Appendix A: Casualties of American and Enemy Forces

The number of casualties suffered by the enemy during the campaign has not been ascertained, and there is no possibility that anything like an accurate figure will ever be reached. The utter demoralization of the enemy forces during the last 60 days of the operation extended to all his activities. With the disorganization of his units the systematic keeping of records ceased. The thoroughness of the destruction caused by the American artillery in the bivouac areas and the command post locations west of Kokumbona during the same period caused the loss even of many of the records that had been kept.

There can be no questioning the fact that the casualties inflicted upon the enemy in every major engagement exceeded by a tremendous margin those suffered by the American forces. The reasons for this favorable balance have been set forth in the account of each engagement and need no recapitulation. It will bear repeating, however, that enemy sources--prisoner of war interrogations and translations of documents picked up in the field--confirmed and in some cases increased the estimates made by the American commanders after each engagement.

The ending of the campaign, when two Army forces met near the Umasami River after having completed a pincers movement, verified what had been suspected during the final few days of the operation--that the frequent visits of a destroyer force to the neighborhood of Kamimbo Bay had been for the purpose of evacuation rather than for reinforcement. The two Army units had met only scattered opposition.

The number of enemy troops evacuated varies from a highly improbable 13,000 offered as an estimate by a prisoner of war under interrogation by the United States Bombing Survey to a more easily credible 7,000, also submitted as an estimate, given in the Japanese Campaign in the Guadalcanal Area.

The latter source is the authority for the following tabulation, taken from pages 34 and 35:

ESTIMATE OF JAPANESE LAND FORCES INVOLVED IN THE GUADALCANAL AREA
Units involved		Number of men
Forces present 7 August		2,900
Yokosuka 5th Special Naval Landing Force		150
Ichiki Unit		1,750
35th Brigade Headquarters and 124th Infantry		3,090
2d Battalion, 4th Infantry		550
Sasebo 5th Special Naval Landing Force		500
Additional arrivals prior to October Battle		19,990
October 25--November 13 arrivals		3,050
November 14 arrivals		3,000
Replacements, October--December		2,000
Replacements, January		700
Total		37,680
Evacuations (including 2,100 normally transferred troops)		9,100
Estimated losses in Japanese land forces on Guadalcanal		28,580

As has been said in the narrative section of this monograph, there was a highly favorable ratio between enemy and American casualty rates. Figures compiled by the Casualty Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps are as follows:

FIRST MARINE DIVISION
Nature of casualty	Officers	Enlisted	Total
Killed in Action	30	644	674
Died of Wounds	4	60	64
Missing, Presumed Dead	3	33	36
Wounded in Action	110	1852	1962
Total	147	2589	2736
SECOND MARINE DIVISION
Killed in Action	10	212	222
Died of Wounds	3	28	31
Missing, Presumed Dead	1	14	15
Wounded in Action	58	874	932
Total	72	1128	1200
THIRD DEFENSE BATTALION
Killed in Action	1	6	7
Wounded in Action	7	54	61
Total	8	60	68
FIFTH DEFENSE BATTALION
Killed in Action	0	1	1
Total	0	1	1
NINTH DEFENSE BATTALION
Wounded in Action	0	2	2
Total	0	2	2
FIRST MARINE AIR WING
Killed in Action	21	9	30
Died of Wounds	1	3	4
Missing, Presumed Dead	32	33	65
Wounded in Action	37	49	86
Total	91	94	185
SECOND MARINE AIR WING
Killed in Action	5	15	20
Died of Wounds	3	1	4
Missing, Presumed Dead	18	11	29
Wounded in Action	15	12	27
Total	41	39	80
GRAND TOTAL
Killed in Action	67	887	954
Died of Wounds	11	92	103
Missing, Presumed Dead	54	91	145
Wounded in Action	227	2843	3070
Total casualties	359	3913	4272

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