Morotai Island Regency

Morotai

Geography
Location	South East Asia
Coordinates	2°19′N 128°32′E
Archipelago	Maluku Islands
Administration
Indonesia

Morotai Island (Indonesian: Pulau Morotai) is an island located in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesia's Maluku Islands (Moluccas). Morotai is governed as a regency of North Maluku province, called Morotai Island Regency Kabupaten Pulau Morotai , and is one of Indonesia's northernmost islands. Its population was about 54,900 people in 2007.

History

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Morotai was generally within the sphere of influence of the powerful sultanate on the island of Ternate. It was the core of a larger region, called Moro, that included the island and the coastline of Halmahera closest to Morotai to the south.

In the mid-sixteenth century, the island was also the site of a Portuguese Jesuit mission. The Muslim states on Ternate and Halmahera resented the outpost for its proselytising activities, and managed to drive the mission from the island in 1571, as a part of a larger Portuguese retreat out of the region. In the 17th Century, Ternate further exerted its power over Morotai by repeatedly forcing major parts of the population to move off the island. Early in the century most of the population was moved to Dodinga, a small town in a strategic spot on Halmahera's west coast. Later, in 1627 and 1628, Sultan Hamzah of Ternate had much of the Christian population of the island moved to Malayu, on Ternate, where they could be more easily controlled.

World War II

Main article: Battle of Morotai

Morotai was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army in early 1942, and held through 1944. Morotai's southern plain was taken by U.S. Army troops in September 1944 during the Battle of Morotai, and it was used as an air base and a staging point for the American Philippines Campaign that began in October 1944, and of Australian Army's Borneo Campaign in May through August 1945. Those amphibious landings on other islands were supported by units of the Royal Australian Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces based on airfields on Morotai.

The Japanese Army soldier Teruo Nakamura was discovered in the Morotai jungle in 1974, and he was one of last Japanese holdouts who had not recognized the surrender of the Japanese Empire in August 1945.

Geography

Morotai is a rugged, forested island lying to the north of Halmahera. It has an area of about 1,800 square kilometers, stetching about 80 kilometers north-south, and no more than 42 kilometers east-west. The island's largest town is Daruba, on the island's south coast. Almost all of Morotai's numerous villages are coastal settlements; a paved road linking those on the east coast starts from Daruba and will eventually reach Berebere, the principal town on Morotai's east coast, 68 km from Daruba.

Economy

The island is heavily wooded and produces timber and resin.

See also

• Islands of Indonesia

References

• Andaya, Leonard (1993). The world of Maluku: eastern Indonesia in the early modern period. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
• Villiers, John (1988). Las Yslas de Esperar en Dios: The Jesuit Mission in Moro 1546-1571. Modern Asian Studies 22(3):593-606.