Morotai Island (Indonesian: Pulau Morotai) is an isle located inward the Halmahera grouping of eastern Indonesia's Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is governed every bit a regency of North Maluku province, called Morotai Island Regency Kabupaten Pulau Morotai , as well as is i of Indonesia's northernmost islands.
History
During the fifteenth as well as sixteenth centuries, Morotai was to a greater extent than oft than non inside the sphere of influence of the powerful sultanate on the isle of Ternate. It was the essence of a larger region, called Moro, that included the isle as well as the coastline of Halmahera closest to Morotai to the south.
In the mid-sixteenth century, the isle was likewise the site of a Portuguese Jesuit mission. The Muslim states on Ternate as well as Halmahera resented the outpost for its proselytising activities, as well as managed to crusade the mission from the isle inward 1571, every bit a business office of a larger Portuguese retreat inward the region. In the seventeenth century, Ternate farther exerted its ability over Morotai past times repeatedly forcing major parts of the population to motion off the island. Early inward the century nigh of the population was moved to Dodinga, a pocket-size town inward a strategic location on Halmahera's westward coast. Later, inward 1627 as well as 1628, Sultan Hamzah of Ternate had much of the Christian population of the isle moved to Malayu, on Ternate, where they could live on to a greater extent than easily controlled.
Geography
Morotai is a rugged, forested isle lying to the due north of Halmahera. It has an expanse of roughly 1,800 km2, stetching eighty km north-south as well as no to a greater extent than than 42 km wide. The island's largest town is Daruba, on the islands S coast. Almost all of Morotai's numerous villages are coastal settlements; a paved route linking those on the E coast starts from Daruba as well as volition eventually gain Berebere, the primary town on Morotai's E coast, 68 km from Daruba.
World War II
The isle was captured past times the Japanese inward early on 1942. Morotai's southern manifestly was taken past times AmericanBattle of Morotai, as well as used every bit a staging signal for the Allied invasion of the Philippines inward early on 1945, as well as of Kalimantan inward May as well as June of that year. Japanese soldier Teruo Nakamura held out subsequent to the Japanese military's surrender. forces inward September 1944 during the was discovered inward the Morotai jungle inward 1974, every bit i of the WWII Japanese soldiers who held out subsequent to the Japanese military's surrender.
