East Timor and Macau

Awesome Indy and also awesome crew,

I have van question about East Timor during ww2.
I red that East Timor was invaded by the Japanese and conquerd.
Despite East Timor was part of the Portugese Empire and thus neutral.
What was the reaction of Portugal when they heard about the invasion of East Timor?

Macau was also a Portugese colony but in this case the Japanese respected the neutraility of Portugal and never invaded Macau.

So why was East Timor invaded and Macau not.
Was it a strategic choice or just luck.

I wish you all the best with making this show better every day.

Greetz from Juan

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East Timor was pre-emptively invaded by theNetherlands and Australia on 17 December 1941. The agreement with Portugal was that Australian and Dutch forces would withdraw after Portugal increased their forces on East Timor to a number capable of resisting a Japanese invasion. Unfortunately, those Portugese forces came too late and Japan invaded East Timor on 20 February 1942 (after landing on Dutch West Timor on 19 February). During those occupations the Portugese civil colonial administration continued.

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