World War II and the Transition to Independence
When Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942, Sri
Lanka became a central base for British operations in Southeast
Asia, and the port at Trincomalee recaptured its historically
strategic importance. Because Sri Lanka was an indispensable
strategic bastion for the British Royal Navy, it was an
irresistible military target for the Japanese. For a time, it
seemed that Japan planned a sweeping westward offensive across
the Indian Ocean to take Sri Lanka, sever the Allies' lifeline to
Persian Gulf oil, and link up with the Axis powers in Egypt.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, mastermind of the raid on Pearl Harbor,
ordered Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo to command a large armada to
seek and destroy the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean.
The two nations' fleets played a game of hide-and-seek, but never
met. Some military historians assert that if they had met, the
smaller British fleet would have met with disaster. The British
instead fought several desperate air battles over Colombo and
Trincomalee and lost about thirty-six aircraft and several ships.
Yamamoto's grand strategy failed to isolate and destroy any
major units of the British fleet. But if the Japanese had
persisted with their offensive, the island, with its limited
British naval defenses, probably would have fallen. The Japanese
carrier force, however, suffered such high aircraft losses over
Sri Lanka--more than 100 warplanes--that it returned to Japan for
refitting rather than press the attack. By returning to Japan,
the force lost its opportunity for unchallenged supremacy of the
Indian Ocean. The focus of the war in this theater then shifted
away from the island.
On the whole, Sri Lanka benefited from its role in World War
II. The plantation sector was busy meeting the urgent demands of
the Allies for essential products, especially rubber, enabling
the country to save a surplus in hard currency. Because Sri Lanka
was the seat of the Southeast Asia Command, a broad
infrastructure of health services and modern amenities was built
to accommodate the large number of troops posted into all parts
of the country. The inherited infrastructure improved the
standard of living in postwar, independent Sri Lanka.
Unlike India, where nationalists demanded a guarantee of
independence as recompense for their support in the war effort,
Sri Lanka committed itself wholeheartedly to the Allied war
effort. Although the island was put under military jurisdiction
during the war, the British and the Sri Lankans maintained
cooperative relations. Sri Lankan pressure for political reform
continued during the war, however, and increased as the Japanese
threat receded and the war neared its end. The British eventually
promised full participatory government after the war.
In July 1944, Lord Soulbury was appointed head of a
commission charged with the task of examining a new
constitutional draft that the Sri Lankan ministers had proposed.
The commission made recommendations that led to a new
constitution. As the end of the war approached, the constitution
was amended to incorporate a provision giving Sri Lanka dominion
British constitutional principles served as a model for the
Soulbury Constitution of independent Sri Lanka, which combined a
parliamentary system with a bicameral legislature. Members of the
first House of Representatives were directly elected by popular
vote. Members of the Senate, or upper house, were elected partly
by members of the House and partly by the governor general, who
was primarily a figurehead. The British monarch appointed the
governor general on the advice of the most powerful person in the
Sri Lankan government--the prime minister
(see Sri Lanka - Historical Perspective, 1802-1978
, ch. 4).
Data as of October 1988