Previously I reported – or rather opined – from a remote South Pacific spot. As I write this, I am now just nine degrees south of the equator having, this morning, departed the expedition cruise ship that has been ‘home’ for three weeks. And before stepping onto the gangway experienced a moving and meaningful Anzac commemoration where around 20 Australian and New Zealand passengers ground out their national anthems with tearful pride.
Peter Carr
And so ashore onto the very hot and humid wharf area to board a tour bus en route to the airport at Honiara – previously named Henderson Field. The tour encompassed the USA-supplied Parliament Building but also the stark, simple and hill top memorial to World War II activities in the Guadacanal area.
I last visited Honiara (on shipping business) in far-off 1979, leaving the city to fly in a small plane along the watery ‘Slot’ to a small port in remote Bouganville, Papua New Guinea. Looking down from only 10,000 feet that day through the crystal clear waters of the Slot we clearly witnessed the ravages of war with many wrecked Japanese and USA warships (and crews) in their watery grave.
So back to the monument. Clearly set out are the details of vicious activity in a hot and sweaty environment in 1942. I was ‘enjoying’ nightly German bombing at that time in a much colder place. But reading the monument’s historic facts I am reminded of the futility of politically driven warmongering. All very well centuries ago when kings drove (and often financed) the activity. During that memorable Anzac service on the ship I recalled that it was a politician named (Winston) Churchill who consigned over 12,000 men to their deaths in Turkey. This to create a maritime-related diversion.
The Guadacanal campaign lasted six weary, hot months. Resulting in an enormous loss of ships (78) and huge numbers of young men on both sides sent to the bottom of the sea. Later the battle turned to defending the building of the Henderson Field air strip where, mainly American (supported by NZ and Australian), troops toiled to put together a much-needed supply hub. The death and destruction figures were – and still are – horrific and further point to future conflicts taking place around a conference table rather than in deep waters and upon muddy shores.
That said bringing ourselves to the modern era the current conflicts in both Ukraine and Israel / Gaza bear witness to the political aspirations of a small number of unbalanced men. The leaders of Russia, Israel and most of the EU are all hell-bent on still carving out pieces of land that they neither need nor care to put to good use. Sitting on the sideline are those whose handwringing, posturing and associated inaction to create a solution bears witness to further futility.
Standing on that very hot monument-adorned hill in Honiara last Friday I reflected that not much has changed. Throwing men (and now women) at a physical conflict is wasteful of energy, lives, land and the associated huge personal loss to innocent non-combative citizens caught in the crossfire. The financial and commercial outfall from these lunatic activities of politicians needs reining in. We should be grateful for the fact that we live in a quiet corner at the bottom end of the world’s largest ocean – however modern visual and electronic communication now presents the conflicts every hour on a variety of screens.
