Two months later, Japan attacked the island, and quickly drove the Dutch out of the western half. In East Timor, a few hundred Australian commandos and some Timorese managed to hold about 20,000 Japanese soldiers at bay for almost a year. But by January 1943, the Japanese controlled the entire island. 

The Japanese occupation was one of the darkest times in East Timor's history (though its cruelty and devastation has been surpassed by the Indonesians). Here's how Iwamura Shouachi, who commanded a Japanese platoon in East Timor for over two years, described the hardships the Japanese military imposed: 

It is painful to speak today of the sacrifices and burdens we forced upon the East Timorese.... We ordered chiefs to mobilize people en masse for road construction...to work without receiving food or compensation. Because of food shortage [sic] people died of starvation every day. Food for Japanese soldiers and horses to transport ammunition were confiscated from the people, and some of the troops under my command raped Timorese women.

With Japan's defeat in August 1945, Portugal returned and reasserted its control over East Timor, which gradually returned to its pre-war state. The Portuguese began to rebuild the devastated colonial infrastructure, often employing the same brutal methods and forced labor they'd used before the war. 

With the exception of a serious revolt in 1959 (which was quickly put down), relations between the Timorese and the Portuguese remained fairly calm—though resentment simmered beneath the surface. The Catholic Church, whose membership had swelled because of the harrowing experiences of the war, helped smooth tensions by encouraging pro-Portuguese sentiment in worship and education. 

Throughout Southeast Asia, the post-war era was one of great political upheaval, as colonized territories sought independence and as returning colonial powers tried to reassert their control. The people of the Dutch East Indies declared Indonesia to be a free country on August 17, 1945, while still under Japanese occupation. 

When the Dutch returned, they refused to recognize this declaration of independence and instead waged a brutal military campaign to reclaim their colony. But by the end of 1949, massive resistance forced the Dutch to recognize the independence of Indonesia. The US government pressured the Dutch to do this, since it believed that a stable, independent Indonesia would provide a better business environment for US capital than a rebellious, war-torn colony. 

In East Timor itself, post-war nationalism came more slowly, but it finally did come. By the late 1950s, public radio began broadcasting in Portuguese, Tetum (the lingua franca used by people who spoke different native languages) and Chinese (business in the colony was dominated by ethnic Chinese—i.e. people of Chinese ancestry born in East Timor). A government-controlled newspaper, A Voz de Timor, began publishing in 1960. Since they were regularly censored by authorities, however, these sources offered only limited exposure to "foreign" ideas. 

Certain elements in the Catholic Church played an important role in facilitating nationalistic thinking. Although most Catholic schools focussed on things Portuguese, the Jesuits were often critical of colonialism and of social conditions. In their seminary outside Dili, where many of the East Timorese who worked for the Portuguese administration received their education, Jesuit teachers discussed burgeoning nationalist movements and progressive approaches to Third World development, and promoted a sense of Timorese identity among their students. 

A church newspaper, Seara, which was free from censorship laws, taught Tetum to its readers and sometimes served as a lively forum for progressive ideas. Some of its contributors, who'd had contact with African liberation movements, began to privately advocate East Timor's independence. The Portuguese authorities forced Seara to stop publication in 1973, but by that time like-minded dissidents were already meeting clandestinely with one another in Dili. 

Although the vast majority of the population still lived as they had for centuries in rural hamlets, a small, educated elite had developed by the 1970s. When the Portuguese empire finally began to crumble, this group of students, teachers and even colonial administrators helped tiny East Timor emerge from its relative isolation into the turbulent world of international power politics. 

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[For a hard copy of this book, try your local bookstore or call Odonian Press at 800 REAL STORY.  Or visit Common Courage Press]