Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
31
July 2019
Easter
Bombings in Sri Lanka – Déjà vu?
Time and place
influence natural changes to the forms in which truth is manifested. Truth that
happens at a particular place is naturally invoked positively or negatively by
current generation when the mind is passive. Those living in the past usually
have passive minds in terms of the present.
Yesterday I learnt
about the Japanese Suicide Bombers who attacked Ceylon on Easter Sunday - 05
April 1942 . Because Sri Lanka is my homeland, and because Easter is about
resurrection, I felt a deeper connection between the 2019 Easter bombings and
the 1942 Easter bombings. There were many common features that would, I
believe, help find a preventive pathway. In terms of karma – the cause and
effect produce the common picture of truth – as if we are both in terms of time
or place. The mind to which the whole of Sri Lanka is One place – would ‘see’
the time based connection:
[The Japanese
attack began at 07:30 on Easter Sunday morning. Air defence of Colombo fort and
harbour was provided by the 3rd Searchlight/Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Ceylon Garrison Artillery with two
batteries based at Galle Face Green and Mutwal.
Colonel R. M. White and his operations staff officer, Major J. O.
Widdows, DSO commanded ground units from
ground forces headquarters at Echelon
Barracks.
St Luke's Church, Borella, was packed for
Easter services with both locals and military personnel. According to parishioners, the vicar,
Reverend Canon Ivan Corea, was preaching when the RAF
Hurricanes engaged the Japanese Zero aircraft high above the church.
The Sri Lankan writer Ariyadasa Ratnasinghe
recalled the Easter Sunday Japanese raid: "Japanese aircraft flew in close
formation over Colombo and dropped bombs at different places. The air battle
lasted for nearly half an hour. The Allied forces, warned of the danger, were
able to shoot down some of the enemy aircraft which fell on land and sea."
Among those shot down, one fell
near Saint Thomas' College, one
closer to the Bellanwila paddy fields, one near Pita Kotte, one on the
racecourse in Colombo, one near Horana and one on the Galle Face Green. A bomb
fell off the target and damaged the Mulleriyawa Mental Hospital, killing some
inmates. It appeared that the pilot had mistaken the buildings for the Echelon
Barracks. One fell near the Maradana railway station, partly damaging
it. There were many deaths and more casualties, most of them civilians. To
prevent bombs falling on hospitals, it was decided to have a large red cross
painted on the roofs.
…………………………………………………..
H. G. P.
Jayasekera, president of the Ceylon War Veterans Association of World War II,
wrote: "The April raids in Colombo were led by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo
and Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, the two men who inflicted the biggest damage on
the mighty American Pacific Fleet. The Ceylon R.A.F. had only 20 planes as
against that of 120 planes of Mitsuo Fuchida. These 20 fighter planes got off
from the Racecourse grounds and there was an air battle over Colombo on Easter
Sunday morning (5 April). Ceylon Garrison Artillery and Boys of Royal Artillery
managed to shoot down many of the Japanese planes."
The
Ceylon Daily News reported
the raid on Monday, 6 April 1942: "Colombo and the suburbs were attacked
yesterday at 8 o'clock in the morning by 75 enemy aircraft which came in waves
from the sea. Twenty-five of the raiders were shot down, while 25 more were
damaged. Dive-bombing and low-flying machine-gun attacks were made in the Harbour
and Ratmalana areas. A medical establishment in the suburbs was also bombed] Wikipedia
To my mind the following is more significant in working out
the karmic connection:
[On 9 April, the
Japanese attacked the harbour at Trincomalee and the British ships off Batticaloa.
The light aircraft carrier HMS Hermes,
the destroyer HMAS Vampire and the Flower-class corvette HMS Hollyhock were sunk, and SS Sagaing partially
destroyed and set on fire below decks. The RAF lost at least eight
Hurricanes and the FAA one Fairey Fulmar.
The Japanese lost five bombers and six fighters, one in a suicide attack on the
Trincomalee fuel tanks. Seven hundred
people lost their lives in the attack on Trincomalee. According to eye
witness Michael Tomlinson (author of The Most Dangerous Moment and RAF
Station Intelligence Officer at Ratmalana and later at China Bay in
Trincomalee), one Japanese pilot deliberately crashed his plane into one of the
giant fuel tanks just north of China Bay aerodrome. Inside the aircraft were three Japanese—Shigenori Watanabe, Tokya Goto,
and Sutomu Toshira. After carefully circling the area, they plunged unerringly
into the tank, igniting their own funeral pyre. The resulting fire lasted
seven days. Parts of the aircraft's engine and the flattened remains of the
fuel storage tank have been placed in a barbed wire enclosure 1½ km from the
turn off at the 4th mile post on the Trincomalee–Habarana Road.] Wikipedia
Japanese were
foreigners to Ceylon. They bombed Ceylon due to British presence there. The significance
of Ceylon – a tiny island is presented
by Wikipedia as follows:
[Churchill
quote on the Battle of Ceylon
The
most dangerous moment of the War, and the one which caused me the greatest
alarm, was when the Japanese Fleet was heading for Ceylon and the naval base
there. The capture of Ceylon, the consequent control of the Indian Ocean, and
the possibility at the same time of a German conquest of Egypt would have
closed the ring and the future would have been black.
—
From a conversation at the British Embassy, Washington, D.C.]
The Easter Sunday 2019 bombings were also by Mental
foreigners. Back then the Japanese targeted
fuel tanks in South and East and also accidentally bombed the mental hospital
in the Colombo suburb of Angoda:
[The first attack wave of Japanese planes took off in pre-dawn darkness
(30 minutes before sunrise) from the aircraft carriers Akagi, Hiryu, and Soryu, moving about 200
miles south of Sri Lanka. The first attack wave of 36 fighters, 54 dive
bombers, and 90 level bombers was led by Captain Mitsuo
Fuchida, the same officer who led the air attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Hawker
Hurricanes of the RAF's No. 30 Squadron were on the ground at
Ratmalana Airport when the Japanese aircraft passed overhead. The auxiliary
cruiser HMS Hector and the old
destroyer HMS Tenedos were sunk in the harbour.
The RAF and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) lost at least 27
aircraft; the Japanese only five. The Japanese also bombed the mental asylum at
Angoda, mistaking it for the fuel tanks at nearby Kolonnawa.
After
Fuchida and his aircrews returned to the flagship Akagi, a second-wave of
53 Aichi D3A Val dive
bombers led by Lieutenant Commander Egusa took off to attack the two British
cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall, 320 km (170 nmi;
200 mi) southwest of Ceylon, and sank the two ships. British losses were 424 men killed; 1,120 survivors spent hours in
the water.
The Japanese dive bombers scored hits with close to 90% of their
bombs—an enviable rate of accuracy, according to Mitsuo Fuchida in Midway]
We may hold inquiries into the actions or negligence
of current custodians of power. But past negligence that is not cured but is ‘forgotten’
surfaces when there are ‘foreigners’ against ‘foreigners’ at that place at a
certain time. One needs true owners to override the forces of foreigners.
The Sri Lankan governments that unjustly killed
believers in the land became ‘foreign
forces’ in those parts where the dead believed were their homelands. When they
die their ownership power becomes absolute power which their true heirs have
the power to invoke.
As per the above account - in 1942 - ‘Seven hundred people lost their lives in the
attack on Trincomalee’. This is much larger number than the number of
dead in the 2019 attack. Yet we do not seem to have learnt from that tragedy.
Each time a true owner is unjustly killed – the place acquires negative karma. Likewise
when a true owner is celebrated at that place – that is the home of that person
– positive karma is acquired by that place.
The deeper we go – the more common we become and the
solution shows itself as an inner picture. Hence the saying ‘seek and you shall
find’. One must seek without expectations of any material return. The
satisfaction from seeking becomes the result. Buddhist governments that
override place based ownership – are foreigners to Democracy itself. Hence in
Sri Lanka – where they interfere directly and/or through the government - with the
self-governance of non-Buddhists to whom that area is home – they become
foreigners at that place. Likewise militants who claim power beyond their local
areas of belief. Once we diffuse such powers or separate ourselves from them –
Sri Lanka is paradise on earth to those of us who consider the whole of Sri Lanka
as our home.
In the Hindu Epic Ramayanam – Lord Rama performed
the ceremonies needed to clear Sri Lanka and His own country – India of any injustice caused by ‘foreigners’ to those
who felt ownership in Sri Lanka. This is believed by Hindus to have happened in
Muneeswaram – a Shiva temple North of Colombo. Trincomalee where King Ravana
established Koneswaram temple for Lord Shiva – had the power to cause the death
(suicide) of the Japanese pilots. Owners have control over their minds.
Foreigners are not so protected and hence their minds become weak when desire
is stronger than belief. Since truth lives as Energy – such minds are taken over
by negative Energy at that place or anniversary of a time. The cure is not
through current work but through true believers.