Probably few people in the world, aside from Pacific Islanders,
know the world “Kiribati”, (Kita-bus) but every serious student
of World War II recognizes the name “Tarawa”. For here, on only
one small island, Betio (Bay-sheo), of the Tarawa atoll, 76
hours of savagery on 20-23 November 1943, left 1, 085 Marines
dead, another 2, 000 wounded and all 4, 836 Japanese Marines
dead. The debate in this country over the price paid for this
chunk of coral raged from Main Street to Congress. How could
this happen? On Nanumea, 450 miles south of Tarawa, my buddies
and I watched the B-24 Liberator bombers leave daily, their bomb
bays bulging, and return empty. The graceful, gull-winged F-4U
Corsair fighters cleared the skies of any air threat to the
bombers. Warships had pounded the small island for weeks,
preparatory to the buildings. But even with photographs of the
targets, before and after the air and sea onslaughts, military
officers didn’t realize the ineffectiveness of their efforts
against Japanese installations