The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
– Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host
It was time to leave Long Nawang and head for Tarakan where another tragic Japanese war crime occurred in 1942 when 215 Dutch soldiers were tricked into surrendering, and then drowned in the sea.
I first visited Tarakan way back in 1993 with ‘Pendita’ (pastor) Yohanis Sakai by a Missionary Aviation Fellowshp (MAF) Britten-Norman aircraft across the Bay of Sulawesi on an adventure trip.
Now 30 years later my ‘mission’ was different because I was following the trail of the 70 European victims who were killed and reburied three times over the last 70 years.
Brutally killed in 1942, their remains were first re-buried 400km away at the Tarakan’s Field of Honour on June 11, 1950. Finally, 17 years later in 1967, they were finally reinterred at the ‘Kembang Kuning’ Dutch cemetery at Surabaya — 5,000km across the Javan Sea.
The first reinternment at Tarakan in 1950 was a formal affair attended by the Dutch and Sarawak colonial governments.
In an account of the reinterment published in the Sarawak Gazette (July 7, 1950) Dutch military commander Brigadier General W.J.V. Windeyer described the incident as “one of the worst (atrocities) so far disclosed in Borneo”.
Sarawak British colonial Resident of Fourth Division J.R. Outram said: “The story of Long Nawang needs no re-telling by me. It is notorious as one of the worst brutalities of a brutal war.
“Although I was sent by my government in an official capacity, I was chosen to perform this duty for a personal reason, since my own brother-in-law is among those who lie buried here.”
At Tarakan I found that the Field of Honour had been renamed ‘Makam Pahlawan’ for the graves of fallen Indonesian soldiers of the 1963-1966 Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation.
Unlike Malaysia, where Muslim, Christians, and Buddhists are buried separately, Indonesia buried its soldiers and civilians side by side in true multi-racial solidarity at its own heroes grave.
After two nights at Tarakan we flew back to Balikpapan — a famous oil city which the Allied Forces recaptured after a fierce battle where 2,000 Japanese were killed on July 1, 1945.
On arrival at the Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport, we were welcomed by an exhibition centre with a historic corner — with old pictures of the oil industry and its locations since the Dutch era.
On hand to meet us was Sanjaya, one of the nine richest ‘Chinese Dragons’ who founded Balikpapan which will be part of the ‘Nusantara’ complex — the new Indonesian capital in 2025.
Towkay Sanjaya started life as a street lighting contractor in Tarakan more than 30 years ago and later expanded his business to Balikpapan where he now had installed 60 per cent of the street lights. Sanjaya now owns large swathes of land, housing estates, hotels and resorts.
After a restful night at Town House hotel-cum-residences property, Sanjaya volunteered to take us on a tour of Balikpapan Baru to the City’s ‘Canada Hill’ — once a Dutch residency until the fall of Balikpapan to the Japanese on January 25, 1942.
At that time 1,000 troops were under the Dutch army under the command of KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger) the air arm of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. Lieutenant Colonel Cornelis van den Hoogenband was in charge.
Even though the harbour entrance was protected by a minefield, Balikpapan fell and the Dutch evacuated to Samarinda on January 18, 1942; a week later the Japanese entered the city without a fight.
The Japanese occupied the luxury homes before moving to Samarinda — 100km away where the murderous Captain Shima Mora’s ‘Roroun’ regimen was based.
Sanjaya said the focus now is rebuilding the spirit of unity in the race to build South East Asia’s largest and modern metropolis.
By 2005, the Balikpapan-Samarinda-Kutai complex with a population had tripled. Now the second most populous city in East Kalimantan, after Samarinda, Balikpapan has been described as “one of the most liveable cities in Indonesia”.
With the Indonesian government’s restructuring of the oil industry, the expatriates are beginning to leave to make way for the locals to take over.
In Balikpapan Baru, we visited the small Australian War Memorial not far from the ‘Pertamina’. (Perusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara) sprawling installation — Indonesia’s oil and natural gas mining company.
As we drove towards the security-tight ‘Canada Hill’, the guards recognised the well-known Sanjaya, and the gate was open.
Along the twisting car ride up the hill, the gregarious millionaire took up to the highest point facing the Straits of Makassar.
At Pontianak or ‘City of the Vampires’ which was captured by Sultan Al Kadriah, an Arab descendant of the Prophet, we were greeted by a city of more than a million people.
I learnt that if in Malaysia we call our female vampires ‘Pontianak’, our counterparts call them ‘Kuntilanak’!
A night, the old Kapuas Dharma hotel with rats running around in the ceiling brought us back to reality; if you want to travel cheap, this is what you must expect.
But the long and tiring journey halfway around Kalimantan and of sharing a history in a country of contrasts had taken its toll and despite the rodent revelry, it was time to get some sleep.
We were now a short 20-minute flight to Kuching.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
