Battle of Tarawa

BelligerentsUnited States
Gilbert and Ellice IslandsJapanCommanders and leadersU.S. Navy:
U.S. Marine Corps:
Keiji Shibazaki†Units involved

V Amphibious Corps

• 2nd Marine Division

U.S. Fifth Fleet

Garrison Force:

• 3rd Special Base Defense Force
• 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force

Imperial NavyStrength 35,000 troops
18,000 marines
5 escort carriers
3 battleships
2 heavy cruisers
2 light cruisers
22 destroyers
2 minesweepers
18 transports & landing ships 2,636 troops
2,200 construction laborers (1,200 Korean and 1,000 Japanese)
14 tanks
40 artillery pieces
14 naval gunsCasualties and lossesU.S. Marine Corps:
4,690 killed (Both Japanese soldiers and construction laborers)
17 soldiers captured
129 Korean laborers captured
14 tanks destroyed

The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, now part of the Republic of Kiribati but then a Japanese-occupied British colony. The battle was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts, and ended in a decisive American victory. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died during the battle, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll. At the time, Betio was only 118 hectares (290 acres).

The Battle of Tarawa was the first American offensive in the critical Central Pacific region. It was also the first time in the Pacific War that the United States faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings had met little to no initial resistance, but on Tarawa the 4,500 Japanese defenders were well supplied and well prepared, and they fought almost to the last man, exacting a heavy toll on the United States Marine Corps.