大象传媒

I was just nine years old in Ceylon(Sri Lanka) when world war 2 broke out. I lived in Colombo the capital, with my parents, four brothers and two sisters. We lived in a big upstairs house in a street called Campbell Place. Our home was just opposite a park called Campbell Park, where the school, Wesley College, which my brothers attended, had their sports grounds, where they played cricket, hockey, football and had their sports on sports day. Wesley College itself was about 300 yards away. My sisters and I went to Presbyterian Girls' School, which was in Regent's Street, about four miles from home. These schools were Christian denomination private schools, which levied fees and the medium of instruction was English.

I cannot remember knowing that there was a war or feel its effects until 1941 when my father decided to evacuate to Ganewatte, a village, which was further inland, about 100 miles, North West of Colombo. This was where my paternal Grandma lived and where we went to enjoy our school holidays. It was a real holiday retreat with a big house and gardens around, situated in a coconut plantation of about 80 acres. There were also rice fields and a small lake to irrigate them. We used to go for walks in the plantation and pluck mangoes, pawpaw and cadjunut in season. As children we loved to paddle and catch tiny fish in the streams that flowed into the lake. We had a swing and a tennis court too. We enjoyed our holidays there because we were so close to nature. I remember taking back to school discarded weaver-bird nests to show our teachers and freinds in school. Our teachers appreciated this very much and used them in the lessons.

When we evacuated most of the family photographs in the Colombo home were taken down and taken to my Grandma's home in Ganewatte. Our time here was like an extended holiday. The grown-ups might have felt the effects of the war but we as children did not. My eldest brother was left in Colombo to complete his matriculation examinations.

My father was so concerned for our education that he got some desks made for us and employed teachers to teach us English, Mathematics and Sinhalese (which was our mother tongue). A Buddhist monk would come to teach us Buddhism, which was our religion. We were all in one classroom, which was in a building called the 'office', away from the main house. The teaching was quite basic with just a few hours of work each morning but it was fun!

After some months my maternal uncle who was a teacher in Maliyadeva College, a school in Kurunegala, which was about twenty miles from Ganewatte, asked my father to send us to his school because we were neglecting our education. Maliyadeva College was a single sex boys' state school very unlike the schools we went to in Colombo. Buddhism and Sinhalese language and literature had a strong place in the curriculum and devotional Buddhist songs were sung at Assembly.

My father thought that this was a good idea and sent us to my maternal grandparent's in Kurunegala, to attend Maliyadeva College. As the school buildings were taken over by the government to house the army, all the classes were moved to another road, where the primary section was housed in a huge meditation hall in a Buddhist temple, called 'Elephant Rock Temple', because the rock was in the shape of an elephant. The upper school was in a building across the road. I was in Standard five and my younger sister and brother were in Standards three and two respectively. We were in the meditation hall. I was the only girl in my class. My younger sister had another girl in her class and so did my elder sister who was in Standard seven and in the upper school across the road with my elder brothers. My uncle was the class teacher of Standard six. We walked to school from my grandparents' home. It was quite a long walk but we enjoyed the novelty of it. At school we had air raid practice, which was quite basic. We had to hold pencils tight across our mouths and creep under our desks until an all-clear was given.

At my grandparents, there were two other cousins as well and all of us had a memorable time together although it might have been tough for my grandparents, uncle and aunty who had to look after us. At the back of this house there were some hills and beyond them was an army camp. Sometimes we saw soldiers walking to and from the camp. If they saw us playing outside they would chat to us. Once, I remember, a soldier gave us a box of chocolates. When I came to England and was teaching here I told some of my English colleagues that during the war some English soldiers gave us a box of chocolates. They said that it could not be English soldiers, because they could not afford chocolates, but would be American soldiers. My English colleagues appear to have had a harder time than we did in Ceylon.

We returned to Colombo towards the end of 1943, and remember seeing many changes. Campbell Park was now an army camp, with cadjan(woven coconut palm) huts for the soldiers. Often we would see soldiers marching along Campbell Place, the road in front of our home. There were many Black soldiers among them. We could not go to the park to play any more. The seacoast, in Colombo, had a beautiful promenade where we used to go for evenings out and walks by the sea. In 1943, we were not able to do so. It was too dangerous. There were huge barrage balloons crowding the sky above the sea. In the home our window panes were covered up with black paper. It was not very nice. At night sometimes we heard the sirens blaring and could see searchlights flashing across the sky, but soon the all-clear would sound. The searchlights were a common sight. Things were rationed, I think, but lots of things were available in the black market. There were rumours that Japanese Buddhist monks should not be trusted because they were spies and carried walkie-talkies hidden in their robes. I remember, our driver, who had enlisted in the army and was posted abroad, in Africa or the Middle East, came to see us after the war in his khaki uniform.

When we returned to Colombo we went back to our old school. There were many new children im my class and some old friends and also some new teachers. Here too we had air raid practice with squads of girls doing different duties such as fire fighting and first aid.

These memories have stayed with me all these years and often I tell them to my nieces and nephews. I am retired now but when I was teaching I was called upon to talk about my experiences during World War 2, to children in the schools I taught. I enjoyed this. I think the children did as well. I have met some Englishmen who told me that they served in the navy during the war and was posted in Trincomalee, which is a port in the North East of Ceylon. Trincomalee had a beautiful natural harbour which was of strategic importance at the time. The military was present there and canons were positioned in China Bay, overlooking the sea. These canons were very heavy and had to be pulled on to high ground overlooking the bay and sea. My elder sister recalls that a few years before the war broke out, my father transported his elephants to Trincomalee in order to pull the canons on to the high ground. These elephants were usually used to work on my father's lands.

There might have been celebrations to mark the end of the war but I do not remember these. The war had negative effects on the economy. Many things were hard to get and rationing went on for a very long time.

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