The United States won the battle of Cape Esperance on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal Island against the Japanese reinforcements that came at night. The Japanese hoped to position themselves to have a direct route to Austria and to New Zealand wich Japan hoped to capture in their quest for territorial expansion. The US navy harrassed Japanese ships and by 1942 the Japanese were ready to evacuate the island in defeat. The US basic strategy was "island hopping" which was taking one island at a time from the Japanese occupation.
