Editing Guadalcanal (section)

=== Second World War ===
{{Main|Guadalcanal campaign}}
[[File:Deceased Japanese soldiers after Battle of the Tenaru, Guadalcanal, 1942.jpg|thumb|left|Japanese soldiers, killed while assaulting US Marine positions at the mouth of Alligator Creek]]

In the months following the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, the Japanese drove the Americans out of the [[Philippines]], the British out of [[British Malaya]], and the Dutch out of the [[Dutch East Indies|East Indies]]. The Japanese then began to expand into the western Pacific, occupying many islands in an attempt to build a defensive ring around their conquests and threaten the lines of communication from the United States to Australia and New Zealand. The Japanese reached Guadalcanal in May 1942.

When an American reconnaissance mission spotted construction of a Japanese airfield at [[Lunga Point]] on the north coast of Guadalcanal, the situation became critical.<ref>[[Edwin P. Hoyt]], ''Japan's War'', p 305-6 {{ISBN|0-07-030612-5}}</ref> This new Japanese airfield represented a threat to Australia, so as a matter of urgency, despite not being adequately prepared, the United States conducted its first amphibious landing of the war on Guadalcanal. The initial landings of the [[1st Marine Division]] on 7 August 1942 secured the airfield with little difficulty, but holding the airfield for the next six months against combined Japanese ground assault, air attack and naval bombardment was one of the most hotly contested campaigns in the entire Pacific theater of war.

Immediately after landing on the island, U.S. Navy [[Seabee]]s began finishing the airfield begun by the Japanese. It was then named [[Henderson Field (Guadalcanal)|Henderson Field]] after a Marine aviator killed in combat during the [[Battle of Midway]]. Aircraft operating from Henderson Field during the campaign were a mix of U.S. Marine, Army, Navy, and other Allied aircraft that became known as the [[Cactus Air Force]]. They defended the airfield and threatened any Japanese ships that ventured too close to the island during daylight hours. At night, however, Japanese naval forces were frequently able to shell the airfield and deliver troops with supplies, retiring before daylight. The Japanese used fast ships, namely destroyers, to conduct this reinforcement and supply effort, which became known as the [[Tokyo Express]]. So many ships from both sides were sunk in the many naval engagements in and around the Solomon Island chain that the nearby waters came to be referred to as [[Ironbottom Sound]].
[[File:Guadalcanal American Memorial.jpg|thumb|Guadalcanal American Memorial]]
The naval [[Battle of Cape Esperance]] was fought on 11 October 1942 in the waters off the northwest coast of Guadalcanal. During the engagement, the [[United States Navy]] intercepted and defeated a Japanese formation of ships on their way down "[[New Georgia Sound|the Slot]]" to reinforce and resupply troops on the island, suffering losses of their own in the process. The multi-day [[Naval Battle of Guadalcanal]] in early November marked a critical turning point in the campaign. Allied naval forces engaged a large, experienced Japanese surface force at night and forced it to withdraw, sinking the [[Japanese battleship Kirishima|IJN battleship ''Kirishima'']] in the process. This was one of only two times in the Pacific theater of war that two battleships engaged each other in combat, with the next such engagement occurring in 1944 during the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]]. Some Japanese viewpoints consider these naval engagements, which showcased the improving capability of Allied warships to challenge the Imperial Japanese Navy's significant advantage in night-fighting techniques, to be just as significant as the Battle of Midway in turning the tide against them.

After six months of hard combat in and around Guadalcanal, the Japanese forces on the island were critically undersupplied and no longer combat effective, while Allied troops were steadily increasing in quantity and quality. Remaining Japanese forces on the island were evacuated at [[Cape Esperance]] on the northwest coast in February 1943.<ref>{{cite web |title=Naval History and Heritage "Guadalcanal Campaign, August 1942 – February 1943 |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/guadlcnl/guadlcnl.htm |website=www.history.navy.mil |access-date=14 March 2010 |archive-date=3 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203110003/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/guadlcnl/guadlcnl.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on 9 February 1943. The Guadalcanal campaign was a major turning point in the war, as it stopped further Japanese expansion. 

Two U.S. Navy ships have been named for the campaign:
*[[USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60)|USS ''Guadalcanal'' (CVE-60)]] was a World War II escort carrier.
*[[USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7)|USS ''Guadalcanal'' (LPH-7)]] was an amphibious assault ship.

To date, the only [[United States Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guardsman]] recipient of the [[Medal of Honor]] is Signalman 1st Class [[Douglas Albert Munro]], awarded posthumously for his extraordinary heroism on 27 September 1942 at [[Point Cruz]]. Munro provided covering fire and helped evacuate 500 besieged Marines from a beach at Point Cruz; he was killed during the evacuation. During the [[Battle for Henderson Field]], the Medal of Honor was also awarded to [[John Basilone]], who was later killed in action during the [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] in 1945.

After the war, American and Japanese groups repeatedly visited Guadalcanal to search for the remains of missing soldiers. The bodies of some 7,000 Japanese troops remain missing on the island, and islanders still bring the Japanese groups bones that they say are those of unearthed Japanese soldiers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/world/japanese-unearth-remains-and-their-nations-past-on-guadalcanal.html |title=Japanese Unearth Remains, and Their Nation's Past, on Guadalcanal |last=Fackler |first=Martin |date=2014-11-29 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |language=en |access-date=2019-07-13 |archive-date=5 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205211312/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/world/japanese-unearth-remains-and-their-nations-past-on-guadalcanal.html?searchResultPosition=1 |url-status=live }}</ref>