goodmorningpapua.com – West Papua Province is not only known for its Raja Ampat Regency which is famous for its underwater world. However, Doom Island in Sorong City is also worthy of being a tourist spot.
Doom Island means an island overgrown with fruit trees. This is reasonable because many fruit plants grow on the island, especially breadfruit which dominates.
As reported by the Indonesian page, the island has an area of about 5 square kilometers and can be completely surrounded in just 45 minutes. The island is dense and inhabited by many immigrants who are generally Javanese and Butonnese.
The specialty of Doom Island is not just geographical conditions. Doom Island has been known and inhabited since the Dutch occupation. What is special about the island is its historical value.
The Dutch have been eyeing the existence of the island since the 1800s and then around 1935 Doom Island was used as the capital city of the central government of Sorong called Onderafdeling.
At that time, Sorong was not a city at all, the center of activity was entirely on Doom Island.
This definitely makes Doom get electricity, infrastructure and various facilities first compared to mainland Sorong.
So, do not be surprised if at that time Doom Island was the most shining among other places in the waters of Sorong.
Because of the bright light, local people also call Doom Island as the island of stars. Not only the Netherlands, Japan has also experienced living on the island. During the second world war, the Japanese made Doom Island their base of defense in the waters of Hollandia.
The Japanese army made many caves that were interconnected with many defense bunkers in the style of the Japanese war strategy at that time. Therefore, it is not strange that at this time we will find a lot of caves from Japan spread widely in the mainland area of Doom Island.
The existence of the Netherlands and Japan, of course, raises a special condition for Doom Island today.
On the other hand, the activities of residents on Doom Island are also diverse, ranging from fishermen to traders. One of the fishermen on Doom Island, Toni, said that he has been operating boats for 20 years to transport residents to Sorong City.
“Passengers are not as crowded as before. Only school children ride a lot of boats,” he said.
A grade 2 junior high school student in Sorong City, Faris, said that he uses a boat every day. “Going and returning from school by boat,” he said.