Jubilant Sri Lankan soldiers hoisting the national flag and their regiment flag after the Toppigala victory last week.
American soldiers celebrating their victory at Iwo Jima during World War II by hoisting the US flag
Looking at the flag-raising pictures of Toppigala, I was reminded of similar photographs of another 'Toppigala', that appear in a book by James Bradley, whose father had fought, raised the flag and survived in the battle for the Pacific island of Iwo Jima in the Second World War. Those photographs depict the flag-raising after the capture of this island by the Americans.
Incidentally, there is some idle talk that Toppigala is just a rocky outcrop in the middle of a jungle sparsely populated, implying that its capture was not worth the effort. Well, the other 'Toppigala' – Iwo Jima – was a 'trivial scab' of eight square miles whose 'population' at that time comprised entirely of Japanese soldiers, 'hidden in a sophisticated tunnel system'. But for this 'scab', 80,000 Americans fought against 12,000 Japanese.
Further for the Americans, this was a place thousands of miles away from their homeland, important only for strategic reasons. (It was handed back to Japan after the war). But Toppigala is part of our motherland, wrested by a group of marauding terrorists, now liberated by our brave soldiers. Let us all salute them.
(http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070722/Plus/pls3.html)
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