NORTHERN SOLOMONS CAMPAIGN
<February 22, 1943 - November 21, 1944>
Seen as a natural highway into the South Pacific, the Japanese
seized the Solomon island archipelago located in the Southwest
Pacific early in the Pacific war. The Americans also recognized
the Solomons as a highway, but planned their objective toward
Rabaul, the Philippines,
and ultimately Japan.
America’s goal was to take the chief town of Rabaul located
on the island of New Britain, which was viewed as Japan’s
main base in the Southeast area. Starting with the campaign at
Guadalcanal,
U.S. forces hoped to secure the surrounding areas of Rabaul and
stop Japanese forces from further gaining strength and territory.
In this on-going U.S. offensive, other islands along the Solomons
chain such as New Georgia and Bougainville
had to be secured.
The MIS began
to arrive in the South Pacific in the middle of 1942. The Nisei
soldiers participated in several battles in the area.
A major MIS contribution in the Solomons campaign was the ambush
of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese
Combined Fleet and mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor.
MIS soldier, Harold Fudenna, intercepted a radio message indicating
the whereabouts of Admiral Yamamoto. Although this message was
first met with disbelief, other MIS linguists
in Alaska and Hawaii had also intercepted the same message, proving
its accuracy. American forces learned of Yamamoto’s planned
flight to Bougainville and on April 18, 1943, Yamamoto’s
plane was successfully shot down above Bougainville. There were
no survivors. General Douglas MacArthur referred to this incident
as “one of the singularly most significant actions of the
Pacific War.”
Meanwhile in New Georgia in the central Solomons, the main U.S.
objective was to take the Japanese air base at Munda. Two teams
consisting of five MIS linguists each were present at New Georgia
after the U.S. took the island in the summer of 1943. Despite
the hardships of the conditions and battle, the MIS worked courageously
and two of them, Richard Matsumoto and Shigeo Yasutake, were awarded
Bronze Stars.
In the Solomons campaign the MIS was able to prove its worth
and affirm itself by working intelligence centers, the front lines
and behind enemy lines.
