In WW2, why didn't Japan invade Macau?
Upvote:14
Macau was a Portuguese Colony right next door to Hong Kong. Why didn't Japan invade it during WW2?
Because they didn't need to.
The Portuguese were steadfastly neutral. They weren't a military threat. Macau had no real military value and the authorities there were cooperating. Why spend the resources to invade and occupy an already compliant port and risk adding another country to your already long list of enemies?
However, by the end of 1943, Macau was effectively a Japanese puppet state. Japanese "advisors" took over under threat of occupation.
Japan did invade Hong Kong, and they did invade Portuguese Timor too.
...after the Allies occupied it.
Timor was a key Allied air link to the Philippines, occupying it would harm the Allied defend there, and add to the Japanese defense ring.
The Allies on Dutch Timor were worried about leaving neutral Portuguese Timor weakly defended. Japan could invade and attack on a new flank. So on Dec 17, 1941 they sent over a small force (but larger than the Portuguese garrison) to defend the territory.
Up to this point, the government of Portugal had declined to co-operate with the Allies, relying on its claim of neutrality and plans to send an 800-strong force from Mozambique to defend the territory in the event of any Japanese invasion. However, this refusal left the Allied flank severely exposed, and a 400-man combined Dutch-Australian force subsequently occupied Portuguese Timor on 17 December.
After the necessary protests, the Portuguese agreed to send a stronger defense force if the Allies would leave. This new force sailed from Mozambique on January 28, 1942, but the Japanese invaded before it arrived. The Japanese couldn't leave an Allied force on their flank, and it was the perfect excuse to take the whole island, so they invaded both halves of the island. Initially the Japanese promised that Portuguese neutrality would be respected and they would leave as soon as the battle was over, but they didn't.
More post
- 📝 Who originally described Attila as "Attila The Hun"
- 📝 How did people count before Fibonacci published Liber Abbaci?
- 📝 Exactly when was the country of Andorra founded?
- 📝 What is the origin of the American stereotypes about Swedish women?
- 📝 Did humans live more densely in the past, and if so, how much denser?
- 📝 What was the population of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 CE?
- 📝 Did Lucian of Samosata make this joke on purpose?
- 📝 What is the origin of 3 meals a day?
- 📝 What's the origin of Crespi plates?
- 📝 Were there in the USSR monasteries decorated with Soviet orders?
- 📝 Why do people in Melbourne Victoria Australia get a public holiday for a horse race
- 📝 Did Greek traders visit the Philippines in the 1st century AD?
- 📝 Technical Pictures of Prussian Cannons
- 📝 Did slaves have slaves?
- 📝 Found a bullet shell with 'Winchester 30-06 SPRG' on it, how old is it?
- 📝 How long would it take to sail from New Orleans to Belize in late Summer 1867?
- 📝 Why is the United States the only developed country whose labour laws leave most up to the employer?
- 📝 What was middle class family life like in post-civil war Georgia?
- 📝 Should the aluminados be considered to be the roots of the illuminati mythos?
- 📝 Why did textile mill owners during the industrial revolution keep their factory windows closed?
- 📝 What is so unique about ushabti that makes them valued and popular?
- 📝 Was the insanity of kings used as an argument against monarchy?
- 📝 Why did Yamamoto reprimand Nagumo after Pearl Harbor?
- 📝 What motivated Germanic tribes to accept Christianity?
- 📝 Has anyone ever got more than a 21 Gun Salute?
- 📝 What exactly were currours, and what were they used for?
- 📝 When did Averroes start to study medicine?
- 📝 What is the source and history of "green on blue attack" expression?
- 📝 How many cattle were slaughtered in Alta California?
- 📝 Historical examples of replacing blood heir by impostor?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the USA invade Okinawa instead of one of the many other islands in southern Japan
- 📝 In WW2, why didn't Japan invade Macau?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
- 📝 Why didn't France and the UK invade Germany in September 1939?
- 📝 Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
- 📝 Why does Japan use the same type of AC power outlet as the US?
- 📝 Why did Hitler not invade Sweden?
- 📝 Why couldn't Japan crack the Navajo Code in WW2, when they captured a Navajo native speaker?
- 📝 Why didn't Japan take Pearl Harbor when they had the chance?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 Why didn't Alexander invade India?
- 📝 Why did the Allies Invade French North Africa?
- 📝 Why did the Moors invade the Iberian peninsula?
- 📝 Why did the United States not invade North Vietnam?
- 📝 Why did US Navy WW2 torpedoes detonate at the end of their run?
- 📝 Why was there lack of food during WW2 in the UK?
- 📝 Why didn't Japan expand into Ezo?
- 📝 Why does Japan celebrate the Gregorian New Year but China still celebrates Chinese New Year?
- 📝 Why did the rest of the Eastern Bloc not invade Yugoslavia?
- 📝 Why did Soviet soldiers who plundered occupied territories during WW2 prefer watches to other valuables?
- 📝 Plans for More Nuclear Warfare in Japan during WW2
- 📝 Why was 19th-century Japan able to modernize and not China?
- 📝 Why did the US insist on invading Japan instead of blockading it in WWII?
- 📝 Why would anyone from Japan be in Northern India in early 1900s?
- 📝 Did Japan ever pay Russia war reparations after WW2? Why or why not?
- 📝 Why weren’t the Dutch and Belgian borders fortified with wire, trenches, mines, etc., as it became clear Germany would invade during WW2?
- 📝 Why did Argentina invade the Falklands when they did, rather than wait for the pending sale of the UK aircraft carriers to complete first?
- 📝 Why did Japan not withdraw from China as its pacific front was crumbling and the threat of US invasion imminent?
- 📝 Why did Hideyoshi invade Korea?