Friday , January 15th 1999
  After breakfast I walked down to the bank to change some money then on to the Customs building at Point Cruz to see my friend Timothy, who I had met when I was here in 1998. I gave him a book on Guadalcanal and some other paperwork for his wife Margaret, who is a teacher at the Honiara High school on the east bank of the Matanikau River.

Point Cruz - Click for photos

Timothy said he could drive me around on the weekend and had a friend , Milay , who could drive me during the week . We arranged to meet at the hotel at 2.00 p.m.

Henderson Field - Click for photos

I bought some malaria tablets downtown and then went to the National Museum to talk to Lawrence the Director and give him a book on Guadalcanal and some other items .   In the course of conversation he said that at present there has been no more discussion of changing the name of the Airport . I noted on the new terminal it said "Henderson International Airport" in big gold letters . No more of this Jap inspired change the name stuff ! Martin Clemens informed me the same thing was tried 20 years ago too.

After seeing Lawrence I went for a walk East towards the Matanikau river . Stoping at the market I looked at the stall of Samuel Poa ,the guy who sells the wartime dated Coca Cola bottles . He had about 40 bottles for sale , plus some battered American mess trays and a quantity of .50 and .30 calibre cartridge cases . Near the Matanikau bridge are about 6 remaining US Nissen huts from 1944 / 45.

I walked down to the west bank and along the beach area where Marine Colonel Frank Goettge and his patrol were killed on August 12th 1942. I talked to a lot of kids and teenagers and showed them my 1942 comparison photos. They were very interested, so I gave them a lot of the photocopies.

Matanikau - click for photos

As we walked down to the Matanikau sandbar the smaller kids kept pointing to the beach and shouted "Japani tank ! Japani tank !" . They were of course referring to the 1 remaining tank hull of the 8 Japanese tanks that were knocked out here in October 1942 .

It was high tide, so I could not see the turret above the waves as you can at low tide . There were 3 kids out there using it as a diving board and having a great time.

  Retracing my steps I crossed the Matanikau bridge and lined up a couple of comparison photos on the East bank . There is a pedestrian overpass just pass the bridge that gave a good view down the road to the East and over towards Kukum beach and Lunga Point . This is the area where the 1st Marine Raider Battalion fought the Japanese Company that had a bridgehead on the East bank .

I walked up the Matanikau East bank through Chinatown to the bend of the river to the "Bailey" bridge we crossed in 98. Just a little further upstream was the site of the original "one tree bridge" . Honiara High school was a little farther up the road . Timothy said his son had found a couple of cartridge cases in the playground recently . After taking some photos I crossed the bridge back to the West bank and walked up Hill 82 to take another shot of the Nissen huts across the road and enjoy the view towards Lunga . The day was warming up now , so I went back to the hotel and spent 30 minutes in the pool .

Timothy introduced me to Milay at 2.00 p.m. and then he had to go back to work . Milay and I drove to Edson's Ridge battlefield . I noticed that some land opposite Henderson was been sold for development . I was told a hotel was to be expanded and possibly a beachside suburb created near the old American living area . There was also talk of tourist cabins for divers etc . They were bulldozing a new road towards the beach a couple of hundred yards north of Pagoda Hill . I noticed one plot not far from Pagoda Hill was fenced off and had a building on it . There had been a lot of rain over the Christmas / New Year period and there was grass everywhere.

  The Japanese memorial on the first ridge looked a bit overgrown , which was a bit unusual . The Japanese Embassy pays the villagers to keep it neat . Milay said they gave them a lawn mover for that purpose - looks like it had not been used for a while.

  Walking back to mid ridge we veered off the path into the grass to the left . This area would have been full of Japanese firing across to the final defensive knoll ,so I hoped to find a few cartridge cases. We looked around , but the grass was so thick all I came across was a single Springfield rifle ammo clip sticking out of the soil . There must be a lot of stuff just under the surface . You would really have to burn off the grass and go digging - it was damn hot in there too . Walking back down the path we found one US bullet head and encountered a few more kids who said they had no relics .

  The grass was thick in front of the final defensive knoll but I wanted to find the line of barbed wire stakes and wire I saw there in 1996 (they had burnt off the grass that year) .We walked down to the area where 200 Japanese had fallen . After a few minutes we found the stakes, ending in a full roll of wire still sitting in the dirt 57 years on , like it was frozen there . 20 feet down the slope in front of this roll we found the live US grenade in 1996 . I got a few pieces of wire as souvenirs.

  It was very hot in the high grass here . Climbing back on top of the ridge I had a last look at the memorial and took a few photos of the ridge area that C Company Marine Raiders defended . We drove back down to Henderson and had a couple of Cokes at the old terminal building (now the domestic flights terminal) and I took photos of the memorial pillars and Jap 75mm AA gun out the front .

  Once again a lot of grass around the memorials that needed to be cut back . Of all the US memorials I saw these and their metal plaques stand the test of time best (apart from Skyline Ridge) . Now that the new International Terminal is open it is a pity that arriving overseas tourists do not see these as they arrive on Guadalcanal.

Ilu River - eastward

Driving East we came down to the track to the Ilu river battle area . Last year we were told that this area had been sold for development . There was now a gate across the track , so we couldn't drive down. Leaving the taxi we walked towards the beach . The track was pretty overgrown and obviously had not been used by a vehicle since last year . There were still plenty of aircraft parts and other wreckage in the bushes and trees on both sides of the track (and mosquitos of course) . I saw no sign of development.

 

  The memorial pillar on the West bank near the sandbar was as I remembered it from last year - obscured by 7 foot high grass , dirty and with the plaque ripped off (in fact the same as when I first saw it in 1995). Pretty sad I thought . The beach had beer cans and other rubbish scattered about . This could be a great tourist site with a bit of clean up work . Apart from most of the palm trees gone the terrain is virtually untouched .

  I took some photos and video and we walked back up the track to the car. Eagle eye Milay spotted a fired US .30 calibre cartridge case and the head of a Japanese Nambu pistol bullet about 50 feet up the track . This was my fourth visit to the site but the first time we had found any evidence of the battle (not counting all the post battle stuff dumped here).

  I called it a day and went back to the hotel . After jumping in the pool for a while I cleaned the rounds I had found . They were in pretty good condition for being out in the open so long . I had dinner and then wrote up this diary.

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