It would take six long months of gruelling fighting and the loss of some 40,000 lives, including 31,000 Japanese soldiers, before the US Forces and their allies could wrest control of the island and place the Japanese Imperial Army on the defensive for the first time.
It was also very hard-won, involving intense land, sea and air combat with both sides not only battling the enemy but also suffocating heat, intense food shortages, dysentery and malaria.
The Solomon Islanders say that every step taken in the archipelago is a step into history and reflecting huge interest in the country’s WWII history today, battlefield tours and visits to other significant sites are readily available via local guides who offer memorable and moving tours. These include visits to the American memorial at Skyline Ridge and the Japanese Solomons Peace Memorial.
Many of the battlefield sites remain virtually untouched and wreckage and detritus from the fighting, from rusting jeeps and tanks to amphibious vehicles and crashed aircraft has been collected and placed in huge ‘open air’ museums.
A must for anyone visiting Munda in the Western Province, the Peter Joseph WWII Museum offers visitors a huge collection of US and Japanese military utensils, ammunition, machine guns, shells, crockery, helmets, shavers and knives left behind by the Allied and Japanese forces after the conflict ended.
The museum is named after US Marine Peter Joseph whose dog tags were one of curator Alphy Paulson’s first finds when he began collecting WWII debris in 2000.