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Top Attractions in Guadalcanal

Honiara

Honiara /ˌhoʊnɪˈɑːrə/ is the capital city of Solomon Islands, administered as a provincial town on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal Island. As of 2009 it had a population of 64,609 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the sea port of Point Cruz, and lies along the Kukum Highway. The airport area to the east of Honiara was the site of a battle between the United States and the Japanese during the Guadalcanal Campaign in World War II, the Battle of Henderson Field of 1942, from which America emerged victorious. After Honiara became the new capital of the British Protectorate of Solomon Islands in 1952 with the addition of many administrative buildings, the town began to develop and grow in population. Since the late 1990s, Honiara has suffered a turbulent history of ethnic violence and political unrest and is scarred by rioting. A coup attempt in June 2000 resulted in violent rebellions and fighting between the ethnic Malaitans of the Malaita Eagle Force and the Guadalcanal natives of the Isatabu Freedom Movement . Although a peace agreement was made in October 2000, violence ensued in the city streets in March 2002 when two diplomats from New Zealand and numerous others were murdered. Conditions became so bad in Honiara that in July 2003 the Australian military and police units moved into the country to restore order. In 2006, riots broke out following the election of Snyder Rini as prime minister, destroying a part of Chinatown and making more than 1,000 Chinese residents homeless. The riots devastated the town and tourism in the city and the islands was severely affected. Honiara contains the majority of the major government buildings and institutions of Solomon Islands. The National Parliament of Solomon Islands, Honiara Solomon Islands College of Higher Education, International School in Honiara and University of the South Pacific Solomon Islands are located in Honiara as is the national museum and Honiara Market. Politically Honiara is divided into three parliamentary constituencies, electing three of the 50 members of the National Parliament. These constituencies, East Honiara, Central Honiara and West Honiara, are three of only six constituencies in the country to have an electorate of over 10,000 people. Honiara is predominantly Christian and is served by the headquarters of the Church of the Province of Melanesia , the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Honiara, the South Seas Evangelical Church, the United Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other Christian churches.

University of the South Pacific Solomon Islands

The University of the South Pacific Solomon Islands is a university campus of the University of the South Pacific, based in Honiara, Solomon Islands; apart from the Honiara Solomon Islands College of Higher Education a university in Honiara; and the Woodford International School. The University of the South Pacific campus is located near Chinatown, about 75 metres to the southwest of Lawson Tama Stadium. It offers continuing and community education courses to the South Pacific member countries. Some of the major disciplines in which courses are offered on semester basis are Arts, Law and Education, Business and Economics, Science, Technology and Environment and other disciplines with a gamut of subjects in each discipline. The duration of courses varies from 10 to 32 hours of teaching spread over a number of weeks. Subjects taught based on regional requirements could be in the fields of "computer skills, languages, bookkeeping, mathematics, business studies, economics, creative writing, community development skills, literature, handicrafts, floral arts, fabric arts, woodcarving, fine arts, carving, poetry, music, video production, leadership skills, health studies, public speaking, problem-solving and general literacy skills.” An important programme that is advocated in the USP is to establish an education programme "through distance and flexible learning”, which the relevant texts to learn and teach are prepared in the Laucala Campus in Fiji and adopted in the campuses of all the USP universities across the South Pacific. The 70th University of the South Pacific Council Meeting was held in Honiara from 12 to 13 May 2010. USP members are from the 12 countries of Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. In this meeting it was decided to give priority to develop the 4th Campus in Solomon Islands.

Red House

Red House, located on Vavaya Ridge in Honiara, Solomon Islands, is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands. In October 2011, the National Coalition for Reform and Advancement government of former Prime Minister Danny Philip announced plans to demolish Red House and build a new Prime Minister's residence. The opposition, led by Derek Sikua, decried the announcement, noting that $4 million in renovations had been completed at Red House since August 2010. In November 2011, newly elected Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo reversed the previous government's plans. announcing that he would move into Red House from his residence at the Honiara Hotel, citing a need to spend less taxpayer money on hotel or home rentals for election officials. "I would like to inform the people of Solomon Islands that the Prime Minister will be moving back to the Red House as soon as a minor repair on the residence is complete...I do not indent to reside anywhere else, and wish to tell the people that this Prime Minister will be moving out and into the Red House in a matter of days." Lilo said he would take up residence as soon as minor repairs, such as new locks, were installed.

Guadalcanal Campaign

The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and code-named Operation Watchtower, originally applying only to an operation to take the island of Tulagi, by Allied forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II. It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly United States Marines, landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten the supply and communication routes between the US, Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders, who had occupied the islands since May 1942, and captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as an airfield (later named Henderson Field) that was under construction on Guadalcanal. Powerful US naval forces supported the landings. Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, seven large naval battles (five nighttime surface actions and two carrier battles), and continual, almost daily, aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November, in which the last Japanese attempt to bombard Henderson Field from the sea, and land with enough troops to retake it, was defeated. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943, in the face of an offensive by the US Army's XIV Corps. The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theater. The Japanese had reached the peak of their conquests in the Pacific. The victories at Milne Bay, Buna-Gona, and Guadalcanal marked the Allied transition from defensive operations to the strategic initiative in that theater, leading to offensive operations, such as the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and Central Pacific campaigns, that resulted in Japan's eventual surrender and the end of World War II.

Actions along the Matanikau

The Actions along the Matanikau—sometimes referred to as the Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942, among a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces around the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal (island in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia) during the Guadalcanal Campaign. These particular engagements—the first taking place between 23 and 27 September, and the second between 6 and 9 October—were two of the largest and most significant of the Matanikau actions. The Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and a series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast. Japanese forces used the area to regroup from attacks against U.S. forces on the island, to launch further attacks on the U.S. defenses that guarded the Allied airfield (called Henderson Field) located at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, as a base to defend against Allied attacks directed at Japanese troop and supply encampments between Point Cruz and Cape Esperance on western Guadalcanal, and as a location for watching and reporting on Allied activity around Henderson Field. In the first action, elements of three U.S. Marine battalions under the command of U.S. Marine Major General Alexander Vandegrift attacked Japanese troop concentrations at several points around the Matanikau River. The Marine attacks were intended to "mop-up" Japanese stragglers retreating towards the Matanikau from the recent Battle of Edson's Ridge, to disrupt Japanese attempts to use the Matanikau area as a base for attacks on the Marine Lunga defenses, and to destroy any Japanese forces in the area. The Japanese—under the overall command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi—repulsed the Marine attacks. During the action, three U.S. Marine companies were surrounded by Japanese forces, took heavy losses, and barely escaped with assistance from a U.S. Navy destroyer and landing craft manned by U.S. Coast Guard personnel. In the second action two weeks later, a larger force of U.S. Marines successfully crossed the Matanikau River, attacked Japanese forces under the command of newly arrived generals Masao Maruyama and Yumio Nasu, and inflicted heavy casualties on a Japanese infantry regiment. The second action forced the Japanese to retreat from their positions east of the Matanikau and hindered Japanese preparations for their planned major offensive on the U.S. Lunga defenses set for later in October 1942 that resulted in the Battle for Henderson Field.

Battle of Edson's Ridge

The Battle of Edson's Ridge, also known as the Battle of the Bloody Ridge, Battle of Raiders Ridge, and Battle of the Ridge, was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Imperial Japanese Army and Allied (mainly United States Marine Corps) ground forces. It took place from 12–14 September 1942, on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, and was the second of three separate major Japanese ground offensives during the Guadalcanal Campaign. In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, repulsed an attack by the Japanese 35th Infantry Brigade, under the command of Japanese Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi. The Marines were defending the Lunga perimeter that guarded Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, which was captured from the Japanese by the Allies in landings on Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942. Kawaguchi's unit was sent to Guadalcanal in response to the Allied landings with the mission of recapturing the airfield and driving the Allied forces from the island. Underestimating the strength of Allied forces on Guadalcanal–about 12,000–Kawaguchi's 6,000 soldiers conducted several nighttime frontal assaults on the U.S. defenses. The main Japanese assault occurred around Lunga ridge south of Henderson Field, manned by troops from several U.S. Marine Corps units, primarily troops from the 1st Raider and 1st Parachute Battalions under U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. Edson. Although the Marine defenses were almost overrun, Kawaguchi's attack was ultimately defeated, with heavy losses for the Japanese. Because of the key participation by Edson's unit in defending the ridge, the ridge was commonly referred to as "Edson's" ridge in historical accounts of the battle in Western sources. After Edson's Ridge, the Japanese continued to send troops to Guadalcanal for further attempts to retake Henderson Field, affecting Japanese offensive operations in other areas of the South Pacific.

Guadalcanal American Memorial

The Guadalcanal American Memorial is a World War II monument on Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands. Dedicated in August 7, 1992, it was established as a tribute to the Americans and their allies who lost their lives during the Guadalcanal Campaign from 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943. The capital city of Honiara is to its north. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Red Beach landings, the U.S. War Memorial was dedicated on 7 August 1992. An account of this is also inscribed on red marble tablets inside the monument compound. The memorial was a joint effort of the American Battle Monuments Commission and the Guadalcanal-Solomon Islands Memorial Commission, and was at the initiative of Robert F Reynolds, Chief of Valors Tours Ltd. The memorial is maintained by the ABMC. Every year on 7 August, a commemorative ceremony is held to mark the first day of the battle. Another monument, erected by the Japanese on Mount Austen, is a tribute to the Japanese who lost their lives.

Battle of Mount Austen

The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse, part of which is sometimes called the Battle of the Gifu, took place from 15 December 1942 to 23 January 1943 and was primarily an engagement between United States and Imperial Japanese forces in the hills near the Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign. The U.S. forces were under the overall command of Alexander Patch and the Japanese forces were under the overall command of Harukichi Hyakutake. In the battle, U.S. soldiers and Marines, assisted by native Solomon Islanders, attacked Japanese Army forces defending well-fortified and entrenched positions on several hills and ridges. The most prominent hills were called Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse by the Americans. The U.S. was attempting to destroy the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal and the Japanese were trying to hold their defensive positions until reinforcements could arrive. Both sides experienced extreme difficulties in fighting in the thick jungles and tropical environment that existed in the battle area. Many of the American troops were also involved in their first combat operations. The Japanese were mostly cut off from resupply and suffered greatly from malnourishment and lack of medical care. After some difficulty, the U.S. succeeded in taking Mount Austen, in the process reducing a strongly defended position called the Gifu, as well as the Galloping Horse and the Sea Horse. In the meantime, the Japanese decided to abandon Guadalcanal and withdrew to the west coast of the island. From that location most of the surviving Japanese troops were successfully evacuated during the first week of February 1943.
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