Alexander Bonneyman, Jr., thought to be fourth from the right, and his men attack a Japanese position on Tarawa. The State Department says that they actively cooperate with Kiribati to repatriate the remains of Marines when discovered on Tarawa or on any other island within the nation. Since then, the relationship has been friendly if not exactly close. signed a treaty of friendship later that year and then established full diplomatic relations in 1980. Most fought to the death as there was no way to escape the island.įour men earned Medals of Honor during the fighting.Īfter the war, the Kiribati Islands reverted to British control and then became a sovereign country in 1979. Of the 4,500 Japanese defenders, there were only 17 survivors left. On the second day, they were able to land tanks and artillery and punch out from the beach, starting their campaign across the tiny island.Īt the end of the three-day battle, the Marines had suffered almost 3,000 casualties, including many men marked missing in action who were either washed out to sea or lost in the sand dunes and vegetation. Undeterred, the Marines fought through barbed wire and Japanese attackers. When the Marines finally reached the beach, they struggled to find good cover on an island where the highest elevation was about 10 feet above sealevel. Those who could rode their boats all the way to shore, but men who were stuck eventually waded through chest-deep water for hundreds of yards while under machine gun fire. Shallow waters led to gently sloping beaches and hundreds of yards of obstacles - all factors that favored the Japanese defenders.
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