JAPANESE BUNKER : ANOTHER TRACE OF INDONESIAN
DARK HISTORY
Move
to the western part of Indonesia, which is heading to West Sumatra!!
Basically, West Sumatra is located in one of the five main islands in
Indonesia which is Sumatra. In this part of Sumatra, As you go to
this place you should be familiarized with spicy food and oily. This
is because almost all of Minang people (the term used to describe its local
peeps) is crazy in love with spice and oil ! Almost the foods in here
are using those ingredients, it is no
doubt that most Minang are having cholesterol……. okay,
enough with the food (again). Basically this post will be related
with the previous post of mine which was talking about Lawang sewu.
Wanna know the further information? Here it is….
This
post is going to be explaining about one of the Japanese remaining in
Indonesia as they did a colonial in our beloved country, which is
called as “Goa Jepang” or in English called as “Japanese Cave”.
Looking backwards to the colonial era in our country, we've known and
taught that Japan was also a country which was invaded us for a quiet
long time and gave a big
impact as well. One of their
remaining is the Japanese Bunker that locates in Bukittinggi, West
Sumatra. In fact, Japanese were not only built the bunker in one
certain location, but they were also built it in several big cities
in Indonesia such as Bandung, Yogyakarta, Palembang, Kupang, Biak,
Banyuwangi, and Indramayu.
THE
SADISTIC JAPANESE
Ironically
this
was actually
built
by Indonesians under forced labor for the Japanese soldiers who
occupied Indonesia from 1942 to 1945. This 1,470 meter long
underground bunker is 40 meters below Ngarai Sianok (Sianok canyon).
There are 21 tunnels in the bunker which were used to store
ammunition,and there are also meeting rooms, the Romusha (forced
labourer) dining room, kitchen, prison, hearing room, torture room,
espionage room, ambush room, and the escape gate. Exploring this
complex of tunnels and caves is a real adventure. Apart
from that, as it is stated before there were prison, torture room,
espionage room and ambush room, these were the prove of how sadistic
the japanese were to the Indonesians, and because of this there were
plenty of people died with an unhappy ending and ended up created
such horror history and considered this place to be a haunted ones....
You
can see how this place made an effective and
strong fortress and as well cruelty is on the cloud.
The tunnels are three meters in diameter and have walls so thick that
sounds cannot be heard from the outside. The tunnels cover a vast
area, nearly two hectares, and have six doors. One door is located in
Panorama Park while others access Sianok village in the Ngarai Sianok
ravine.Walking
down into the Japanese bunker can be a challenge with some narrow
spaces to squeeze through, and
it also challenging our guts and could make us goosebumps as the
horror and sadistic story is revealed.
While originally it would’ve been a
very dark and cold, but
nowadays
these tunnels have
been fully equipped
with
lamps and proper ventilation. Most
of these tunnels will soon have rooms to display photographs, a
museum of struggle, and a mini theater. At the entrance gate,
visitors can see a map of this bunker and each tunnel now has
information boards about its functions. This bunker also has CCTV
cameras.
GETTING
THERE….
The
entrance to the Japanese bunker is located in Panorama Park, where
you can also enjoy the beautiful scenery of Ngarai Sianok. This
Park is about 1 km away from the Bukittinggi city center. Visitors
can use private cars or sado/andong (public carriage) from the city
center to this Park while enjoying the cool air of Bukittinggi. For
those taking flights, you can land in Minangkabau International
airport, afterwards from Minangkabau international airport, you can
take a rented car or minibus to Bukittinggi. To go with minibus, you
can find them at the exit gate of the airport at Simpang Ketaping.
For the distance between Padang and Bukittinggi is 90 km so it would
take approximately 90 minutes if there were no traffic jams. But, it
would take soo much longer time if the holiday season is coming and
would take up to 4 hours to get there. Sooo..
do you dare to get inside and uncover the goosebumps-ing story???
Then...you can just go there and buy the ticket for only Rp. 8.000
for adults and Rp. 5.000 for children ! !
RESOURCES
http://www.indonesia.travel/sites/site/155/bunker-jepang
http://www.gosumatra.com/mengenang-sejarah-di-goa-jepang-lubang-jepang/
Jakarta
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