Aitape is a small town of about 18,000 people on the north coast of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

in the

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capita ...

. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of

Wewak Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city (seat) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak. ...

and

Vanimo Vanimo is the capital of Sandaun Province (West Sepik) in north-westernmost Papua New Guinea and of Vanimo-Green River District. It is located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. Religion Its Holy Cross Pro-Cathedral is the epi ...

, and marks the midpoint of the highway between these two capitals. Aitape has 240 V power (in general 24 hours), telephone, a bank, a post-office, a courthouse and a police station, a supermarket and many tradestores, a petrol station, two airstrips, two secondary schools, a mission office and a hospital. Aitape was established as a train station by German colonists in 1905 as part of

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the town was occupied by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

Transport

Aitape can be reached by logging road from Vanimo and Wewak (180 km). Boats also leave Aitape Harbor to Vanimo and Wewak. There are two airstrips: Tadji (TAJ), where most flights land, and

Aitape Aitape is a small town of about 18,000 people on the north coast of Papua New Guinea in the Sandaun Province. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of Wewak and Vanimo, and marks the midpoint of the ...

(ATP). Tadji airstrip is located 10 km east of town.

History

First contact between the Aitape (Eitape) area and the outside world is believed to have occurred during the 15th century when large sailing expeditions arrived from China. It is certain that Malay fishing fleets were active along the Sepik coastline from the early 17th century when island inhabitants were recruited as navigators for these Malay fishing vessels. The first Christian missionary arrived in the Aitape area in 1896. It was ''Societatis Verbi Divini'' (the

Society of the Divine Word The Society of the Divine Word ( la, Societas Verbi Divini), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic Church, Catholic clerical religious congregation ...

or SVD) from Germany and Holland. The first mission station was established on

Tumleo Island Tumleo or Tumeleo is a populated island in East Aitape Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. The Tumleo language Tumleo is an Austronesian language of coastal Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, on Tumleo Island () and the Aitape ...

in 1896. A second station was set up at Pro on the mainland the following year. The inhabitants of Pro requested that the mission station be established to protect them from raids by much larger settlements. The major native settlements at the time were at Sissano, Malol, and Arop (the Siau group). The island settlements of Tumleo, Ali, and Seleo (the Bakla) made up the next group of main settlements. Both the Siau and Bakla would band together annually for major trading expeditions taking in the Aitape coastline to the south east areas around Wewak. German authorities found it difficult to colonize the Siau and Bakla of the Aitape area. The Aitape area was officially described as uncontrolled during the German colonial period. Still, the Germans built a solid prison at Aitape and installed a powerful radio station which maintained quality communication with Europe. In 1908, the Aitape coastline was struck by a major tsunami event resulting in the collapse of an area of coastline between Arop and Sissano creating the Sissano Lagoon. (A second tsunami struck in 1935 with most recent occurring in 1998 also hitting Sissano.) By 1914 there were 68 missionaries and 6 new stations established along the coast. The town along with the rest of German New Guinea passed to Australian control after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and became part of the

Territory of New Guinea The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the na ...

Second World War

During the Second World War the town was occupied, along with the rest of the Territory of New Guinea, by the Imperial Japanese Army. During the recapture

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

forces bypassed the

Japanese 18th Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History The Japanese 18th Army was formed on November 9, 1942, under the Japanese Eighth Area Army of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of opposi ...

based at

, taking Aitape on 22 April 1944. A base was developed here and repulsed a major Japanese counter-attack. The Americans were content to hold Aitape and not advance far towards Wewak. In fact, Aitape was captured as part of a 3-pronged invasion by the Allies (Aitape, and landings on either side of Hollandia). There was little or no strategic gain to be had in doing so as the Japanese force based at Wewak no longer posed a real threat – cut off, short of supplies, and weakened from battle and diseases. In mid-1944, General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

, the American Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces in the

South-West Pacific Area The South West Pacific theatre, during World War II, was a major theatre of the war between the Allies and the Axis. It included the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (except for Sumatra), Borneo, Australia and its mandate Territory o ...

, secured an agreement from the Australian government for Australian forces to take over at Aitape. MacArthur then continued island hopping in preparation for the re-capture of the Philippines. The Aitape-Wewak campaign was the final Australian military campaign on mainland New Guinea. It ran from November 1944 to the war's end in August 1945. It was fought by the 6th Division, Australian Imperial Force (AIF) with air and naval support. The US Navy built a camp at Aitape as a remote post for

Naval Base Hollandia Naval Base Hollandia was a United States Navy base built during World War II at Humboldt Bay, near the city of Hollandia (now Jayapura) in New Guinea. The base was built by the US Navy Seabees during the Battle of Hollandia, starting on Ma ...

. Australian intelligence soldier

Leonard Siffleet Leonard George Siffleet (14 January 1916 – 24 October 1943) was an Australian commando of World War II. Born in Gunnedah, New South Wales, he joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1941, and by 1943 had reached the rank of ...

was beheaded by the Japanese on Aitape beach on 24 October 1943.

Tsunami

In July 1998, the area surrounding the town suffered from a destructive

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

that killed over 2,000 people. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred offshore and triggered a large undersea landslide that generated the tsunami. The area worst hit was Warapu village about 8 km west of Aitape. The village was situated on a narrow spit between the coast and a large lagoon. It is estimated that waves with an average height of 10.5 metres passed over the spit into the lagoon.

Climate

Aitape has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southe ...

(Af) with heavy rainfall year-round.

References