Tawau

Tawau (Malaysian pronunciation: [ˈta wau], Jawi: تاواو‎, Chinese: 斗湖; pinyin: Dǒu Hú) formerly known as Tawao, is a town and administrative centre of Tawau Division, Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest town in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. It is bordered by the Sulu Sea to the east, the Celebes Sea to the south at Cowie Bay^{[note 1]} and shares a border with North Kalimantan. The town had an estimated population as of 2010 of 113,809,^[2] while the whole municipality area had a population of 397,673.

Before the founding of Tawau, the region around it was the subject of dispute between the British and Dutch spheres of influence. In 1893, the first British merchant vessel sailed into Tawau, marking the opening of the town's sea port. In 1898, the British set up a settlement in Tawau. The British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBC) accelerated growth of the settlement's population by encouraging the immigration of Chinese. Consequent to the Japanese occupation of North Borneo, the Allied forces bombed the town, in mid-1944, razing it to the ground. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, 2,900 Japanese soldiers in Tawau became prisoners of war and were transferred to Jesselton. Tawau was rebuilt after the war and by the end of 1947 the economy was restored back into its pre-war status. Tawau was also the main point of conflict during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation from 1963 to 1966. During that time, it was garrisoned by the British Special Boat Section, and guarded by Australian Destroyers and combat aircraft. In December 1963, Tawau was bombed twice by Indonesia and shootings occurred across the Tawau-Sebatik Island international border. Indonesians were found trying to poison the town's water supply. In January 1965, a curfew was imposed to prevent Indonesian attackers from making contact with Indonesians living in the town. While in June 1965, another attempted invasion by the Indonesian forces was repelled by bombardment by an Australian Destroyer. Military conflict finally ended in December 1966.

Among the tourist attractions in Tawau are: The Tawau International Cultural Festival, Tawau Bell Tower, Japanese War Cemetery, Confrontation Memorial, Teck Guan Cocoa Museum, Tawau Hills National Park, Bukit Gemok, and Tawau Tanjung Markets. The main economic activities of the town are: timber, cocoa, oil palm plantations, and prawn farming.

History[edit]

Like most of part of Borneo, this area was once under the control of the Bruneian Empire^[3] in the 15th century before been ceded to the Sultanate of Sulu between the 1600s^[4] and 1700s^[5] as a gift for helping the Bruneian forces during a civil war that happened in Brunei. The name Tawao was used on a nautical charts by 1857,^[6] and there is evidence of a settlement by 1879. The East India Company had establish a trading post in Borneo, though there was no significant activity by the Dutch on the east coast.^[7] In 1846, Netherlands formed a treaty with the Sultan of Bulungan, where the latter assured the Dutch control of the area.^[7] When the Dutch began to operate in 1867, the Sultan married his son to the daughter of the Sultan of Tarakan. Around this time, the Dutch sphere of influence reached the Tawao. They controlled the area north of Tawao, overlapping an area controlled by the Sultan of Sulu.^[7]

In 1878, Sultanate of Sulu sold the southern part of his land bounded by the Sibuco River to a Austro-Hungarian consul Baron von Overbeck, who later tried to sell the territory to the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy for use as a penal colony but failed, leaving Alfred Dent to manage and establishing the British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBC).^[8] The BNBC negotiated in the 1880s with the Dutch for a definition of a boundary between the area conferred by the Sultan of Sulu and the area that the Dutch claimed from Sultan of Bulungan to settle a dispute that arising from the unknown exact location of the real border between the territory that was held by the Sultanate of Sulu and the Sultanate of Bulungan.^[7] On 20 January 1891, a final agreement was reached on a line along 4° 10' north latitude – on the central division of the Sebatik Island.^{[7][note 3]} In the early 1890s, approximately 200 people lived in the Tawao settlement, mostly immigrants from Bulungan in Kalimantan, and some from Tawi-Tawi who had fled from Dutch and Spanish rule.^[9][10][11] The settlement was renamed from Tawao to Tawau. Most of those who fled from the Dutch colonisation continued trading with the Dutch.^[9] In 1893, a British vessel S.S. Normanhurst sailed into Tawau with a cargo to trade. In 1898, the British built a settlement which later grew rapidly when the BNBC sponsored the migration of Chinese to Tawau.^[12][13]

Japanese civilians and soldiers prior to their embarkation to Jesselton, the bell tower can be seen behind.

On 16 December 1941, during World War II, the Japanese invasion of Borneo began. After the first landing in Miri, the Japanese moved along the coastline of Borneo from the oil fields of Kuching and towards Jesselton. Life in Tawau continued as usual until 24 January 1942 when the Japanese were sighted off Batu Tinagat. The district officer Cole Adams and his assistant were expecting an attack at the shipyard but were instead arrested by the Japanese.^{[note 4]} The Allies began counterattacking the Japanese in mid-1944 with the bombing of Tawau. From 13 April 1945, six massive air strikes were made on town, concentrating on the port facilities. The last and largest of these attacks was on 1 May 1945 when 19 Liberator bombers bombed Tawau until it was completely razed to the ground.^[14]After an unconditional surrender of the 37th Japanese Army under Lieutenant General Masao Baba in mid-September at Labuan, 1,100 Australian soldiers in Sandakan under the command of Lt. Col. JA England marched into the Japanese bases at Tawau. A total of 2,900 Japanese soldiers of the 370th battalion under Major Sugasaki Moriyuki were taken as prisoners of war and transferred to Jesselton.^[15][16]

An aerial view of Tawau town in 1947.

At the end of the war, the town had been largely destroyed by bombing and fire; the Bell tower was the only intact pre-war structure. Tawau quickly recovered. Though almost all the shops were destroyed, a report by The British North Borneo Annual Report in 1947 wrote that "the pre-war economy was largely made towards the end of 1947". In the first six months post-war, the British rebuilt 170 shops and commercial buildings. By 1 July 1947, subsidies for the purchase of rice and flour were introduced.^[17]