Under a cloudless blue sky a plane appeared, and minutes later dozens of colorful parachutes were scattered overhead, with figures descending to alight on the sand in front of thousands of spectators along Morotai’s shore.

The scene was stirring considering the place and time — the beach where General Douglas MacArthur and his Allied forces landed exactly 68 years ago on Sept. 15, 1944, launching the Battle of Morotai and creating a base to attack Japanese troops in the Philippines during World War II.

The dramatic airborne arrival of men and women from the Indonesian armed forces and police was part of the festivities for Sail Morotai 2012, an event to promote economic links in the region and tourism on the 1,800 square kilometer island at the tip of North Maluku.

Against a dazzling backdrop of sand, palm trees and sea, Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono said in a speech to mark the event, “The use of the word ‘sail’ here does not just mean a sailboat or yacht race, but is more than that. ‘Sail’ here is a symbol of courage, perseverance and toughness plying through a vast ocean that is full of turmoil and challenges. And it is all faced with spirit and unwavering faith.”

Spirit was certainly on display in Daruba, Morotai’s capital, for every few meters were fluttering banners depicting the area’s seascapes and wishing the event success. And, the small city was bustling, its port filled with people and massive naval vessels; the boats participating in the yacht race that began in Darwin, Australia, on July 28; and various other craft that regularly transport passengers between nearby Halmahera and the tiny islets sprinkled around Morotai itself.

President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono spoke to inaugurate the occasion, saying, “We are here on this beautiful island not only to witness Sail Morotai but also to ensure the prosperity of the island of Morotai and North Maluku province in the future … Before there was the Mediterranean era, now is the Atlantic era, and the future will be the era of the Pacific.”

Yet the event looked both to the future and to the island’s wartime past, with veterans attending the Sept. 15 festivities, and the announcement of ambitious plans to build a landmark WWII museum along Morotai’s coast. A small building is the temporary site for photos of MacArthur and his troops; artifacts from the war like ammunition, coins and mess kits; and descriptions of Japanese and Allied military strategies.

The MacArthur Foundation, based in Norfolk, Virginia, is advising the planned museum. On the preservation of Morotai’s WWII relics, MacArthur Foundation executive director William Davis told The Jakarta Post, “It does a very important and essential thing and that is to present and preserve the story of veterans who served here and then to be able to answer the question ‘Why is this important?’ and ‘Why should we remember it today?’”

Richard Arthur Mott, a member of the Australian Air Force, arrived on Morotai when he was 19 years old in 1944, returning for the first time last week. Now 87, he described sleeping four to a tent near the landing strips the Allies built, now the site of the island’s airport.

“When you get out of the plane here I expected the strips to be the same. We built two strips and I know there’s only one strip there now and it doesn’t look familiar … But they tell me it’s on the same site. And we were camped not far from the strip and I couldn’t recognize the topography at all,” he told the Post.

Standing on a pristine beach at one of MacArthur’s former bases at Zum Zum Island, just a handful of kilometers from Morotai, Mott noted, “In my day here all the sand was oil soaked. There was a film of oil from the two sunken ships, from the aircraft. So it wasn’t worth swimming in.”

Now, clean white sand and sparkling blue sea dominates, and it is hoped the perfect vistas Morotai offers can attract more tourist arrivals, for there are numerous striking palm-fringed islands in the area.

Dodola Island is featured on all the tourist brochures. Actually two tiny islands connected by a sandbar that is submerged when the tide rises, the waters are crystal clear and the sand like white sugar.

Nearby Kolorai Island, home to 105 families according to the Morotai Tourism and Culture Office, now boasts a homestay — a pristine room in a family’s house adjacent to a small warung and the sea. Kolorai is known for its ikan asin (salted fish), which can be seen drying in the sun along picturesque shores.

Ibu Popi, sweating in the blazing sun as were her visitors, makes ikan asin from fish she referred to as ikan kambing (goat fish), which were laid neatly out to dry in front of her home. She explained the process of making the delicacy, saying she dried the fish for three days after adding salt and water, and that they were then sold in Daruba.

Sail Morotai’s slogan “Menuju Era Baru Ekonomi Regional Pasifik” (Toward a New Pacific Region Economic Era) is neatly embodied in Ibu Popi’s occupation and the goal to support Morotai’s marine resources through the development of its fisheries sector, and by creating deeper contacts across the region.

“We will alter this area that was once part of the theater of war to be a place of peace, a place with an established economy, and a place that has a role internationally that offers benefits to all the peoples of the world,” the President said in his speech.

Rear Admiral Denny Wetherald from the United States Pacific Fleet, clad in a crisp white Navy uniform, was the senior US military representative at Sail Morotai. Accompanying the USNS Henson that participated in a procession of ships from various countries, he said, “There’s a deep history here, there’s a deep history with the country of Indonesia and the United States and so we look to each year broadening that relationship.”

He told the Post about previous humanitarian missions in the area like the floating medical services offered by the USNS Mercy, which visited four Indonesian islands earlier this year.

Wetherald also spoke of Morotai’s singular beauty. “I had a window seat and was able to look down on this beautiful pristine island … I’m a sailor by nature so I want to get on a sailboat and I want to come back here and anchor off of this beach,” he said, gesturing to Red Beach, one of the sites where MacArthur’s troops first landed.

Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu discussed Morotai’s tourism potential via diving, surfing and its war history at a press conference. “From the lens of creative economy, I say ‘Let’s make a film about this.’ Who wants to be General MacArthur? We need to find someone famous. You know [Akira] Kurosawa? You make the film from an American perspective, from a Japanese perspective, from an Indonesian perspective.”

Referencing Japanese director Kurosawa’s Rashomon, which explores the subjectivity of experience, the minister was recognizing, creatively, the multiple existing perspectives on WWII and Morotai. Looking to the island’s future, that issue of subjectivity, whether toward the war and how to memorialize it, ways to attract tourists, or how to initiate a new era of cooperation in the Pacific, must continue to be considered.

The Sultan of Ternate, Mudaffar Sjah, told the Post after Sail Morotai 2012 concluded, “The event today was spectacular.” And it seemed last weekend that most would agree, so is Morotai.

— Photos JP/Deanna Ramsay

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