The Typhoon of War: Micronesian Experiences of the Pacific War

Chapter 5 THE SECOND ROAD TO TOKYO

THE WAVE of the Allied front in Micronesia crested on the reefs of Kiribati (the Gilbert Islands) almost two years after Pearl Harbor and six years after Japan began fighting in China. The first Allied offensive of the Central Pacific campaign came in November 1943, with the recapture of Kiribati paving the way for invasion of the Marshalls in early 1944. The Kiribati operation held lessons in island warfare for both Japanese and American forces. Tarawa’s Japanese commander gave orders “to defend to the last man all vital areas and destroy the enemy at the water’s edge” (Morison 1951:148–149). This became the standard defense throughout the islands as the Allied amphibious attack inaugurated here was repeated on other shores. By December 8, 1943, the Allies had taken all Japanese bases in Kiribati. Fortunately , most Islanders had been evacuated from the invaded islands, but damage to their homelands was severe. On Betio, an islet 3 miles long by 1/4 mile wide, bombardment and invasion further ravaged land and reefs already ruined by Japanese military construction. After the Tarawa battle, there were more corpses and war debris than crops and trees on the tiny atoll, and the lagoon and ocean were contaminated with wreckage and unexploded bombs. During the invasion, Kiribati people assisted U.S. Marines by carrying equipment, supplying intelligence, providing canoes, and helping with firstaid and burials when Marines fought a small group of Japanese on Buariki. A day after the Japanese surrender, more than a hundred Islanders were hired to help clear dead bodies and debris on the island, and the first Gilbert and Ellice 117 Chapter 5 THE SECOND ROAD TO TOKYO Islands Labour Corps was established in December 1943 to aid with construction of American bases and local reconstruction. In September 1944, some four hundred corps members were sent to the Solomons for similar work (Mamara and Kaiuea 1979:143–144). Life in Kiribati did not return to normal after Allied victory, though the British set up colonial headquarters in Tarawa by the end of 1943. American airbases were built at Tarawa, Abemama, and Makin to serve the next phase of the counteroffensive.1 Kiribati people were the first Micronesians the American military had dealt with, apart from Guamanians. U.S. Marines were charmed by the hospitable Kiribati people. “It was a pretty picture: the lean, unshaven Marines in their steel helmets and green coveralls trudging under coconut palms and pandanus trees with laughing, half-naked boys and girls springily keeping pace. . . . Every night, Marines and natives bivouacked at discreet distances apart and amused each other with song” (Morison 1951:177). Relations were so good—including handicraft trade and impressive amounts of American goods—that some Kiribati people petitioned for American sovereignty (Mamara and Kaiuea 1979:144 –146). Military histories and memoirs of the Kiribati campaign present a stereotypical “friendly natives” image—a representation that tells us little about the people themselves, but a good deal about American ideas of Pacific Islanders at the time—ideas with significant impact on the course of life in American Micronesia after the war.2 THE WAR ARRIVES IN THE MANDATE: INVASION OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS From dawn to dusk they shot at this islet. The Marshalls campaign was the first attack on territory held by the Japanese before the war. Early plans had called for simultaneous invasion of Kwajalein, Wotje, and Maloelap. Heeding the lessons of Tarawa, the Allies decided instead to seize strategically advantageous atolls—first Kwajalein and unforti- fied Majuro, then Enewetak. The other Marshall Islands bases—Maloelap, Wotje, Mili, and Jaluij—would be bypassed, neutralized by continual bombing , and isolated from resupply. 118 chapter 5 Invasion: Majuro, Kwajalein, Enewetak Allied reconnaissance identified Kwajalein Atoll as the primary Japanese airbase in the Marshalls, with two airstrips, a lagoon anchorage, a torpedo station , a supply depot, Fourth Fleet and 6th Submarine Fleet headquarters, and a bomber strip—which the invaders could turn to their own use—under construction. Majuro was targeted for its superb lagoon anchorage, and Enewetak , a Japanese distribution center, would be captured to support American air raids on the bypassed bases.3 Air attacks during and after the Kiribati operation in November 1943 had alerted Japanese and Marshallese to the threat of invasion, as Allies sought to reduce Japanese air power and protect the new American bases. Kwajalein and Wotje were hit by a fast...