MAC ARTHUR MONUMENT IN JAYAPURA ATTRACTING MANY TOURISTS

Jayapura, Apr 15 (ANTARA)- The Mac Arthur Monument at Ifar Gunung in Jayapura district is now attracting many foreign tourists, especially on holidays, according to an officer of the service looking after the monument.

"Most of the foreign tourists who visit the monument are from the Netherlands, the United States and Japan," the officer, Hans Tambe Yabdi, said here Tuesday.
The monument was erected to mark the spot where General Douglas Mac Arthur, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific, set up his headquarters for his campaigns against Japanese forces in World War II in 1944.
Jayapura which at the time was named Hollandia was the Allied Forces base for their attacks on Japanese forces in the Admirally Islands and the Japanese defense base in Rabaul in what is now Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Jayapura was chosen as the location of MacArhtur's headquarters because of its strategic position for Allied thrusts against enemy positions in the region. Situated on a coast facing a sea directly linked to the Pacific Ocean, Jayapura was also a suitable place to set up a naval defense base to support the implementation of MacArthur's "frog-leap" tactics.
It was also at his base in Jayapura that MacArthur planned and prepared the Allied Forces naval and air assaults on the Philippines.
After MacArhur establshed his headqauerters in Jayapura, the Allied Forces also were able to wrest the whole of New Guinea from the Japanese within less than three months' time, namely from April 22 to July 30, 1044.
On June 6, 1944, MacArthur's military campaigns from Jayapura were declared completed but Jayapura continued to be the location of the Allied Forces Headquarters for the Southwest Pacific, a main base for their air forces and navies.
The historic MacArthur monument which is now located in a complex housing the main regiment of the Cendrawasih Military Command is a yellow-and-black stone block with one of its sides embossed with the immage of a sword with an arrow lying across.
The spot offers a sweeping view of Jayapura district's mountainous terrain and Lake Sentani which is an attraction in itself.
Under Law No 5/1992 on cultural heritage objects, the Papua provincial administration has declared the Mac Arthur monument a protected historic site.