Address by His Excellency Junius Richard Jayawardene
Leader of the delegation of the Government of CEYLON (SRI LANK)
at the conference for the conclusion and signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan - San Fransisco, USA
6th September 1951
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I consider it a great privilege to be afforded the opportunity of placing before this assembly of fifty-one nations the views of the Government of Ceylon on the draft Treaty of Peace which we have been invited to approve. My statement will consist of the reasons for our acceptance of this treaty, and I shall also attempt to meet some of the criticisms that have been leveled against it. It is true that I can speak only on behalf of my Government, but I claim that I can voice the sentiments of the people of Asia in their general attitude towards the future of Japan. I need not deal with the events that led to the formulation of the final draft of the treaty which we are considering. Mr. Dulles, the American representative, and Mr. Kenneth Younger, the British representative, have given us a full and fair account of those events, beginning with the capitulation of Japan in August 1945. It may, however, be mentioned that there was a serious conflict of opinion between the four major powers as to the procedure that should be adopted to draft this treaty. The Soviet Union insisted that the four major powers alone - that is, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the USA, UK, China and the USSR -should alone undertake it, and that the power of veto should be reserved to them if any others were admitted for the purpose of drafting the treaty.
The United Kingdom insisted that the Dominions should be consulted and the United States of America agreed with this. They also supported consultation with all the countries that took part in the war against Japan.
Among these countries, too, there was a difference of opinion as to the actual terms of the treaty actuated by various considerations, some by a fear of the raising of a new militaristic Japan, and others yet unable to forget the damage and horrors caused by the Japanese invasions.
I venture to submit that it was at the Colombo Conference of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers held in January, 1950, that for the first time the case for a completely independent Japan was proposed and considered. The Colombo Conference considered Japan not as an isolated case, but as part of the region known as South and Southeast Asia, Containing a large proportion of the world's wealth and population, and consisting of countries which have only recently regained their freedom, whose people were still suffering as a result of centuries of neglect. Two ideas emerged from that Conference - one, that of an independent Japan, and the other, the necessity for the economic and social development of the peoples of South and South-east Asia, to ensure which, what is now known as the Colombo Plan was launched.
Mr. Kenneth Younger has explained how, after that Conference, a Working Committee of Commonwealth High Commissioners worked on a draft treaty, and later had consultations with the American representative, Mr. Dulles. The treaty now before us is the result of those consultations and negotiations. It represents some of the views that my Government had, and some of them which it did not have. I claim that at the present moment it represents the largest common measure of agreement that could be attained among the countries that were willing to discuss peace with Japan.
The main idea that animated the Asian countries, Ceylon, India and Pakistan, in their attitude to Japan was that Japan should be free. I claim that this treaty embodies that idea in its entirety. There are other matters which are external to the question of Japan's freedom - namely, should that freedom be limited to the main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, or should it extend to several minor islands in the neighbourhood? If not, what should we do with those islands? Should Formosa be returned to China in accordance with the Cairo Declaration of 1943? If so, to which Government of China? Should China be invited to the Peace Treaty Conference? If so, which Government? Should reparations be exacted from Japan? If so, the amount. How is Japan to defend herself until she organizes her own defense?
On the main question of the freedom of Japan, we were able to agree ultimately, and the treaty embodies that agreement. On the other matters, there were sharp differences of opinion, and the treaty embodies the majority views. My Government would have preferred it if some of those questions were answered in a different way, but the fact that the majority don't agree with us is no reason why we should abstain from signing the treaty, which contains the central concept of a free and independent Japan.
We feel that the allied matters I mentioned earlier are not insoluble if Japan is free, that they are insoluble if Japan is not free. A free Japan, through, let us say, the United Nations organization, can discuss these problems with the other free nations of the world and arrive at early and satisfactory decisions. By signing this treaty we are enabling Japan to be in a position to do so, to enter into a treaty of friendship with the Government of China if she decides to recognize her, and I am happy to state, enabling her to enter into a treaty of peace and friendship with India. If we do not sign this treaty, none of these eventualities can take place,
Why is it that the peoples of Asia are anxious that Japan should be free? It is because of our age-long connections with her and because of the high regard the subject peoples of Asia have for Japan when she alone, among the Asian nations, was strong and free and we looked up to her as a guardian and friend. I can recall incidents that occurred during the last war, when the co-prosperity slogan for Asia had its appeal to subject peoples, and some of the leaders of Burma, India, and Indonesia joined the Japanese in the hope that thereby their beloved countries may be liberated.
We in Ceylon were fortunate that we were not invaded, but the damage caused by air raids, by the stationing of enormous armies under the South-East Asian Command, and by the slaughter-tapping of one of our main commodities, rubber, when we were the only producers of natural rubber for the Allies, entitle us to ask th1at the damage so caused should be repaired. We do not intend to do so, for we believe in the words of the Great Teacher whose message has ennobled the lives of countless millions in Asia, that "
hatred ceases not by hatred, but by love." It is the message of the Buddha, the Great Teacher, the Founder of Buddhism, which spread a wave of humanism through South Asia, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Siam, Indonesia and Ceylon, and also northwards through the Himalayas into Tibet, China, and finally, Japan, which bound us together for hundreds of years with a common culture and heritage. This common culture still exists, as I found on my visit to Japan last week on my way to attend this Conference; and from the leaders of Japan, Ministers of State as well as private citizens, from their priests in the temples, I gathered the impression that the common people of Japan are still influenced by the shadow of that Great Teacher of peace, and wish to follow it. We must give them that opportunity.
That is why I cannot subscribe to the views of the delegate of the Soviet Union when he proposes that the freedom of Japan should be limited. The restrictions he wishes to impose, such as the limitation on the right of Japan to maintain such defense forces as a free nation is entitled to, and the other limitations he proposes, would make this treaty not acceptable not only to the vast majority of the delegates present here, but even to some of the countries that have not attended this Conference, particularly India, who wished to go even further than this treaty visualizes. If again the Soviet Union wishes the islands of Ryukyu and Bonin returned to Japan, contrary to the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations, why should then South Sakhalin, as well as the Kurile be not also returned to Japan?
It is also interesting to note that the amendments of the Soviet Union seek to insure to the people of Japan the fundamental freedoms of expression, of press and publication of religious worship, of political opinion and of public meeting - freedoms which the
people of the Soviet Union themselves would dearly love to possess and enjoy.
The reason why, therefore, we cannot agree to the amendments proposed by the Soviet delegate, is that this treaty proposes to return to Japan sovereignty, equality and dignity, and we cannot do so if we give them with qualifications. The purpose of the treaty then is to make Japan free, to impose no restrictions on Japan's recovery, to see to it that she organizes her own military defense against external aggression, and internal subversion, and that until she does so, she invites the aid of a friendly power to protect her, and that no reparations be exacted from her that harm her economy.
This treaty is as magnanimous as it is just to a defeated foe. We extend to Japan a hand of friendship, and trust that with the closing of this chapter in the history of man, the last page of which we write today, and with the beginning of the new one, the first page of which we dictate tomorrow, her people and ours may march together to enjoy the full dignity of human life in peace and prosperity.
NOTE: At the Sri Lankan government website, his name is slightly differently spelled, "Jay
ewardene". See
here for details. Capital of the country is also spelled in two ways, "Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte" and "Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte."
I learned a phrase from Dr. Zavarsky today. "SCIO NON SCIRE". If you are not familiar yet with this phrase, English equivalent is "I know I know nothing", and "Ich weiß, daß Ich nichts weiß" in German. This is the word of the great philosopher, Socrates.
先週土曜日，久しぶりに御茶ノ水の町へ出た．某書店で子供の本を買うついでに何冊か自分の本を買ったが，キャッシャーに並べられていた「世にも美しい数学入門」を，「あ，これも」といって差し出した．
数学者の藤原正彦さん（お茶の水女子大学理学部数学科教授）と「博士の愛した数学」などで有名な小説家の小川洋子さんの対談と言う形式をとった構成であり，数学の予備知識は素数と素因数分解くらいを知っていればよい．にもかかわらず，「数学の美しさ」なるものに迫ったような気にさせてくれる本である．
何といっても藤原教授のセリフがよい．平凡な我々からすれば「天然」（失礼！）とも思えるような想定外の答えを，ユーモア溢れる言葉で語っていただける．数週間前に何かの雑誌で書評を見て気になってはいたので中身も見ずに買ったが，地下鉄に乗って直ちに読み始めるや，思わず笑いがこみ上げてくるのを必死でこらえた．以下にいくつかだけ紹介するが，研究室においておくので，昼休みなどに手にとって見ることを勧める．ちなみに笑えるところはここでは紹介しない．
「・・・数学とは当面は何の役にも立たないが，後世になって非常に役立つこともある，という奥床しい学問なんです．ただ価値は高い．人間には感激したいという深い欲求があり，それを満たしてくれるのは，美しい自然は別格として，数学や文学をはじめとする文化や芸術以外にあまりないですからね．・・・」（pp.23-24）
「・・・天才が生まれるところというのは決まっているんです．（中略）どういうところに生まれるかというと，私の考えでは三つの条件があるんですね．第一の条件は，神に対してでも自然に対してでもよいから，何かにひざまずく心を持っているということ．（中略）それから第二の条件は美の存在ですね．美しいものが存在しないと絶対に数学の天才は出ないんです．子供のころから美しいものを見ていないと不可能です．知能指数が何百あったってそんなの関係ないですからね．それから第三の条件は，精神性を尊ぶということです．要するにお金を尊ぶといった物欲ではなく，もっと役に立たないもの，精神性の高いものを尊ぶ．例えば文学を尊ぶ，芸術を尊ぶ，宗教心をもつ，とかいうことです．・・・」（pp.38-39）
（小川さんの「もし神様の手帖を１ページだけ覗けるとしたら，どうしてもこれだけは神様に聞きたいという謎はございますか」という問いかけに対して，「バーチ・スウィナートン・ダイヤー予想」，「アルティン予想」，「ゴールドバッハの問題」，「リーマン予想」とかが出てくるが，問題はその後の藤原先生のセリフ）「結局，その神様の手帖にあるものを，どの程度，自分たちの力で見ることができたかというのが，その星に住んでいる生物の知的成熟度のバロメーターです．たとえば，どこかの宇宙人と地球人との知性を比較するときには，どうやって比較するか．文学を比較したってしようがない．物理だって他の天体，銀河系のはるか外の天体と物理法則自身が異なる可能性がある．化学だって存在する元素が違うはずです．だから比較にならない．ところが，数学だけは，必ず同じです．」（pp.166-167）
[出典] 藤原正彦・小川洋子「世にも美しい数学入門」，
ちくまプリマー新書，2005年
