Japanese-East Timorese Relations

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japanese-East Timorese Relations
Location of Japan and East Timor
JapanJapan East TimorEast Timor
Japan East Timor

The states of Japan and East Timor maintain friendly relations . The two countries declared their mutual recognition on May 20, 2002, East Timor's Independence Day.

history

Memorial for the victims of the Japanese massacre in Aileu in 1942

Already in the colonial days of Portuguese Timor there were close trade relations with Japan. In 1934 a Japanese shipping line was set up via Surabaya to Palau , which was then under Japanese administration. Japan became the third largest buyer of East Timorese coffee after the Dutch East Indies (for further export) and Portugal . Corn, manganese ore, copra, rubber, cotton and wax were also exported to Japan. Trade with Japan was organized by the Sociedade Agrícola Pátria e Trabalho (SAPT), from which in 1940 the Japanese Nanyo Kohatsu KK bought 48% of the shares. The Nan'yō Kōhatsu was a company that should secure the economic and political interests of Japan in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The SAPT was originally founded by the Portuguese governor José Celestino da Silva , whose family was still among the owners at the time. From 1941 the SAPT was the only large plantation and trading company in the colony. It also controlled trade with Portugal, thus controlling 20% ​​of all Portuguese Timor trade. In addition, the SAPT had a monopoly on the purchase of Arabica coffee , the most important and noble variety in Timor . Cotton fabrics from Japanese production came to Timor from Japan.

Monument to Manuel Jesus Pires in Dili
Monument to Artur do Canto Resende in Dili

Japanese troops occupied both the Dutch and Portuguese parts of the island of Timor from 1942 to 1945 , even though Portugal was a neutral country during World War II . The result was a guerrilla war on Timor that Allied troops waged against the Japanese, which became known as the Battle of Timor . Timorese also fought on both sides. Portuguese, like Manuel Jesus Pires , supported the Allies. The population suffered from various atrocities committed by the Japanese occupation forces. There were executions (best-known example: the Timorese nobleman Aleixo Corte-Real and his family); the Portuguese population was interned, and Timorese and native Chinese were forced to work. Artur do Canto Resende , deputy Portuguese administrator of Dili , was allegedly denounced and died in a Japanese internment camp on Alor . Local Chinese women, Timorese women and women from neighboring islands were forced into prostitution in Japanese soldiers' brothels. In Portuguese Timor alone, between 40,000 and 70,000 people died from fighting and occupation.

In 1975 Portugal withdrew from East Timor and the country unilaterally declared its independence. Shortly thereafter, Indonesia began the open invasion and declared the annexation of East Timor in 1976. Pro-Indonesian states, including Japan, submitted a draft resolution to the General Assembly of the United Nations accusing Portugal and the Timorese parties of being responsible for the dead in the Indonesian invasion and the previous civil war. The motion was rejected in favor of a counter-motion in which the invasion by Indonesia was criticized.

On November 19, 1995, 21 East Timorese independence activists occupied the Japanese embassy in Jakarta on the occasion of the APEC summit in Osaka . The occupation ended peacefully. In Japan itself, several non-governmental organizations were formed to support East Timor.

Sukehiro Hasegawa

After East Timor gained independence in 2002, Japan helped rebuild the Southeast Asian country. Japan supported East Timor with 210 million US dollars between 1999 and 2007, among other things for the modernization of the ports of Dili and Pante Macassar and the construction of the country's first expressway.

On July 1, 2002, the Japanese Sukehiro Hasegawa was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as UN Deputy Special Representative for East Timor and the UNDP's representative there. On May 21, 2004, he was promoted to UN special envoy for East Timor and, from May 21, 2005, he was also head of UNOTIL . He held the office until September 30, 2006. During Hasegawa's term of office, the end of UNOTIL falls on May 19, 2006. Due to the unrest that broke out at the time, however, the UN mission was not ended as planned, but transformed into the UN mission UNMIT . UNMIT officially began on September 13, 2006. Hasegawa remained in office until December 6. From 2007 to 2012 Hasegawa was special advisor to José Ramos-Horta , the President of East Timor . From March 2013 he was special advisor to Xanana Gusmão , the then Prime Minister of East Timor .

After the Tōhoku earthquake in Japan in 2011, East Timor announced that it would send 100 helpers to Japan to clear the rubble.

In October 2018, Tarō Kōno , a foreign minister of Japan, visited East Timor for the first time. Foreign Minister Dionísio Babo's return visit to Japan took place in March 2019.

diplomacy

Stamp of the Japanese consulate in Dili (1942)

East Timor has had an embassy in Tokyo since May 12, 2006.

The Japanese embassy in Dili opened in 2002. Before the Second World War, there was already a Japanese consulate in Portuguese Timor. It opened in October 1941. Kuroki, the consul at the time, was a Roman Catholic and trained in Spain .

economy

East Timor’s Foreign Minister Dionísio Babo with his counterpart Tarō Kōno in Tokyo

For 2018, the East Timorese statistical office registered imports from Japan worth 8,811,000 US dollars (2016: 6,497,000 US dollars), which puts Japan in 11th place among East Timorese importers with a share of 1.8%. Vehicles alone accounted for US $ 1,819,972. Re-exports to and from Japan were valued at 9,000 US dollars (25th place, 2016: 650,000 US dollars), and exports to Japan 1,047,443 US dollars (2016: 839,000 US dollars). This corresponds to 4.6% of the total exports of East Timor, making Japan the 6th recipient of East Timorese products. The export goods to Japan consisted of coffee (201,272 kg, 2016: 1,549,898 kg).

Development Assistance

A delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Nakayama Norihiro visits President Francisco Guterres (2020)

Japan regularly provides development aid to East Timor. In 2018, Japan provided US $ 21 million to build the new building for the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Technology (FEST) at Universidade Nasionál Timór Lorosa'e (UNTL) in Hera .

Trivia

Japan is known as the "Land of the Rising Sun" ( Hinode in Japanese ). East Timor's name in the local language Tetum is "Timor Loro Sa'e", literally translated as "Timor of the rising sun". The naming of the Japanese-financed road bridge in Dili, the Hinode Bridge, plays with this commonality .

Web links

Commons : Japanese-East Timorese Relations  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Embassy of Japan in Dili: Relasaun Bilateral (tetum), accessed on May 27, 2017.
  2. ^ A b Geoffrey C. Gunn: History of Timor. ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Technical University of Lisbon (PDF file; 805 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pascal.iseg.utl.pt
  3. ^ Humberto Leitão : O Régulo Timorense D. Aleixo Corte-Real , Edição do Corpo de Estudos da História da Marinha, Lisbon 1970.
  4. ↑ Testimony Shows Comfort Women Were Forcibly Sent to Brothels , Donga, April 23, 2007.
  5. ↑ José Ramos-Horta: Funu - East Timor's fight for freedom is not over! , Ahriman, Freiburg 1997, ISBN 3-89484-556-2 .
  6. ↑ Resolution 3485 of the United Nations General Assembly .
  7. ^ Clinton Fernandes: If My Aunty Had Balls, She'd Be My Uncle: Dubious Counter-Factuals in East Timorese History , UNSW Canberra , accessed July 13, 2012.
  8. ↑ Dan Nicholson: The Lorikeet Warriors: East Timorese new generation nationalist resistance, 1989-99 , Department of History, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne, October 2001, accessed March 19, 2015.
  9. ^ ETAN: List of East Timor Support and Solidarity Groups Worldwide , accessed January 24, 2018.
  10. ↑ Loro Horta : "Timor-Leste - The Dragon's Newest Friend", 2009 (PDF; 103 kB), accessed on May 20, 2012.
  11. ↑ ABCnews, March 15, 2011, Outpouring of international support for Japan , accessed May 20, 2012.
  12. ↑ a b JICA: Opening Ceremony of "Hinode Bridge" , October 12, 2018 , accessed on November 9, 2018.
  13. ↑ Materials on East Timor during World War II , 2008 (Japanese, English)
  14. ↑ Kisho Tsuchiya: Indigenization of the Pacific War in Timor Island: A Multi-language Study of its Contexts and Impact , p. 5, Journal War & Society, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 1–22, February 2018.
  15. ^ Edward Wills: 75 YEARS ON - DAVID ROSS (1902-1984) - DIPLOMAT AND SPY , 2/2 Commando Association of Australia , accessed December 16, 2017.
  16. ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística: External Trade Statistics Annual Reports 2016 ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 10, 2018. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.statistics.gov.tl
  17. ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística: External Trade Statistics Annual Reports 2018 , accessed on April 17, 2019.
  18. ↑ Tatoli: Governu Japaun Apoia 2,231 Bilaun Yen ba Konstrusaun Edifisiu FEST , February 20, 2018 , accessed on February 20, 2018.