SACRILEGE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati. I might as well warn you right up front. You are really, really not going to like this. You are going to get seriously steamed.
Tarawa is sacred history in the annals of the United States Marines. The Battle of Tarawa was one of the most brutal and lethal in the Corps' history.
After losing Guadalcanal to the Marines in 1942, the Japanese were determined not to lose Tarawa, with its vitally strategic position in the Central Pacific. They spent a year building up an incredibly well-fortified array of defenses on Betio to control the entrance to the lagoon and thus the entire atoll.
The Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki, was so confidant of his preparations and men his message to Tokyo was, "It would take one million men one hundred years" to conquer Tarawa.
It took the US Marines 76 hours. But at a horrible cost. On Tarawa, the Marines demonstrated epic bravery and heroism - guts and glory beyond normal imagination. 1,113 Marines died, 2,290 wounded. It is no mystery whatever that Tarawa is a sacred memory for all Marines - and to trash and besmirch it would be sacrilegious.
Yet that is exactly and precisely what has happened, and in the most disgusting manner thinkable.


