Japanese occupation during World War II

Japanese occupation during World War II. During the Second World War, Portugal declared a policy of neutrality.

Dutch and Australian troops nonetheless disembarked at East Timor in disrespect of Portuguese sovereignty. But the real menace came with the Japanese invasion, three months later, in February of 1942. The island became a stage of war between Japanese and the allieds. Timorese were seen as secondary actors when in truth, after crossing a period of rebellion against Portuguese rule, were they the more sacrificed during the resistance until 1945. In spite of Portugals policy of neutrality, the Australian and Dutch troops entered in Timor. It was the first of two foreigner military invasions.

In Lisbon, Oliveira de Salazar denounced the allied disembark as an invasion of a neutral territory. Shortly after arrived the Japanese. Its not to admire that J. Santos Carvalho saw in these actions an attitude of depreciation towards the sovereignty of Portugal.

When the allied forces arrived at Dili in December the 17th of 1941, he says that governor Ferreira de Carvalho, without means to retaliate by arms ordered the national flag to be hoisted in all public partitions and buildings of the colony. To further mark his position of neutrality he confined himself to his residence and, by free determination, wished to be considered prisoner. The population of the capital went to live in the interior, mainly in Aileu, Liquie and Maubara.

Some of the few Portuguese that remained in Dili pursued nevertheless with their usual lives, socializing with the forces stationed in Timor. They were given instructions by the local government to maintain a correct attitude but to show no familiarity neither to collaborate. An atmosphere of normality gain form, and some families were prepared to go back. It is even reported that an agreement signed by English and Portuguese governments defined that the allied troops would retire as soon as arrived a contingent of Portuguese forces from Maputo Mozambique.

What happened instead was the Japanese invasion of Dili, in February of 1942. During January they had managed to occupy Malaysia except Singapore, the Philippines but not Bataan, Borneo and the Celebes, Birmania, New Guinea and the Salmon islands. Following general L. M. Chassin - at the end of the second month of an hyperbolic invasion, the Japanese tide extended itself irresistibly beyond paralyzed and impotent adversaries.

In the middle of February they invaded Sumatra occupying Palembang, soon after Singapore is attacked and many Englishmen are made prisoners. Java was surrounded and on the 20th, Bali and Timor were taken. After a weak resistance, the Dutch troops abandoned by the Javanese soldiers which were in majority escaped to the interior leaving behind armament. Dili was then violently sacked by the Japanese, who found the city almost uninhabited.

The Portuguese colonial empire Up to the final years of dictatorship in Portugal, in spite of the condemnation of UN and the start of the guerrilla warfare in the African colonies of Angola, Guinea and Mozambique, the Portuguese Colonial Empire was defended by the government as an heritage of the glorious past and motive of national pride. However, the crescent expenses of its maintenance begun to reflect increasingly on the economy and social tissue of the metropolis, what provoked crescent discontentment of the population, finally leading to the Revolution of 74 that installed democracy and gave independence to the colonies.

East Timor was invaded by Indonesia precisely in the course of decolonization. During dictatorship, the colonies continued to be dedicated considerable interest. For the nationalist ideology that characterized the regime, the vast regions of the World under Portuguese sovereignty were to be seen as the justification of a necessary conscience of greatness and pride to be Portuguese.

The expression Portuguese Colonial Empire would be generalized and even met official formalization. Colonial patrimony was considered as the remaining spoils of the Portuguese conquests of the glorious period of expansion. These notions were mystified but also expressed in Law as in 1930 Oliveira de Salazar at the time minister of Finances and, for some time of the Colonies published the Colonial Act. It stated some fundamental principles for the overseas territorial administration and proclaimed that it was of the organic essence of the Portuguese nation to possess and colonize overseas territories and to civilize indigenous populations there comprised.

The overseas dimension of Portugal was however soon put at stake after World War II. The converging interest of the two victorious superpowers on the re-distribution of World regions productors of raw materials contributed for an international agreement on the legal right for all peoples to their own government.

Stated as a fundamental principle of the UN Charter, anti-colonialism gave thrust to the independist movements of the colonies, and in matter of time unavoidably accepted by the great colonial nations England, France, Netherlands, Belgium. Yet such countries relied on mechanisms of economical domination that would last, assuring that political independence wouldnt substantially affect the structure of trade relations. Loss of the Indian territories and the reactions.

The first problem that the Portuguese had to deal with was the conflict with the Indian Union, independent state in 1947. The Indian nationalism had triumphed over the English occupation, and in 1956 forced the French to abandon their establishments in 1956. The same was demanded to the Portuguese over their territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, but in face of refusal. India severed the diplomatic relations. The passage through Indian territory in order to reach the two enclaves dependent of Daman was denied since 1954, and despite the recognition of such right by International Court of Justice recognized t 1960, Dadrб and Nagar Haveli were effectively lost. This was followed by mass invasions of passive resisters which Portuguese were still able to hinder until December 19 of 1961, when the Indian Union made prevail its superior military force, to obtain final retreat of the Portuguese.

Goa had been capital of the Portuguese expansion to the East. Conquered in 1510 by Afonso de Albuquerque, it was also an active center of religious diffusion to the point of being called the Rome of the Orient. In spite of its the historical and spiritual importance, the reactions against the military attack of the Indian Union parted mainly from official sectors, and only moderately shared by the public opinion.

For the historian J. Hermano de Saraiva whom we have followed, it reflected the dominant politic ideologies at the end of the XIXth century, the colonizing activity was considered a service rendered to civilization but since World War II viewed as an attempt to the liberty of the peoples. This doctrinal involucre of interest to which the Portuguese were completely strange was rapidly adopted by the intellectual groups, in great part responsible for the formation of the public opinion.

Thats how Saraiva justifies that the protests for the loss of Goa to the Indian Union were directed less to the foreign power than to the Portuguese authorities, for not having known to negotiate a modus viviendi acceptable for both parts.

More than that, he detects in this curious reaction a tendency that would accentuate along the two following decades the crisis of patriotism. To defend or to exalt the national values appeared to the bourgeois elites of the 60s as a provincial attitude, expression of cultural under-development. Indonesian invasion Indonesia invaded the territory in December 1975, relying on US diplomatic support and arms, used illegally but with secret authorisation from Washington new arms shipments were sent under the cover of an official embargo.

There was no need to threaten bombing or even sanctions. It would have sufficed for the US and its allies to withdraw active participation and inform their associates in the Indonesian military command that the atrocities must be terminated and the territory granted the right of self-determination, as upheld by the United Nations and the international court of justice.

We cannot undo the past, but should at least be willing to recognise what we have done, and face the moral responsibility of saving the remnants and providing reparations - a small gesture of compensation for terrible crimes. Many were immediately killed, while their villages were burned down to the ground. Others run to the mountains in the heart of their land, and organized a resistance movement. These brave peasants - and their sons - have opposed the barbarian indonesian soldiers for 23 years now. Torture, rape, all kinds of physical, sexual and psychological violations, violent repression and brutal murder have been the daily life of the Maubere people the original people of East Timor since.

Even before president Habibies surprise call for a referendum this year, the army anticipated threats to its rule, including its control over East Timors resources, and undertook careful planning with the aim, quite simply to destroy a nation. The plans were known to western intelligence.

The army recruited thousands of West Timorese and brought in forces from Java. More ominously, the military command sent units of its dreaded US-trained Kopassus special forces and, as senior military adviser, General Makarim, a US-trained intelligence specialist with a reputation for callous violence. Terror and destruction began early in the year. The army forces responsible have been described as rogue elements in the west. There is good reason, however, to accept Bishop Belos assignment of direct responsibility to General Wiranto.

It appears that the militias have been managed by elite units of Kopassus, the crack special forces unit that had been training regularly with US and Australian forces until their behaviour became too much of an embarrassment for their foreign friends. These forces adopted the tactics of the US Phoenix programme in the Vietnam war, which killed tens of thousands of peasants and much of the indigenous South Vietnamese leadership, as well as the tactics employed by the Contras in Nicaragua.

The state terrorists were not simply going after the most radical pro-independence people, but the moderates, the people who have influence in their community. Well before the referendum, the commander of the Indonesian military in Dili, Colonel Tono Suratman, warned of what was to come If the pro-independents do win all will be destroyed. It will be worse than 23 years ago. An army document of early May, when international agreement on the referendum was reached, ordered massacres should be carried out from village to village after the announcement of the ballot if the pro-independence supporters win. The independence movement should be eliminated from its leadership down to its roots.

Citing diplomatic, church and militia sources, the Australian press reported that hundreds of modern assault rifles, grenades and mortars are being stockpiled, ready for use if the autonomy option is rejected at the ballot box. All of this was understood by Indonesias foreign friends, who also knew how to bring the terror to an end, but preferred evasive and ambiguous reactions that the Indonesian generals could easily interpret as a green light to carry out their work. The sordid history must be viewed against the background of US-Indonesia relations in the postwar era. The rich resources of the archipelago, and its critical strategic location, guaranteed it a central role in US global planning.

These factors lie behind US efforts 40 years ago to dismantle Indonesia, perceived as too independent and too democratic - even permitting participation of the poor peasants.

These factors account for western support for the regime of killers and torturers who emerged from the 1965 coup. Their achievements were seen as a vindication of Washingtons wars in Indochina, motivated in large part by concerns that the virus of independent nationalism might infect Indonesia, to use Kissinger-like rhetoric.

The recent convulsions inside Indonesia - with its people finally crying for freedom and democracy - and the Nobel Peace Prize of 1996 - shared between Bishop Belo, a dominican supporting the Maubere people in Dili, and Jose Ramos Horta, a politician and activist who represents the Resistance historic leader, Xanana Gusmao, imprisioned in Indonesia for a 20-year sentence - have brought a new hope to the fight of this martyr people. Also, economic crisis hitting south-east Asia has shaken the dictatorship in Jakarta more than ever. The winds of change blowing throughout Indonesia started to hit East Timor Introduction to Indonesia Indonesia is the country with the more of Muslims in the world which means 87 per cent of 180 million habitants. Nevertheless, the major part of the declared Muslims mix their faith in Allah with animistic or Hindu-Buddhist beliefs.

These are reminiscences of the Indian colonization that would be interrupted with the penetration of Islam in the 16th century, generally superficial and incomplete.

Due to the insular configuration, composed by 13 677 islands, 3 000 inhabited, and with an approximate extension of 18 the perimeter of Earth, Indonesia faces problems of national unity. Being the fifth most populous nation, 23 are concentrated in only the fifth larger island, Java, where the density is one of the highest. The solution passes inevitably by birth control and transmigration to territories such as Papua New Guinea, recently East Timor but also in between with the evident purpose of dissolving local cultures in the predominant Javanese which is only one amongst 360 tribal and ethno-linguistic groups and more than 250 different languages and dialects.

The Dutch colonial domain had been massively based in Java, with the rest of the archipelago had developed very unequally. From the rigid Islamic areas of North Sumatra to the tribes of Borneo or the Christian islands of the east, a variety of economic and social systems experienced very distinct problems for their progress.

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