In late January 1943, Allied intelligence was certain a massive Japanese offensive was about to hit Guadalcanal. Commanders pulled troops into defensive positions and sent cruisers to intercept an armada that never came. Instead, the Japanese were quietly evacuating the island. This episode explores Operation Ke, starting with the horrific state of the Japanese 17th Army, where roughly 20,000 of 36,000 troops were still alive, malaria was nearly universal, and the Cactus Air Force at Henderson Field made daylight resupply impossible.

We trace the reluctant decision in Tokyo, endorsed by Emperor Hirohito on December 31, 1942, and the deception that followed: new radio codes, manufactured traffic around New Guinea and the Marshall Islands, spoofed telegraph styles, and conspicuously staged ships. The ruse drew Task Force 18 into the Battle of Rennell Island, where the cruiser USS Chicago was sunk, and convinced General Alexander Patch to hold back on the ground. Then Rear Admiral Shintaro Hashimoto’s destroyers fought through PT boats and air attacks over three nights to lift 10,652 emaciated soldiers off Cape Esperance while the Americans believed reinforcements were arriving.

• Rat transportation: why the Tokyo Express could never feed an army
• How traffic analysis was turned against American intelligence
• The Yano Battalion’s sacrificial rear guard and the order for the sick to take their own lives
• Why Patch’s troops found only empty beaches on February 9
• Admiral Nimitz’s admission that the U.S. had no idea until the island was empty