Last month, there were two long weekends in Indonesia. first long weekend, I travelled to Madiun 😉 and on second one, I travelled back home…land of my ancestors! west Sumatra! Ahey!
Last time I landed in Padang was in 1992, taking 2 hours drive to Payakumbuh – my mom’s birthplace. Back to Payakumbuh around 1997, but via Pekanbaru.
Anyway, during those 3 days I stayed in Bukittinggi, Payakumbuh and Padang. One night each city, of course!
I travelled with my eldest, she’s the one who kept asking why her mother never took her to her oma’s birth-town.
During my stay in Bukittinggi, I took her to Lubang Jepang (Japanese’s Tunnel) located in Ngarai Sianaok
Entrance fee is IDR 20K for adult and IDR 15K for kids. Back to 1992, the fee was IDR 250 for adult and IDR 150 for kids! I had picture of me, my siblings and my cousins in front of the tunnel! 😀
This tunnel was (of course) built during Japan’s invasion early 1940’s. It was meant to be secret tunnel, escaping from the ally (The Dutch and the British)
They had labors from Java, Makassar, anywhere as long as they weren’t local people.
It was for a reason…
So when the workers escaped, they couldn’t tell local people what was going on. bahasa Indonesia hadn’t exist yet.
The tunnel (if I’m not mistaken) is 40 meters down, with 132 steps. It was scary!
I hired a local guide to tell story, pay as your wish and it was interesting.
As we know, during Japan’s invasion, these Nippon were sooooo cruel toward their labors, known as Romusha! However, I found the blue print is genius!
They had air ventilations, to get fresh air, (of course) prison, meeting room, gun storage to name a few.
The one on bottom right, is the current condition. Of course it is illuminated now, cemented and widened.
During that time, it was just a small – short ceiling tunnel. Considering The Nippon were short back in that time.
The picture above is close to real condition, dark and short ceiling. My eldest is 162cm, and she had to bow down.
Many labors died during the construction, and they just threw the dead labors through another tiny tunnel, went down to Sianaok’s canyon.
It has a peeking hole as well. the Nippon will climb the tunnel to find out whether any locals brought their cattle or harvest crops. If they found one (or two) Then, they would killed the locals to stole the cattle or crops, for logistics of course!
They were also working on a tunnel that can took them directly to the famous Jam Gadang, but (fortunately?) Hiroshima and Nagashaki was bombed, the Nippon was pulled out back to their home land. the tunnel remains unfinished.
See picture above? They even built branches, not only an one-way-tunnel. the left one has access ti main road, the right one is dead end.
What remain mystery is , where those Nippon threw the rock and/or soil during the construction. It was suppose to be a secret tunnel, thus local people should not aware there was a tunnel construction. This is also genius! The Japanese was cruel and heartless but genius.
I got goosebumps when I was there, so anxious that I wanted to finish this history tour soon as possible. nevertheless, the whole story was interesting.
You should visit this Point of Interest. 😉
me and my story 