perceived as distasteful and harmful. It is hard to imagine if there is any tourist feeling joyful visiting this site and sees it as a place for a frivolous picture snapping.
These sites, and many like them, are bound together by a shroud of darkness. They exemplify the darker aspects of the human experience: crime, war, death, murder,
atrocity, and disaster. They also share an additional social phenomenon: tourism
Repository.tamu.edu. n.d. . By raising this type of educational awareness of the hor-
rifi c past, future genocide will, hopefully, be prevented from occurring Yuill 2003
.
8.3.1 Dark Tourism in Malaysia
Although in some part of the world the visitation to a dark tourism site is becoming more common, in Malaysia , it is still unlikely to fi nd a place that is widely promoted
as a dark tourism attraction site. To date, dark tourism remains an untapped tourism product in Malaysia. Malaysia among other countries in Southeast Asia suffers a
period of dark ages during the occupation of the Japanese army during WWII. Those sites, where battles, suffering, and death occurred in the past, can be developed into
dark tourism product for Malaysia. Examples of possible dark tourism products are outlined in Table
8.2 . Few studies have been done to explore the relationship
between visitor’s motivations and the host community’s acceptance to such dark places in Malaysia. It’s still largely unknown if the Malaysians are aware of the
potential possibility of developing dark tourism site in Malaysia. Hopefully, this study will provide contextual assessment needed prior undergoing any development
proposal of dark tourism. This is special between the government, the tourism industrialist, and the local community in terms of matching this perceived
Table 8.2 Potential dark tourism product in Malaysia
Potential dark tourism product in Malaysia Locality
The WWII Sandakan–Ranau Death March Sandakan to District of Ranau Area, Sabah, East
Malaysia Malaysia Borneo Penang War Museum, Malaysia
Penang, West Malaysia Jerejak Island
Penang, West Malaysia Pulau Bidong
Terengganu, West Malaysia Pulau Berhala
Sandakan, Sabah, East Malaysia Batu Lintang
Kucing, Sarawak, East Malaysia Brothel No. 8
Sandakan, Sabah, East Malaysia Jesselton Kota Kinabalu
Sabah, Malaysia, East Malaysia Labuan
Federal Territory of Malaysia Ranau
Sabah, East Malaysia Pudu Prison
Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia Mantanani Island
Kota Belud, Sabah, East Malaysia Source: Author’s resource
balitrulyyahoo.com
expectation to infl uence management in the tourism setting. Further study will also strive to propose to educate managers of dark sites with regard to their knowledge
on visitors’ motivations and expectations and, thus, to embark guidelines on improv- ing visitor facilities, information, and services.
Due to the lack of available information and documentation, this study is unable to fi nd and list more potential dark tourism sites in West Malaysia . A more compre-
hensive research is needed to report on bigger spectrum of the potential dark tour- ism site around Malaysia. Referring to sites indicated in Table
8.2 , some of the sites
are already drawing a number of visitors to go visit the sites themselves, promoted as historical tourism sites. Except for Brothel No.8, Sandakan, and Pudu Prison,
Kuala Lumpur, all others were associated with the Japanese occupation during WWII. In Malaysia, perhaps the most well-known incident was the case of WWII
Sandakan–Ranau Death March, Sabah, Malaysia. By comparing to similar dark tourism sites in the world examples include WWI battlefi elds – Ypres, Belgium;
Auschwitz, Birkenau; Oswiecim, Poland; Old Melbourne Gaol, Melbourne, Australia; and Choeung Ek, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the Sandakan–Ranau Death
March is perhaps the most potential dark tourism site to be developed in Malaysia. The “Sandakan-–Ranau Death March” fi ts the description of places associated with
death, whether connected to a battle and historical occurrence. The Sandakan– Ranau Death March is already drawing a large number of tourists to visit its
Sandakan Memorial Park, Kundasang War Memorial Park, and Labuan War Memorial Park where all three are related to the incident. However, internationally
and locally, these sites are regarded as historical sites rather than dark tourism sites.
8.3.2 The Sandakan–Ranau Death March Context
