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Vampire
Free Worlds League
Lieutenant Colonel
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 912
Location: Spain
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 Posted: 05-Jun-2003 06:05 Post subject: Petition against renaming Henderson Field |
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from StrategyPage.com
Japanese to Rename WWII Historical Site - Henderson Field
What's So Special About Henderson Field?
It all began in May of 1942. The Japanese landed construction troops on Guadalcanal, an obscure, pestilential island in the southern Solomons, in order to build an airstrip. This field would enable them to interdict Allied supply convoys going to Australia and provide a springboard for further advances to the south. Recognizing the danger from this strategy, the U.S. decided to make Guadalcanal the site of the first Allied offensive in the Pacific. Early that August, the 1st Marine Division made a virtually unopposed landing on Guadalcanal and some smaller nearby islands, where they met considerably more resistance than expected. The Marines cleared the Japanese troops away from the incomplete airfield, and quickly completed it, naming it Henderson Field, for a Marine aviator who had died gallantly during the Battle of Midway.
For the next six months, Japanese ground, naval, and air forces fought desperately to take the airfield back from the Marines. The result was two carrier battles, four major and some 30 smaller naval surface battles, eight major land battles and over 30 major air or air-sea battles, not to mention hundreds of ordinary air raids, all focused on attacking or protecting Henderson Field. By early 1943 it was clear that the Japanese had failed, and they abandoned attempts to retake Henderson Field, evacuating the few troops they had left on the island. The Japanese lost 37,000 troops trying to take Henderson field, American losses were less than 2,000 soldiers and marines. It was the battle that showed the world, and Japan, that Japanese troops were not invincible.
The struggle for the island was so bitter that one historian would later say "for an entire generation of Americans, 'Guadalcanal' was not a name, but an emotion."
After World War II the Solomon Islands became independent, with its capital near Henderson Field, which became a major airport. Today, the Solomons is a troubled land. In an effort to attract foreign investment and tourism, mostly from Japan, the recently government hired a Japanese consulting firm. Among many useful suggestions made was that the airfield be refurbished, and renamed. Japanese tourists arriving on Guadalcanal might ask about the airports strange name. It would be embarrassing for Japanese tourists to be reminded of what happened on Guadalcanal during World War II. Japan's attitude towards World War II has been to try and write it out of their history. Within days of Japans surrender on August 15, 1945, American code breakers were reading messages from Tokyo to Japanese diplomats around the world, ordering them to start a campaign portraying Japan as a victim in the war, and to play down Japanese atrocities and play up Japanese civilian losses in the recent atomic bomb attacks. The Japanese treated the inhabitants of Guadalcanal brutally, and Solomon islanders volunteered to fight for the Allies. But memories fade, particularly in light of the poverty and anarchy that now blight the island.
In response to this renaming proposal, an international campaign has begun to petition the government of the Solomon Islands to retain the historic name Henderson Field, in commemoration of the many thousands who fought and died there. The inhabitants of Guadalcanal should not have to rewrite their history in order to cater to Japanese fantasies.
The link below is to a site where you can sign a petition against this if you so desire.
http://www.petitiononline.com/guad/petition.html
_________________
Memento audare semper
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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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| Posted: 08-Jun-2003 00:21 Post subject: RE: Petition against renaming Henderson Field |
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I just signed on to it. And I sent the link to my best friend over in Uzbeckistan? (spelling?)and asked him to see how many of the troops in his battalion he can get to sign it too.
_________________
"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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