For the infantryman, the campaign on Guadalcanal was synonymous with misery. The Americans who had the misfortune to serve on the island, particularly from August through October 1942, were denied the very basics of living as we know it. Those ashore faced a constant day-to-day battle of life and death. Death could wear many faces on Guadalcanal. A man could be weakened by tropical disease and malnutrition just as easily as being killed by enemy fire.
Following the Navy’s disastrous August defeat at Savo Island, the Marines’ supplies, or at least the vast majority of them, were pulled away from the island. The men ashore were left without sufficient medical provisions, and very little of their own food. Following their rapid capture of the airfield the day after landing, the Marines seized large stores of Japanese rice. Rice became the main item on the menu until early November for the Marines ashore.
If one asked any early veteran of the campaign about food, the veteran would almost certainly mention the lack of food and the constant daily rations of the maggot- and worm-infested rice issued to them by the 1st Marine Division’s cooks, who ate the same unappetizing two-tablespoon meal day after day. Combined with the hot, humid weather, the stress of combat, and the inadequate diet, the men ashore lost weight at an acute rate. The Marines ashore, children of the Great Depression, were already thin and soon became downright skinny. It was not uncommon for men on Guadalcanal to lose as much as 40 pounds due to malnutrition and tropical diseases.
