Monument to Former Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene
Engraved on the front of the monument in Japanese, Pali, and English is the following verse from the Dhammapada, an early Buddhist text: “Hatred ceases not by hatred but by love.”
An inscription on the back of the monument states that it was erected in a spirit of gratitude and indebtedness in honor of Junius Richard Jayewardene, former president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. At the San Francisco Peace Conference, convened in September 1951 to re-establish peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers, President Jayewardene expressed his love, understanding, and compassion for Japan and its people, and urged the assembled nations to treat Japan with the same spirit of generosity. He stressed the role to be played by an independent and democratic Japan in the building of Asia’s future, and firmly opposed suggestions that Japan should be partitioned. The Japanese people were greatly encouraged by his words. Forty years later, in 1991, the citizens of a peaceful, prosperous, and unified Japan dedicated this monument to Former President Jayewardene.