Name change plan re-ignites wartime passions

By MARY-LOUISE O'CALLAGHAN Herald correspondent

It might be nearly 60 years since World War II was fought and won, but in the hearts of some it seems the Battle of Guadalcanal still rages.

The already beleaguered Government of the Solomon Islands is engulfed by a cyber-battle of world-war proportions after news leaked out that a name-change was being considered for the country's only international airport.

Named in honour of Marine squadron commander Major Lofton Henderson, the first American pilot lost in the Battle of Midway, Henderson International Airport holds a special place in the history of the Pacific war.

It carries the sacred legacy of the original Henderson Field, recognised as pivotal to the allied victory in the region.

US veterans of the 1942 Guadalcanal campaign have in two weeks produced more than 7000 signatures for an online petition.

Many of those opposing any change of name of the airport have posted emotional entries as well as their signatures at http://www.petitiononline.com/guad/petition.htm.

Henderson International Airport is built on the site of the original airstrip, started by the Japanese, captured on August 8, 1942 - a day after the Americans landing on Guadalcanal - and completed by the US in the September.

It is a popular historic site, and has a memorial garden to those who died defending it.

The whole Guadalcanal campaign was a result of Henderson Field, says John Innes, a local expatriate expert on the area's wartime history who last week presented the veterans' petition to the Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Sir Allan Kemakeza.

If the Japanese had not started to build a runway, the Americans would not have landed, he says.

If there had never been a Henderson Field, there never would have been a battle for Guadalcanal.

Heartened by Kemakeza's private response to the petition, Innes says he is hoping the name will remain unchanged and continue to be a drawcard for much-needed tourists to the Solomons.

More preoccupied with matters related to his nations recently acquired status as the South Pacific's first failing state, Kemakeza has been publicly silent on the issue.

But a senior official in his Government's Department of Infrastructure, Edmund Gagahe, confirmed that six possible new names for Henderson were about to go before the cabinet.

He denied any of these had been inspired by the Japanese Government or a Japanese consulting firm, as popular rumour in the Solomon Islands has it.

The Government has asked the Japanese Government for assistance with getting new navigational aids for the airport.

But Gagahe rejects the suggestion that the proposed names include the option of renaming Henderson Chrysanthemum Airport, after the official symbol of the Japanese Imperial Family.

"We know it's created publicity and there has been a heated debate in the US - we are happy to know that," he said in a cryptic comment which perhaps supports the worst fears of the American consular agent for the Solomon Islands, Keithie Saunders, who feels the name change might be being used as a rather cheap bargaining chip for those in the Government seeking greater financial support from the United States.

"We are all distressed that it is even being considered, because of the history of the place," she said.

"Six thousand Americans lost their lives here to save Solomon Islanders from becoming part of Imperial Japan - what sort of value do you put on that?"

The Japanese charge d'affairs for the Solomon Islands, Kiyoshi Takahama, claims his Government had never sought to influence a change of name for Henderson despite having built the present international terminal in the mid-1990s.

"It is very embarrassing for us to suggest we want to change the name," Takahama said.

Changing the name or not changing the name was up to the Solomons Government.

The Solomon Islands cabinet, which has endorsed Australia and New Zealand's proposal for the first armed intervention in their country since World War II, will make a decision on the airport's name next week.

Keithie Saunders, whose father, Alvin Blum, was the only US serviceman to return after the war to help build what is now the independent nation of the Solomon Islands, says: "Let's hope they remember their history."