Jayapura
Encyclopedia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, on the island of New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay (formerly known as Humboldt Bay). Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000.
From 1910 to 1962, the city was known as Hollandia and was the capital of a district of the same name in the northeast of West New Guinea. It was briefly called Kota Baru and Sukarnopura before assuming its present name in 1968. The literal meaning of Jayapura, as of Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
in Rajasthan, is 'City of Victory' (Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
jaya: "victory"; pura: "city").
History
The northern part of Dutch New Guinea was occupied by JapaneseEmpire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
forces in 1942. Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
forces drove out the Japanese after amphibious landings near Hollandia
Operations Reckless and Persecution
Operation Reckless, known as the Landing at Hollandia and Operation Persecution known as the Aitape landing, were Allied amphibious landings which commenced the Western New Guinea campaign. Both operations commenced on 22 April 1944....
, from April 21, 1944. The area served as General Douglas MacArthur's
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
headquarters until the conquest of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in March 1945. Over twenty U.S. bases were established and half a million US personnel moved through the area.
In 1945, the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
made Hollandia the capital of Netherlands New Guinea
Netherlands New Guinea
Netherlands New Guinea refers to the West Papua region while it was an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. Until 1949 it was a part of the Netherlands Indies. It was commonly known as Dutch New Guinea...
. After the territory was handed over to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, on October 1, 1962, the city became known by the Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
name Kota Baru, and retained the name when Indonesia took control, on May 1, 1963. The city was briefly renamed Sukarnopura, after President Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
, until the end of 1968, when it acquired its present name.
Jayapura was struck by the Aitape Tsunami after the 1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake
1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake
The 1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that took place in the early evening of Friday, 17 July 1998. The earthquake struck the north coast region of Papua New Guinea, 25 km from the coast near Aitape, and caused a large undersea landslide, which in turn...
.
Religious History
On May 12, 1949, the Apostolic Prefecture of Hollandia was established in the city. In 1963, it was renamed as the Apostolic Vicariate of Kota Baru. In 1964, it was again renamed as the Apostolic Vicariate of Sukarnapura. It was promoted in 1966 as the Diocese of Sukarnapura, renamed in 1969 as the Diocese of Djajapura, and finally renamed in 1973 as the Diocese of Jayapura.Sport
Jayapura is the home of the PersipuraPersipura Jayapura
Persipura, an acronym for Persatuan Sepak Bola Indonesia Jayapura is a professional football club based in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia. The tautology Persipura Jayapura is often used in local media....
, a professional football club that has produced many famous Indonesian footballers and have won the Indonesia Super League once in the 2008–09 season. Persipura plays its home matches in the Mandala Stadium
Mandala Stadium
Mandala Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Jayapura, Papua Province, Indonesia. It is currently used mostly for football matches. It is the home stadium of Persipura Jayapura. The stadium holds 30,000 people. Currently, the stadium is being upgraded so it will reach the capacity target of...
.