Father Kelly, Chaplain of the 2nd Marines, gives aid to a wounded Marine on Guadalcanal. by Lieutenant General Oscar W. Griswold, U.S. Army On that Sunday the Japanese struck from the air at Pearl Harbor the average American had probably never even heard of such places as Guadalcanal, Lunga Point, Rabaul, Munda and Bougainville. But they were destined to learn about them—and many of our men were destined to die there—for they marked the first miles on that long, hard, and bloody road back to the Philippines. Immediately after Pearl Harbor the indefatigable Japanese busied themselves with continuous aggression. They took Wake and Guam, captured Rabaul on New Britain, advanced in New Guinea and the Solomons, and fortified numerous other islands and areas. At the same time, we too—as far as meager preparation would per-mit—rushed our forces overseas to reinforce such garrisons as we and our Allies still held. We sent troops to the Fiji Islands, to Australia, New Caledonia, Samoa, ...