At the water's edger near the Japanese memorial.

An upright concrete memorial with an inscribed metal plaque.

The memorial remembers the 1st Marine Division landings at "Red Beach" on Guadelcanal on August 7, 1942.

Background:

In order to safeguard their strategic operating base at Rabaul, New Britain, the Japanese captured Tulagi on 3 May 1942 and occupied nearby Guadalcanal on 8 June in order to construct a support base and airfield. These footholds in the British-administered Solomon Islands also supported Japan's southward thrust into New Guinea and toward Australia. Following the victory at Midway, CNO and Commander-in-Chief U.S. Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King was able to assert the Navy's command primacy in the Pacific and overcame resistance by the U.S. Army to immediate offensive operations against Japan, which was still assessing the full scope of its recent defeat. Thus, Operation Watchtower, conceived and planned in under a month, only encompassed the sea services. Eight months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the 1st Marine Division, supported by naval air and gunnery support, landed at Beach Red on Guadalcanal and at Blue Beach on Tulagi and its adjacent islets.

Source: https://www.history.navy.mil

RED BEACH

At 09:10 7th August 1942 the 1st Marine Division began landing on this shore.

The first to set foot were the 5th Marine Regiment followed by the 1st Marine Regiment and other supporting units of the division.

Together with the Landings this signaled the first American offensive in WWII.

The first step on the long road to Tokyo took place here on the gth February 1943 the Japanese finally evacuated Guadalcanal after losing 31,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen in the struggle.

The US forces lost 7,000 men securing the victory.