Tourism
Salvaging Solomons Economy
War heroes help out islanders
A retired Bishop of New York and other United States Marine heroes of the 1942/43 bloody South Pacific Battle of Guadalcanal, are helping salvage an economy ravaged by a short but nasty civil war between Solomon Islanders nearly 60 years later.
As a marine officer, Paul Moore, for 20 years Episcopalian Bishop of New York, landed in the Solomon Islands in 1942 to win the Silver Star and Navy Cross fighting occupying Japanese troops. He survived a shot through his heart on a Honiara beachfront - now the location of a Japanese-owned hotel.
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Now Moore, several United States Medal of Honour winners, and the family of President John Kennedy, who as a PT boat commander, had his craft rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, are backing the launch of two foundations dedicated to organising tours of Guadalcanal and other Solomon Islands battlegrounds, according to John Innes, a British war history buff, and owner of a Solomon Islands computer company.
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Innes said until Kennedy's recent death, another Guadalcanal veteran, Senator John Chaffe, was president of the Battle of Guadalcanal Foundation. Moore, who revisited Guadalcanal earlier this year, was a board member and Senator Edward Kennedy was another supporter.
"They are asking how much seed money do we need, and where is it best going to be spent? We have resolved that we don't want any more memorials. For everybody's benefit the best way to preserve history, we think, is through tourism.
"That hill is important from a military history point of view, so don't put crops or a house on it, we are asking Solomon Islanders. Here is some money because people are going to come and look at it, if you don¹t do anything.
"The battlefields are still untouched, almost pristine in some of the areas you can go to. There's barbed wire, fox holes, grenades, even remains of individuals.
"Fortunately, land mines were not very much used. But I've got a couple of live grenades I shouldn¹t have and whatnot. Everybody here has a piece of the Second World War in their house. It is very visible, and I think it's a very much underrated tourist asset. We don't loose a tree or a fish and all that's taken away are memories when people go over the battlefields. We had a man who found his individual fox hole on Hill 27."
The Battle of Guadalcanal is the recognised turning point of the Allied war against the Japanese after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour.
United States forces landed in Guadalcanal in August 1942. Fighting cost about 35,000 Japanese and American lives, including 25,000 Japanese and 5000 men lost in 70 warships sunk in Iron Bottom Sound, off the east coast of Guadalcanal.
Innes, announcing the launch of the battlefield tour project, said more than two million United States troops passed through the Solomon Islands during 1942-1945. But only 20 veterans returned in any year to revisit the battlefields.
"I want to turn the tap on and see how many more come," he said. Innes said while veterans of Guadalcanal were now in their 80s, sons and grandsons wished to see where their fathers and grandfathers fought.
"The veterans don¹t show a lot of emotion. They don¹t break down in tears. But they do like to go back to certain sites. Now for the first time since World War Two there are organised tours of the battlefields.
"The two foundations effectively operate as one with all on each other¹s boards. We recognised that there is no money here and that money is available from America.
"We are well connected, not just personally but with the commandant of the marines, secretary of the navy and some very important political figures. People that have made it now have fathers that fought here, so there is quite a feeling towards the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal."
