Author: Sasha
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Why did Japan dare to occupy Hong Kong but not invade Macau during World War II ? Sasha Q&A Episode 152
On December 8, 1941 of World War II, 30,000 Japanese troops launched an attack on the British colony Hong Kong.
More than 10,000 British troops in Hong Kong resisted until the 26th, and all surrendered, and the battle ended here. In this battle, 2,000 Japanese casualties were killed and killed. In addition to more than 1,500 British troops, 1,000 were missing (mostly because no bodies were found after death in the battle), and 10,000 were captured.
The war to defend Hong Kong is still fierce, but the strange Japanese army did not attack Macau, which is close to Hong Kong.
At that time, the Portuguese army, which had only a few hundred men in Macau, had low morale and backward weapons, and was simply vulnerable.
, and Macau is only 32 square kilometers. It is a small land and is surrounded by enemies on all sides, so it is impossible to defend for a long time.
So, why doesn’t Japan attack Macau?
The specific reasons are as follows:
First, Portugal is the neutral country .
No matter whether it is Portugal or Spain, they did not participate in World War II.
According to international law , Macau, as a colony, is regarded as Portuguese territory and cannot be invaded by other countries, otherwise it will be like declaring war.
Japan and Portugal have no direct conflict of interest. The two sides are completely in conflict with each other, and there is no conflict between history and reality.
At that time, Portugal had become a small European country, with only two small colonies in Asia, including Macau and East Timor .
In Japan, Macau has no military, economic and political significance and is not worthy of occupation.
As for East Timor, Japan was unwilling to occupy it.
Results On December 17, 1941, a joint Dutch , Dutch and Australian forces occupied East Timor.
Japan believed that the Allied forces occupied the entire Tiger Island would pose a military threat to themselves, so it launched a full-scale attack in February 1942 and finally defeated the Allied forces.
Second, Portugal pro-fascist. Although it did not make public statements like Spain, the Portuguese government and Nazi Germany had a close relationship.
Generally believed that the Portuguese dictator Salazar was a fascist.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Salazar had joined forces with Germany and Italy to attack the Spanish Communist regime.
During World War II, the Portuguese government led by Salazar had close ties with Nazi Germany and Italy.
Portugal has always produced tungsten ore , and tungsten ore is the bone of the war industry. Even if the allies tried their best to stop it, Portugal still exported large quantities of tungsten ore to Germany.
It was not until the late war that Germany's defeat was decided that Portugal stopped exporting tungsten mines and rented out the Azores base to the Allies.
But Portugal is a country that sympathizes with the Axis powers after all, and Japan does not need to turn against it.
Third, Japan can completely manipulate Macau to serve itself.
Why doesn't Germany attack Swiss ?
Although there are factors of Alpine tunnels, it is not difficult for the German and Italian troops to annex Switzerland.
Not to mention, there are still a large number of German-born residents in Switzerland who support the merger with Germany.
is mainly because Germany hopes that there will be a so-called neutral country in Europe and can do something as a third party force, which is Switzerland.
Macau is almost the same.
Look at Han Ho 's memoirs, you will know that Macau is simply controlled by the Japanese.
After the Japanese army invaded Hong Kong, they did not occupy Macau, but actually put control.
The Japanese spy agencies stationed in Macau can arrest anti-Japanese elements without scrupulously.
For Macau ships, Japan can requisition them at will, or even use warships to escort them by force.
In fact, the Macau government has almost become a puppet.
Therefore, since Japan occupied East Timor in 1942, the Macau government followed the Japanese army's orders in almost everything: the Macau government was forced to recruit local young people and a large number of refugees in Macau to form laborers to serve the Japanese army. These people were escorted by the Japanese army to , Hainan Island, and other places to do hard work, and many people died.
Japan opened a so-called military supplies acquisition center in Macau, and bought and snatched the land through Portugal, a neutral country, to acquire various intimidating supplies, and instead sell Japanese goods.
According to the national law at that time, neutral countries are not allowed to export military and strategic materials to belligerent countries. Through Portugal as a transit, Japan can purchase goods from any neutral country. The ships transported on the high seas are all Portuguese flags, and the allies cannot attack and intercept. Stanley Ho worked on such a ship back then, and actually helped the Japanese do things.
At the same time, Japan also carried out various illegal financial activities through Macau's profiteers, such as purchasing smuggled silver from mainland China and sending fake fiat currency from Macau to the Guojun controlled area.
After all, the Macau colonial government has almost become a puppet of Japan, so what is the need to completely occupy it?
Some people say that Portugal once announced that if you occupy Macau, I will arrest all the Japanese expatriates in Brazilian . This is nonsense.
In fact, Brazil had long been independent from Portugal's control and established a republic in 1889.
Brazilian dictator Heatuleo Vagas , has no connection with Portugal, and it is impossible to go to Portugal to engage in Japanese expatriates.
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