On 9 February 1943 Major General Alexander Patch reported to Admiral William Halsey the total and complete defeat of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. That afternoon two American columns had met at the village of Tenaro, near Cape Esperance, but they found only stragglers. In three night runs, the last on the night of 7 to 8 February, Japanese destroyers had already taken off more than 10,000 men. The six-month struggle for the island, which began with the Marine landings of 7 August 1942, was over.
Six months on Guadalcanal
On 7 August 1942 some 6,000 men of the 1st Marine Division under Major General Alexander Vandegrift landed on Guadalcanal and Florida Island in the southern Solomons, aiming at the airfield the Japanese were building there. Months of fighting on land, at sea and in the air followed. On 9 December Patch, of the US Army, took over command on the island from Vandegrift, and the exhausted 1st Marine Division was withdrawn.1
The Japanese high command gave up. On 31 December Imperial General Headquarters canceled a planned counteroffensive, and on 4 January 1943 General Hitoshi Imamura and Vice Admiral Jinichi Kusaka were ordered to evacuate the survivors. Patch's XIV Corps, meanwhile, attacked westward from 10 January and pushed the Japanese back toward Cape Esperance.2
Operation Ke
The Japanese hid their intentions well. They stepped up air attacks on Henderson Field and landed about 600 fresh troops near Cape Esperance on 14 January to cover the withdrawal, so the Americans expected a new offensive rather than a retreat. Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake's 17th Army began pulling back to Cape Esperance on the night of 22 to 23 January.3
The destroyers came down the Slot on the nights of 1 to 2, 4 to 5 and 7 to 8 February. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, the three runs took off 4,953, 3,921 and 1,972 men; those runs add up to 10,846, although the same page gives a total of 10,652; the destroyer Makigumo was lost, probably to a mine. In his report Admiral Chester Nimitz admitted that the Americans did not understand what had happened until all organized Japanese forces had been withdrawn on 8 February.4
Tenaro, 9 February
Patch tried to trap the Japanese between two forces: the 161st Infantry advancing west along the north coast, and a battalion of the 132d Infantry landed behind them that marched around Cape Esperance. On 8 February the battalion found abandoned landing craft and supplies on the beach. Between 4 and 5 p.m. on 9 February the two forces met at Tenaro, which the Army's official history calls the end of organized fighting on Guadalcanal. The Marine Corps history likewise dates the end of organized resistance to 9 February.5
Patch then signaled Halsey: "Total and complete defeat of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal effected 1625 today," adding that the "Tokyo Express no longer has terminus on Guadalcanal". Britannica dates the elimination of the last Japanese pocket to 8 February. More on the campaign is in our article on Guadalcanal.6
The cost
The Army's official history counts about 60,000 American ground troops on the island, of whom about 1,600 were killed and 4,245 wounded. Of more than 36,000 Japanese who fought there, it says, over 14,800 were killed or missing, 9,000 died of disease and about 1,000 were taken prisoner. The Naval History and Heritage Command puts the Japanese dead at over 20,000.7
The number evacuated is disputed. The Naval History and Heritage Command gives 10,652; the Army history cites Japanese figures of about 13,000, and an American report of 9,100; the Marine Corps history calls the 13,000 figure perhaps an exaggeration; Britannica gives 12,000. Guadalcanal's place among the other Pacific campaigns is covered in the greatest battles of the Pacific War, and its leaders in the commanders of the Pacific War.8
Also on this day
- 1904: Battle of Chemulpo Bay. A Japanese squadron under Rear Admiral Uryū Sotokichi attacked the Russian cruiser Varyag and an old gunboat at Chemulpo, now Incheon, at the opening of the Russo-Japanese War.
