Betio is the largest township of

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

's capital city, South Tarawa, and the country's main port. The settlement is located on a separate islet at the extreme southwest of the atoll. Kiribati Bairiki Betio Causeway

Betio Post Office opened on 5 April 1957 and closed in 1964. In 1967, the Marine Training Centre was created by Hamburg Süd.

John Hilary Smith John Hilary Smith, (born 1928) is a British retired colonial administrator. Smith was the last governor of the united Gilbert and Ellice Islands before it was divided into Tuvalu and what later became Kiribati. Smith was educated at Cardina ...

, governor of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands created the Betio Town Council in 1972. Since the 1970s, the islet has become a major centre of economic activity in Kiribati, and a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet ...

to Bairiki was constructed in the early 1980s, leading to an increase in human contact with the island. Due to changing currents resulting from the construction of the causeway, Bikeman Island, northeast of Betio, has been submerged since the early 1990s.

Pacific War

41st Bombardment Group - Hawkins Field (Tarawa)

The island was the scene of the

Battle of Tarawa The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.Betio (Tarawa)
. ''Pacific Wrecks''. Relics of the Japanese invasion, and the subsequent American assault on the islet in 1943, remain there. After the battle the

airstrip An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

was renamed Hawkins Field. The airstrip no longer exists, but its effect can be seen in the stunted growth of palms along its length. Many bunkers remain, as well as the remains of military equipment. It was also the scene of a massacre by beheading of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

military and civilian coastwatchers by Japanese forces prior to the US landings. The massacre was in retaliation to an American air raid. Before the massacre, seamen and civil servants who were housed on the island escaped in a small, open launch, towing a lifeboat. They sailed to Nonouti, in the Southern Gilberts, where they were met by the ''Degei'', commanded by Captain G. J. (Jack) Webster in which they returned from Nonouti to Fiji. News of the massacre was covered up by British authorities at the time to the extent that New Zealand and Fijian governments were prevented from informing the families of the men killed of their deaths. However, persistent rumours eventually reached the families, and it is believed that the shooting of Japanese prisoners held in a New Zealand POW camp was done in retaliation for this massacre. The New Zealand camp guard who fired on the Japanese prisoners during the prison riot was the brother of one of the coastwatchers executed on Betio. The partly submerged hulk of the ''Saidu Maru'', a Japanese merchant ship often mistaken for the ''Nimanoa'', would later be used as a machine gun post by the Japanese against the US forces that re-took Tarawa. The RCS ''Nimanoa'' was a wooden-hulled ketch, whereas ''Saidu Maru'' was a steel-hulled vessel, part of which is still visible on the reef off Red Beach.Scuttled Ship "Niminoa"
. ''Tarawa on the Web: The Assault of the Second Marine Division on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, 20–23 November 1943''. Unexploded artillery shells, mortar rounds, anti-aircraft shells and live machine gun bullets left over from the Second World War are littered throughout the island and surrounding reef, as well as the remains of several hundred U.S. and Japanese soldiers. The remains of 30 U.S. soldiers and Marines were discovered in March 2019.{{cite web , last1=McAvoy , first1=Audrey , title=Graves of World War II Marines, sailors likely found on remote Pacific island of Tarawa , url=https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/newsletters/daily-news-roundup/2019/06/26/graves-of-world-war-ii-marines-sailors-likely-found-on-remote-pacific-island-of-tarawa/ , website=www.marinecorpstimes.com , accessdate=29 June 2019

References

South Tarawa