsula, Burma, Siam, Sumatra, India and Ceylon. Lord Mountbatten moved to India and set his headquarters in Delhi in September 1943, but in April 1944 moved his headquarters and himself to buildings within the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. He was often seen in Kandy, especially of a morning horse riding in Udawattakele.