`Defend Lanka Your Home': War on the Home Front in Ceylon,1939—1945

In December 1941, Ceylon was transformed from a backwater into a key Allied military base when Japan went to war, though its wartime significance is largely unknown. The nature of the changes visited upon the island, and the manner in which an apparently insignificant colonial home front contributed tellingly to the strategic prosecution of the war, is the subject of this article. Several key themes are examined: the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean and Ceylon; the transformation of Ceylon's physical infrastructure as it became a military encampment; the work of Ceylonese-led departments of state in bringing the island to war readiness; the dire food situation caused by the Japanese conquest of import-supplying countries; propaganda and public information drives aimed at ensuring local participation in the war effort; the recruitment of indigenous labour for war-related tasks; unrest caused by the influx of thousands of foreign soldiers and provisions made for their welfare; and the role played by the media in conveying war information and propaganda. The article concludes with an assessment of the intimate links between Ceylon's war experience and the coming of national independence in 1948.