World war II remains from 'Japanese Cave', Biak West Papua, Indonesia
Goa Jepang (Japanese Cave) is the local name for a cave which used to be used as a defense fortress by Japanese soldiers in WWII. The Japanese discovered the three-kilometer-long cave in 1943. The soldiers occupied three large rooms built inside the cave. On July 7, 1944, the US Army attacked the cave and the cave was bombarded. The Americans dropped drums of gasoline into the hideout and blasted them from the air, turning the cave into an inferno which burned for several months. Some 3,000 Japanese soldiers were trapped and killed in the attack. The remains of soldiers still lie in the cave, as well as many guns and bombs and the surrounding area is littered with gun emplacements, wrecked planes and other war remains.
Size: 3733px × 5620px
Location: Biak, West Papua, Indonesia
Photo credit: © Matthew Oldfield Travel Photography / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: artefacts, biak, canteen, front, goa, helmet, ii, indonesia, irian, japan, jaya, jepang, pacific, papua, ration, tin, war, west, world, wwii