Abstract
The Biak battle was part of World War II and fought by the United States Army and the Japanese Army in 1944. Out of the 24,000 soldiers from both sides involved in the war, 6,600 were killed; 6,100 of them were the Japanese soldiers. Remnants of war and remains of the fallen soldiers scattered in post-war Biak. The war zone then started to get visits from the Japanese for pilgrimage, remnants of war were unearthed and human remains were cremated and repatriated. The battlefield drew more tourists’ interest for the dark tourism experience. Remnants of war became valuable tangible items while war history and mystical cave atmosphere became intangible items. The study aimed at exploring issues in importance and preservation of tangible and intangible in support to post-war Biak tourism. It turned out that the post-war tangible and intangible heritage in Biak require better handling and management in support to post-war Biak tourism sustainability.
Highlights
Keywords. tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage, dark tourism, post-war tourism, remnants of war Introduction Biak Island, located in Cendrawasih bay, in Papua Province in Indonesia is recorded in history as part of the World War II within the Pacific Theater
By the time the 12,000 troops of United States Army landed in Biak on May 27, 1944, Biak had been occupied by the Japanese Army since 1942 with a size of 11,800 soldiers who used caves in the island as a system of natural defenses that was considered as brilliantly effective (Johnson, 2017)
Out of the 11,800 Japanese soldiers involved in the Biak war, and out of the 6,100 who were killed in Biak, 3,000 of them were killed in the Binsari cave from the TNT bomb dropped into the cave by the United States Army
Summary
Biak Island, located in Cendrawasih bay, in Papua Province in Indonesia is recorded in history as part of the World War II within the Pacific Theater. You are snorkeling over active explosives sunken underwater” (Informant 5) Intangibles of the Biak battlefield are well represented by the narrative of the historical events that originally took place in the battlefield that can be well uttered by the local people despite the fact the stories are transmitted from their elders who were witness of the war that happened some 75 years ago This includes the narrative of how the Japanese arrived, constructed airstrips, and started occupying the island; how the United States Army landed with all the tanks, vehicles, planes and weaponry and how people can still hear voices, noises and human sounds from inside the cave. This is in line with what Xu (2009) in Albaryak et al (2010) argues that in terms of marketing, tourism product developers and marketers should be aware of what is normally included in a tourism product—both tangible and intangible elements
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