MORNING OF THE RISING SUN
The Heroic Story of the Battles for Guadalcanal
By Kenneth I. Friedman, Ph. D

 A monumental series of battles between the Americans and the Japanese Empire occurred between 7 August 1942 and 8 February 1943 that changed the course of the War in the Pacific.

The greatest amphibious operation ever launched by the U.S. Navy to date took place on 7 August 1942. What followed was the one of the longest, bloodiest, and pulse-pounding series of battles in the history of warfare. The fate of the Pacific war hung in the balance.

When the Americans evicted the last Japanese soldier from Guadalcanal in February 1943, the Japanese strategy shifted from the offensive to the defensive, and they began to lose territory. The Americans were now on the offensive and would not stop until they sailed into Tokyo Bay to accept Japan's surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

"For us who were there, or whose friends were there, Guadalcanal is not a name but an emotion, recalling desperate fights in the air, furious night naval battles, frantic work at supply or construction, savage fighting in sodden jungle, nights broken by screaming bombs and deafening explosions of naval shells"

Samuel Eliot Morison

700 pages

Extensive Glossary of Terms

55 Figures (diagrams of Battle locations)

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 26 January 2009

This page last updated 21 January 2020