According to the Solomon Star newspaper reported on August 8, during the three-day visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Sherman to the Solomon Islands, Prime Minister Sogavare was scheduled to attend and speak with the visiting US delegation and Australian, New Zealand and Japanese officials to attend and speak at the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal on the 7th. Surprisingly, however, Prime Minister Sogavare was not present at the commemoration. In response, many media believe that the prime minister seems to be "snubbing" the US delegation. However, on the same day of the 8th, at another commemorative event, the accident of local people stabbing visiting members of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force also caused a sensation.
Those familiar with history should be familiar with the Battle of Guadalcanal. During World War II, after the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Japan set its sights on the South Pacific Islands and wanted to advance southward through Guadalcanal and then take Australia. Subsequently, the United States and Japan fought a naval and air battle on Guadalcanal that lasted for more than half a year, which ended with the withdrawal of Japanese troops. The battle was also seen as a turning point in the Pacific Campaign, and since then, the U.S. military has gradually taken over the seas in the South Pacific.
According to Reuters, Sherman and U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline personally attended the anniversary because both of their fathers fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal.
On August 7, local time, Sherman spoke at the 80th anniversary of the U.S.-led Battle of Guadalcanal, saying that "this is the first major Allied land offensive in the Pacific Theater and a testing ground for the new method of warfare of the U.S. Marine Corps amphibious warfare." Ironically, Sherman insisted that as enemies on the battlefield, the United States and Japan are now partners in peace and their closest allies, "together we celebrate, mourn and grow."
Perhaps it was the strange practice of inviting Japan to participate in the commemoration in the United States that made the residents of Solomon quite dissatisfied, which led to the action of the people of the Solomon Islands stabbing the Japanese with knives. According to the American Broadcasting Corporation reported on August 8, at the Guadalcanal-related commemoration event, a member of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force media team was stabbed in the neck by scissors and urgently sent to the hospital for treatment. New Zealand's national radio station said the suspect was a local resident and was subsequently detained. The head of the local community said the suspect was mentally unstable. The police have launched an investigation into the attack.
According to reports, the storm occurred very suddenly, and after Sherman finished speaking, officials from various countries attending the commemoration went through the scene one by one to lay flowers. At this time, a local man suddenly rushed to the stage, knocked down a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force official, raised a half-cut scissors, and stabbed the Japanese Self-Defense Force official in the neck. Although the local people present and the "security" of the US military quickly pinned down the attackers, the Japanese personnel were still stabbed in the neck, immediately bleeding, and sent to the hospital on the spot.
Perhaps in the eyes of the United States, leading the 80th anniversary of the Guadalcanal Campaign can be a good way to win Over Solomon, but it is clear that the United States and Japan underestimated the memory of Solomon's masses. The United States and Japan thought that all this was over, but they may be wrong, and Japan's war atrocities in the South Pacific have so far lacked introspection and apology. For many years, the atrocities of the Japanese invaders in beheading Australian soldiers in New Guinea were known, but few people knew that after the Japanese captured the local islanders, they casually killed them as Allied "spies" or "guerrillas".
Although the U.S. defense secretary once spoke at Pearl Harbor, telling visiting Japanese officials that "former enemies are now the closest friends." But this rhetoric is ultimately just a slogan for the current US administration to construct the current "Indo-Pacific strategy." After all, Japan needs to know that the Asia-Pacific region constructed by the "heroes" of World War II has no place of its own, and its place is in the Tokyo Trial, prison and gallows.