What is it about?
This article provides a multi-dimensional picture of West and East Timorese participation in war-time violence using Japanese, Portuguese and English sources. It argues that mobilization of the ‘natives’ by foreign forces in neutral Portuguese Timor brought about a reorganization of social relations on Timor Island. From a local perspective, the exploitation of the Timorese resulted in a great number of casualties, and intensified existing tensions, but also created trans-colonial communities.
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Why is it important?
This is the first academic article on the theme that utilizes Japanese, Portuguese, English, and some Timorese language sources. Unlike the earlier works, this article reconstructs Timorese agency and responses to the Japanese and Allied operations in Timor beyond the stories of Timorese criados who assisted Allied Forces.
Perspectives
My primary intention for writing this article was to transform our understanding of the World War II period in Timor by shifting the perspective from the outsiders to Timorese experiences. The second objective was to establish a solid timeline by incorporating all Timorese, Portuguese, Japanese, and Allied perspectives. The existing scholarship dealt with "loyalty" of the Timorese to either the Allied Forces or the Japanese, but never mentioned "indigenization" of the war. It is because previous works relied on single language sources and were interested in the history of the foreign forces. In the process of establishing the timeline and Timorese-centric history of the period, I came to realize that some decisions by the foreign forces resulted in the increase of Timroese participation in violence during the period, which I called "indigenization of the war."
Kisho Tsuchiya
National University of Singapore
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Indigenization of the Pacific War in Timor Island: A Multi-language Study of its Contexts and Impact, War & Society, November 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/07292473.2019.1524348.
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