US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

CHAPTER X
Save—The Galling Defeat
THE BATTLE
When the Astoria visited Japan
OF SAVO ISLAND
in 1939, with Captain Richmond Kelly
Turner commanding, a Japanese poet drew on the muses for the following
words:
The spirit, incarnate, of friendship and love
Deep in the Heart of history.
The record of the human world, full of changes and vicissitudes.
The people of Japan, where cherries bloom,
In the future far away
Will never forget their gratitude to the AJtoriu.
20 April 1939 Bansui Doi
The “changes and vicissitudes” led the Japanese to “forget their gratitude
to the AJtoTiu” on 9 August 1942.
Commander Expeditionary Force (CTF 61) set the radio call authentica-
tor for 9 August 1942, to be used on that same day by all ships in his
command to verify their messages, as “Wages of Victory.” It was a prophetic
choice, for the “Wages of Victory” at Tulagi and Guadalcanal was Savo
Island.
No American can be happy about the Battle of Savo Island. A good many
professional United States naval officers feel a stinging sense of shame
every time the words