Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. It is on the northern coast of the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city (seat) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak.

History

Between 1943 and 1945, in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Wewak was the site of the largest

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese airbase in mainland New Guinea. The base was subjected to repeated bombing by Australian and American forces, most notably in one massive attack on 17 August 1943. Directly to the west of the town centre is a peninsula known as Cape Wom, which was the site of the surrender of Japanese forces in New Guinea on 13 September 1945. The site now houses a small memorial. The former Japanese airfield is still in use as the Wewak International Airport. In August 1945 two war crimes trials were held near Wewak for mutilation and cannibalism. First Lieutenant Takehiro Tazaki was convicted and sentenced to death (later commuted to 5 years imprisonment with hard labour) and another accused was acquitted.

Geography

The old centre of the town is on a small peninsula, with the rest of the urban area occupying a narrow band of flat land between the ocean and the coastal range of mountains that emerges a short distance inland. To the east of the town center is a small peninsula on which is located Boram Hospital, and Wewak International Airport, which is also known as Boram. Wewak is linked by road to three villages on the

Sepik River The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the third largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River, Fly and Mamberamo River, Mamberamo. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provi ...

: Angoram, Timbunke, and Pagwi, though the roads are not always in good condition. Also, a coastal highway extends to the west, linking Wewak with the coastal towns of Aitape 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 Indonesia–Papua New Guinea border, border with Indonesia, nearest to Jaya ...

, which is the capital of Sandaun province.

Climate

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...

(''Af'').

References

External links

Tourist Information
{{Authority control Provincial capitals in Papua New Guinea Port cities in Oceania Populated places in East Sepik Province

History

Geography

Climate

See also

References

External links