For several years a group of Expat Aid Workers put together a blog making fun of themselves, Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like (SEAWL).  I was a contributor.  It punctures our self-importance and our tendency to one up each other, by establishing “field cred” and proving that we were in the “deep field,” not just “the field.”  Some of the biggest contributors were people posted to headquarters trying to keep up their “field cred” while riding a desk. 

The blog had posts about loving our passports with all our exotic stamps and visas, (and pulling them out for ID at every opportunity when a driver’s license would do and the trauma at having to get a new “virgin” passport.)  But one of the most popular posts was “War Junk.”  You can establish field cred and prove that you are “deep field” by posting pictures of yourself with abandoned tanks and crashed airplanes.  I admit to doing some of this myself.  The best satire contains a lot of truth.

But can you establish “field cred” by posting a picture of yourself next to war junk that is 84 years old?  Probably not, but old habits die hard and on Guadalcanal I went in search of “war junk.’  It’s a great place for “war junk” photos.

On the Eastern end of the island Fred Kona found remains from World War II on his property.   The east end was where Japanese forces resupplied.  Fred started looking for other war junk and found it.  Field pieces and mortars were mostly Japanese but he found all sorts of aircraft, or parts of aircraft from both sides, a Japanese Zero, a P38 Lightning, a Japanese Betty bomber, a wing from a flying fortress, all sorts of stuff. 

He gathered it all in a garden with beautiful flowers.  It is called Vilu War Museum.  It’s sobering to know that someone probably died in the process of the airplane coming down for Fred to find.  Fred has since passed away but his family still runs the museum.   

There are some things to buy, like T shirts, but the most popular when we were there seemed to be vintage Coca Cola bottles from the 1940s.  Apparently, GIs drank a lot of Coke and didn’t turn in the bottles for the 2 cent deposit. 

Bongei Beach is also on the east end of the island.  It is the final resting place of two Japanese shipwrecks in shallow water, with parts of the ships above the waterline.  This is a popular snorkeling spot so while in the neighborhood we went to look at these bits of war junk as well.  The Kinugawa Maru was a Japanese ship destroyed by US bombing in November 1942 and the Hirokawa Maru was also bombed by the Americans and lays on its side from shallow water.   These ships were part of the “Tokyo Express” that delivered supplies to Japanese troops during the Guadalcanal campaign.  They are now considered grave sites.

Overall, Iron Bottom Sound, named for the number of ships lying at the bottom, has 111 documented Japanese, American, Australian and New Zealand war related shipwrecks.  Some people suspect the actual number is closer to 200.  There are also an estimated 1450 aircraft at the bottom of the sound and the remains of an estimated 20,000 sailors, airmen and soldiers.  Bongei Beach is not only a popular diving and snorkeling spot to look at the wrecks but is a beautiful family beach for swimming and picnics.

But there are occasionally still casualties from the war.  There is a lot of unexploded ordinance in the jungles of Guadalcanal.  Fred’s daughter has a poster that was just issued in 2025 warning people of the dangers of tromping through the bush, digging in some areas and building campfires.  Apparently, some campfires have triggered explosions that have injured people.  In Kosovo I was involved in helping produce campaigns around unexploded ordinance, and for years after the war, the spring thaw brought up mines and cluster bombs.  Sometimes wars never end, even after 84 years.