said Miguel Torga in one of his volumes Daily, that Portugal viewed the course of World War II as “one who watches the tragedy from the top of the hill”. But this silence, which resulted from the Portuguese government’s policy of neutrality, had the fragility of a candle in the wind and would be called into question when, on February 19, 1942, the so-called metropolis was rocked by disturbing news that came in. from Southeast Asia “Japanese troops have landed in the Portuguese part of Timor, which represents a grave violation of our sovereign rights,” read the full width of the front page of the Lisbon Journal🇧🇷 A news that was also on the cover of DN. And in most national newspapers, despite the strict censorship control.
The drama that followed these events is the theme of the television series in seven episodes of 50 minutes each, directed by Francisco Manso from a script by the late historian António Monteiro Cardoso, To leave, which will premiere on RTP 1 on the 21st. The aim is to tell the real, but still very unknown story of the Japanese invasion of the then Portuguese colony of Timor, in the middle of World War II, when the Japanese were part of the Axis forces (thus making them allies of Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy) and had already attacked the US base at Pearl Harbor (on December 7, 1941), as well as the British territories of Hong Kong and Singapore. For the director, “to tell these events is to talk about a deliberately forgotten history, a tragedy hidden by Salazar’s government and the abandonment of the Portuguese and Timorese people. To remember this period of our history (and of Timor -Leste) is to make known, especially to young people, the courage of a few against the ruthless power of the aggressor, who acted with the utmost contempt and without complacency for the most elementary rights of the people.”
This missionary spirit of those involved in the RTP series is shared by actor Marco Delgado, protagonist in the role of one of the forgotten heroes of the time, Lieutenant Manuel Jesus Pires. As he told DN: “It is an honor for me to announce another great Portuguese hero, at the same time it is also a great responsibility because we are dealing with someone who existed, who is not a fictional character.” Admittedly, he is passionate about history and emphasizes his character’s role as “one who tragically sacrificed himself for his fellows and who, unlike Salazar’s government, never gave up. He wrote letters to the State Department , but also the then President of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas, met Australian officials on several occasions, he was well aware that the supposed protection zones that the Japanese had supposedly created for Portuguese neutrals were authentic concentration camps.”
Let’s recall the film of the events: on the night of February 19-20, 1942, a Japanese fleet landed in Dili with about 1500 soldiers, it did not take long to occupy the city after overcoming a short resistance. At the same time, the Japanese navy and air force under Dutch rule attacked the western part of the island. As a pretext for attacking a neutral country’s colony, the Japanese government argued the fact that a contingent of Allied (Australian) troops had existed since December 1941, with the alleged intention of making Timor a “launching pad” for an attack on Japan. After the Japanese landing, this Australian military contingent would retreat to the mountains where it established a base of resistance and guerrilla warfare against the Japanese occupation. But he was not alone. As we shall see To leavewas joined by several Portuguese and Timorese who were ready to do anything to remedy the lack of effective responses and clear orders from Lisbon.
In the National Archives of Torre do Tombo, the correspondence between Dili, the metropolis and our representation in Tokyo during this period (from the Salazar archive) reveals an unsustainable situation, even from a humanitarian point of view. On April 25, 1942, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a telegram to the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo, stating: “According to information which, according to Governor Timor, is absolutely confirmed, main post Hatelia was arrested by Japanese troops and five native governors were also arrested incommunicado. protested in vain to the consul of Japan.” The next day there was a new, even more alarmed announcement from the MNO: “Governor notices increasingly arrogant Japanese and they continue to make indigenous arrests in Dili area”. On April 28, it was the turn of the Portuguese governor in Timor to write: “A very serious general situation, impossible to maintain in view of the attitude of the Japanese towards the population that has suffered horrors without it being possible to give them some effective support as the troops respect nothing.”
In this scenario of open war, even if not declared, the figure of Lieutenant Pires (as we saw played by Marco Delgado) looms. Administrator of the district of São Domingos (today the municipality of Baucau) in 1942, he fled to Australia and returned with allied soldiers to fight in the guerrilla war against the invaders in the Battle of Timor. He paid for his boldness with his life as he was arrested and killed by the Japanese on an unspecified date in 1944. Another notable figure in this movement was D. Aleixo Corte Real, a Timorese leader who opposed the Japanese army and was also shot. in 1943. From late 1942, when the Australians withdrew their men from the island and Timor was under full Japanese occupation until the end of the war in 1945, things would get worse. On September 5, after the launch of the North American atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the surrender of Japan, the Japanese commander handed over his weapons to the Portuguese governor of Dili.
Director Francisco Manso emphasizes that this series “has enormous significance for Portugal and for East Timor. But not only that, it also has great significance for Australia, as a few hundred brave Australian soldiers fought a guerrilla war for about a year, with remarkable success, against the Japanese invader.” But this is also, he emphasises, a story with a tragic ending in which a handful of Portuguese and a few Timorese resisted the mighty Japanese war machine in the mountains of Timor between the beginning of 1942 and the end of 1944. that more than 50,000 people died at the hands of the invaders, mostly Timorese and Portuguese citizens.
Round in the middle of a pandemic, To leave The real backdrop is the island of Madeira, with its high mountains and deep valleys that can evoke the landscape of Timor. Marco Delgado leads a cast of more than 70 actors, including Maya Booth, António Pedro Cerdeira, Soraia Tavares, Elmano Sancho, Luís Esparteiro, Virgílio Castelo, Joaquim Nicolau, Vítor Norte, in addition to Brazilian actors José de Abreu and Chico Diaz. Francisco Manso, producer and director, has long shown an interest in historical themes, as evidenced by films such as Senhor Napumoceno’s will (1997), The latter sentenced to death (2009), Attack on Santa Maria (2010), The Consul of Bordeaux (2011) and Our consul in Havana (2019).
Source: DN
