35th Annual Admiral Nimitz Symposium - 2022: Richard B. Frank Guest Speaker

"Guadalcanal: A Name That Will Endure in Honor"
Marines splashed ashore on the obscure island of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific to start the first American offensive of World War II on August 7, 1942. This ignited a six-month, see-saw struggle with almost continuous combat on land, sea, and air. Crisis followed crisis. The outlook became so bleak in mid-October 1942 that Washington sought to prepare the public for defeat. The peaks and troughs of fortune every month riveted the American public. They increasingly perceived it as more than one battle. It rose to symbolize the first fair test of whether the generation that would have to fight toe to toe with the Axis powers for years possessed the deep reserves of physical strength and courage to win the war. Later James Jones--who fought there—set his powerful novel, The Thin Red Line, on Guadalcanal. He declared it was for his whole generation “very special” as their first and most important test.

Speaker bio:
Richard B. Frank is an internationally recognized leading authority on the Asia-Pacific War. He published his first book Guadalcanal in 1990. His second work, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, appeared in 1999 and has been called one of the six best books in English about World War II. Both Random House books won awards and became main selections of the History Book Club. In 2007, he completed MacArthur as part of the Palgrave Great Generals series. Besides his numerous appearances on television and radio, he was a consultant for the epic HBO miniseries, “The Pacific.” He serves on the Board of Presidential Councilors of the National World War II Museum, including a term as head of that body. The first volume of his trilogy on the Asia Pacific War 1937-1945, Tower of Skulls, published in March 2020, was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History 2021.

Special Thanks to Symposium Donors and Sponsors:
Humanities for Texas
Fischer and Weiser
Hilmy Cellars
and several private donors.

Books:
Guadalcanal
Downfall

This is a recording from the 35th Annual Admiral Nimitz Symposium: 2022.
For more information about symposiums, webinars, and our mission please visit us online:
NMPW Copyright 2022

[johnveneron]

I purchased his Guadalcanal book in the 1980s and must have read it at least five times. A friend of mine borrowed it so her father (veteran of guadalcanal) could read it. This book is on my top ten list of books to own for amateur historians. Words can't express how thrilled I was to actually meet this esteemed author via youtube. KUDOS !!

[liviervilla]

My father served as a gunnery officer aboard the USS San Francisco later in the war. Thanks to the speaker for recognizing the gallantry of that great heavy cruiser and its officers and men.

[TheFlubber]

WHEN ARE WE GETTING VOLUME 2 OF TOWER OF SKULLS?!?!?!

[hoppish]

Anytime any marine tells you the Navy did not do enough during the Guadalcanal campaign, look at the casualty lists. More sailors died inand around the waters of the islands than either Marine or Army.

[aussie]

The US sacrifices will always be remembered and valued...but do not forget that Australia fielded 11 Divisions (to US roughly 25 Divisions) and were the first to defeat the Japanese army at Milne Bay in August-Sept. 42. We also cleared the rest of New Guinea and the western Pacific, which enabled US forces to concentrate on the Central and Eastern Pacific. It highlights that we all need allies, and Australia has stood shoulder to shoulder with the US since.

[johnmoore]

Love the graphics and use of pictures...

[ArmoredNeko]

Great work, thank you for uploading this.

[amerigo]

At 39:00, we imagine the end of Lend-Lease to the USSR via the Persian Gulf. However, Murmansk was still open, as was Vladivostok. Historians rarely mention that Japan and the Soviets observed strict neutrality, to include merchant ship travel between their Pacific ports. Approximately 50 percent of US Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviets were carried by Liberty ships sailing from West Coast ports with American crews and red Soviet banners waving on the fantails. They ran with their lights on, as in peacetime, and passed through the Bungo Suido (southern entrance to the Sea of Japan) or around the north end of Japan on their way to Soviet ports. American merchant sailors often waved back and forth with Japanese fishermen while American submarines blockading Japan had to carefully avoid killing their countrymen in these cargo ships. American aircraft for the Soviets were mostly flown via Alaska and Siberia for eventual use on the Eastern Front .

In my mind, the Pacific War was always a savage affair culminating in Okinawa, kamikazes, and atomic bombs . Yet these "Soviet" ships quietly resupplied Germany's archenemy while Japanese fishermen waved. War always has its strange chapters.

[valdorhightower]

There's a concept in football that the team that makes the fewest mistakes usually wins. The same applies to the Guadalcanal campaign. Regardless of the deficiencies on the American side going in, the deficiencies on the Japanese side was even more pronounced.

[steventoal]

I wish you could have elaborated more on Willis Lee..that guy made some shit happen ..he was known for being able to snipe japanese ships with 16 inch rifles..he was absolutely an impressive individual.

[steveschainost]

One of my favorite movies is "The Gallant Hours", a dramatization of the Guadalcanal campaign starring James Cagney as Halsey. It opens with Halsey being ordered to replace Gormley and, basically, ends with the 'Friday 13th" battle. It is a study of top command, formulating battle plans, and giving orders that you know will get people killed, yet giving the orders anyway. Reviewers complain that there is no "action" but I see plenty of "action" in the run up to the battle. Halsey calls in Scott and Callahan to give them their orders personally and they all know that this will be a 'real brawl'. Then the waiting. . .

[steventoal]

The IJN bombardment of Henderson feild that night was described in the book Guadalcanal Diary written by Richard trekaskis.. I read that book several times in highschool..when it got to that point in his description of that Event ..I almost thought I could see that dark night with all of it's explosive horror.

[richardseverin]

I'm still surprised that the US Navy had more casualties than the Marines did during the Guadalcanal campaign.

[kemarisite]

"Shotguns at two paces"
Interesting that Richard Frank describes it this way. I've described naval gunfire battles of this time as being like using shotguns with 00 buckshot (to simulate salvo firing of the main battery) while wearing a flak jacket. Stay far enough away from the enemy, so 100-200 yards, and the 00 buckshot pellets won't get through your flak jacket if they do hit, although they will hurt outside the protected area, and you're lucky to get one or two hits at all. Get too close, and you're likely to take most of the pellets in the cartridge and they'll barely notice the flak jacket.

[MJ]

Outstanding presentation. Although I do not agree that the Battle of the Tenaru River/Alligator Creek dictated how the terms of the Pacific War would be fought. That happened already during the fiercely fought Bataan Campaign. I understand that most, but not all, our troops fighting there ended up killed or POW. Still, reports were sent from the Philippines back to the US, and even examples of captured materials for study via submarine, I think. So it's not as if the fight in 1941-1942 in the Philippines was some black hole from which nothing emanated. If one sees it differently, that's OK, I'd like to understand more.

[dennisweidner]

Does anyone know why the Allies only invaded islands on the southwestern side of the Slot?

[mattd]

Richard Frank is a first rate historian.

[obriets]

The lesson in Ukraine can potentially be drawn from the Japanese piecemeal effort and ultimate failure in Guadalcanal. The fact that the Western countries are giving the Ukrainians just enough to fight on worries me greatly.

[nigellawson]

It was a very close thing. If Admiral Mikawa had destroyed the Marine transports the Marines would have been up the creek without a paddle.

[teller]

This was just too abbreviated for me to enjoy. For instance, he keeps mentioning fantastic proportional differences between our air crew losses vs Japanese without explaining why such a gap existed even when we suffer more carrier damage.

However. please read the seminal book by this man AND the one by the (tragically) late James Hornfisher entitled, "Neptune's Inferno, " which is purely an accounting of the USN's ordeal at this battle; and, is one of the most compelling books I've ever read. The USN'S performance there was crucial above all else and they gave us, imo, our finest hour.