JRJ’s historic speech commemorated in Tokyo

The historic speech quoting Buddha’s teaching to attain peace given by the then Sri Lankan Finance Minister J.R. Jayewardene on September 06, 1951, at the San Francisco Peace Conference, has been commemorated on its 60th anniversary with the participation of a limited Japanese VIP delegation at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Tokyo last Monday (06).

The ceremony began with the national anthem followed by the lighting of the traditional oil lamp and flower laying ceremony. Major Japanese TV Channels as well as all major Print Media representatives were present to cover the event which was broadcasted live. The event also included the reading of the original speech of late Mr. Jayewardene, a photo exhibition, video presentation about the speech and the San Francisco Treaty conference in 1951.

Former Representative from the Government of Japan on Peace-Building, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi, Former Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda, and current Secretary General of Japan Sri Lanka Parliamentarians’ Friendship League Yuko Obuchi spoke at this remembrance event. President Jayewardene’s grandson Pradeep Jayewardene joined the programme live and spoke from Jayewardene Centre in Colombo.

Ambassador Sanjiv Gunasekara touched on the history of how this speech was composed after much consultations and meetings with Asian countries and mentioned the case for independent Japan following the devastating war was first considered at the “Colombo Plan conference”. The Ambassador also spoke of the Sri Lanka-Japan relationship that was built on Mutual Admiration and highlighted the shared values, culture and the practice of Buddha’s teachings that was common between the people of the two countries.