Taking the Marshalls would provide the base needed to launch an offensive on the Marianas, but the Marshalls were cut off from direct communications with Hawaii by a Japanese garrison and air base on the small island of Betio, on the western side of the atoll of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. The nearest islands capable of supporting such an effort were the Marshall Islands. Naval doctrine of the time held that in order for attacks to succeed, land-based aircraft would be required to weaken the defenses and protect the invasion forces. To set up forward air bases capable of supporting operations across the Central Pacific, to the Philippines, and into Japan, the U.S. The losses on Tarawa were incurred within 76 hours.īackground American strategic decisions Previous landings had met little or 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. It was also the first time in the Pacific War that the United States faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. The Battle of Tarawa was the first American offensive in the critical Central Pacific region. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll. 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.
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