Joaquim da Costa Guterres

Joaquim da Costa Guterres († 1946 in Atauro , Portuguese Timor ) was a ruler in the traditional Timorese empire of Ossu during the Portuguese colonial times .

There are different reports about Dom Joaquim's position in Ossu. Dom Joaquim is said to have been the village chief in 1938. The Portuguese post-war sources refer to him as chefe and Dom Francisco de Sousa e Costa (Bosi-Leki) as the ruler (régulo) . In contrast, Tōru Maeda, who belonged to the Japanese propaganda unit in Ossu during the Second World War, names Dom Joaquim as the Liurai of Ossu and Dom Francisco only a nobleman. This could indicate a conflict over rule. On the other hand, in Timor, there is often, according to the principle of Lulik , a dual division of power, into a secular and a spiritual leader, which could have been present here.

When the Japanese occupied Timor in 1942, the inhabitants of Ossu fled to the mountains. The Japanese relied on Dom Joaquim for their work, who returned to Ossu at the turn of 1942/43 and sealed an alliance with the Japanese agents with a meal. In return, he received a guarantee for the safety of his clan. His son Joaquim junior and his nephew Gaspar da Costa Guterres (a cousin of Dom Francisco) also collaborated. By the end of the war, Dom Joaquim provided tens of thousands of workers to the Japanese, delivered thousands of water buffalo, waged war against the Australian guerrillas and his children supported Japanese propaganda measures. As a reward, he was treated by the Japanese as the highest ruler of the São Domingos district (he consisted of the present-day communities of Viqueque and Baucau ).

In 1944, the Japanese propaganda unit in Ossu was replaced with a regular armed forces base and a post of the military police ( Kempeitai ) . The Kempeitai demanded that every house must assign a man for construction work. In addition, women, water buffalo and bananas were challenged. They backed up their demands with violence. Dom Joaquim was tortured and several people were executed for minor offenses. In 1945 Dom Joaquim's health was badly damaged and complained about the Kempeitai to the propaganda officer who had returned to visit Ossu. After the capitulation of Japan, Dom Joaquim was arrested by the Portuguese colonial government. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on Atauro , where he died in 1946. Dom Francisco was rewarded for his resistance to the Japanese. Joaquim's nephew Gaspar da Costa Guterres retained control of a small territory and became the new Liurai of Ossu in 1952, succeeding Dom Francisco. Dom Joaquim junior was evicted from the town.

See also

• Battle for Timor

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Kisho Tsuchiya: Indigenization of the Pacific War in Timor Island: A Multi-language Study of its Contexts and Impact , pp. 14-17, Journal War & Society, Vol. 38, no. February 1, 2018.
2. ↑ Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo : Os antigos reinos de Timor-Leste (Reys de Lorosay e Reys de Lorotoba, Coronéis e Datos) , pp. 187–190, Tipografia Diocesana Baucau 2011.