Passport
A document of life
This passport was in Sara Koen’s pocket when she dived overboard to save herself and her family during the Japanese air raid on Broome on 3rd March in 1942. They were passengers on the X1 Dornier flying boat and were fleeing from the Japanese invasion of Indonesia, where her father had been a mechanic at the Royal Dutch Air Force base in Netherland East Indies. Her family survived the raid by swimming to safety through water covered in burning oil. After the raid, in which 80 people died, her passport was fished out of Roebuck Bay and returned to her. It was soaking wet but undamaged and Sara continued to use the passport for years afterwards.
