1. US Marines plunge into the hell of the Pacific War.

Currently, Koreans recognize that the United States is the empire that dominates the Pacific. After the US conquered Japan, the Pacific Ocean became the sea of America. Rome dominates the Mediterranean Sea, the British Empire to the Atlantic Ocean, and the American Empire to the Pacific Ocean.

Through the history of the war between the United States and Japan, Koreans predict how the future war between the United States and China will begin.

By conquering Japan, the United States became the master of the Pacific Ocean and emerged as a superpower that surpassed Europe.
So, at present, China believes that in order to surpass the United States, it must occupy the Pacific Ocean. That is why China is creating a carrier fleet.
China remembers that 80 years ago the Japanese Empire built a carrier fleet and fought the United States.
The United States now has the world's largest and strongest carrier fleet.

The aerial warfare of space carriers and fighters in American favorite Star Wars movies drew a picture of the Pacific War. Air wars of American and Japanese fighters soaring from the aircraft carrier were portrayed very vividly in Star Wars.

However, I don't like Star Wars very much. Many people died in the Korean War. War is never a beautiful and romantic heroic novel like Star Wars.
Many unnamed soldiers, not heroes like Luke Skywalker, have been sacrificed in the wars.

As I watched the United States' war with Japan, I was interested in the battles of the American Marines. The bloody battles of the United States Marine Corps with the Japanese on the Pacific Islands were very popular with Koreans.
We must not forget the historical fact that the US Marines conquered the islands of the Pacific Ocean with a lot of blood.
Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were able to develop into the current developed countries because the United States became the emperor of the Pacific Ocean.

▲ United States Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign

The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II. It was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.

On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly United States Marines, landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of using Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases in supporting a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Japanese defenders, who had occupied those islands since May 1942, were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Allies, who captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as the airfield – later named Henderson Field – that was under construction on Guadalcanal.

Allied forces of the United States, Australia and New Zealand have been fighting for six months with the Japanese Empire in Guadalcanal on the Solomon Islands.
The Japanese army lost 30,000 soldiers and was defeated in the Battle of Guadalcanal. The Allied powers were full of confidence, defeating the Japanese in the first land battle.
The United States stopped the Japanese invasion of Australia by occupying the Solomon Islands.

The United States begins a counterattack against Japan. The United States plans to invade the Mariana Islands, a Japanese territory in the Central Pacific.
If the U.S. conquers the Mariana Islands, a channel opens for the invasion of Tokyo.

When the US conquers Tokyo, the heart of Japan, the war ends with the victory of the United States.
However, before the conquest of the Mariana Islands, the Gilbert Islands had to be conquered.

▲ Lt. Alexander Bonnyman (4th from right) and his assault party storming a Japanese stronghold. Bonnyman received the Medal of Honor posthumously

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that was fought on 20–23 November 1943. It took place at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts.[3] 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.[4]

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 had faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing.[5] Previous landings met little or no initial resistance,[6][N 1] 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. The losses on Tarawa were incurred within 76 hours.

▲ Islands of the Gilberts​

Expecting that the United States was aiming for an invasion of the Gilbert Islands, Japan immediately began to fortify the island of Vetio in the Tarawa Islands.

▲ Map of Tarawa Atoll

Located about 2,400 miles (3,900 km) southwest of Pearl Harbor, Betio is the largest island in the Tarawa Atoll. The small, flat island lies at the southernmost reach of the lagoon, and was the base of the majority of the Japanese troops. Shaped roughly like a long, thin triangle, the tiny island is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long. It is narrow, being only 800 yards (730 m) wide at its widest point. A long pier was constructed jutting out from the north shore onto which cargo ships could unload cargo while anchored beyond the 500-metre (550 yd)-wide shallow reef which surrounded the island. The northern coast of the island faces into the lagoon, while the southern and western sides face the deep waters of the open ocean.

Following Colonel Evans Carlson's diversionary Makin Island raid of August 1942, the Japanese command was made aware of the vulnerability and strategic significance of the Gilbert Islands. The 6th Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force reinforced the island in February 1943. In command was Rear Admiral Tomonari Saichirō (友成佐一郎), an experienced engineer who directed the construction of the sophisticated defensive structures on Betio. Upon their arrival, the 6th Yokosuka became a garrison force, and the unit's identification was changed to the 3rd Special Base Defense Force. Tomonari's primary goal in the Japanese defensive scheme was to stop the attackers in the water or pin them on the beaches. A tremendous number of pill boxes and firing pits were constructed, with excellent fields of fire over the water and sandy shore. In the interior of the island was the command post and a number of large shelters designed to protect defenders from air attack and bombardment. The island's defenses were not set up for a battle in depth across the interior. The interior structures were large and vented, but did not have firing ports. Defenders were limited to firing from the doorways.

The Japanese worked intensely for nearly a year to fortify the island.[10] To aid the garrison in the construction of the defenses, the 1,247 men of the 111th Pioneers, similar to the Seabees of the U.S. Navy, along with the 970 men of the Fourth Fleet's construction battalion were brought in. Approximately 1,200 of the men in these two groups were Korean laborers. The garrison itself was made up of forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Special Naval Landing Force was the marine component of the IJN, and were known by U.S. intelligence to be more highly trained, better disciplined, more tenacious and to have better small unit leadership than comparable units of the Imperial Japanese Army. The 3rd Special Base Defense Force assigned to Tarawa had a strength of 1,112 men. They were reinforced by the 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, with a strength of 1,497 men. It was commanded by Commander Takeo Sugai. This unit was bolstered by 14 Type 95 light tanks under the command of Ensign Ohtani.

A series of fourteen coastal defense guns, including four large Vickers 8-inch guns purchased during the Russo-Japanese War from the British,[4] were secured in concrete bunkers around the island to guard the open water approaches. It was thought these big guns would make it very difficult for a landing force to enter the lagoon and attack the island from the north side. The island had a total of 500 pillboxes or "stockades" built from logs and sand, many of which were reinforced with cement. Forty artillery pieces were scattered around the island in various reinforced firing pits. An airfield was cut into the bush straight down the center of the island. Trenches connected all points of the island, allowing troops to move under cover when necessary to where they were needed. As the command believed their coastal guns would protect the approaches into the lagoon, an attack on the island was anticipated to come from the open waters of the western or southern beaches. Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki, an experienced combat officer from the campaigns in China, relieved Tomonari on July 20, 1943, in anticipation of the coming fight. Shibazaki continued the defensive preparations right up to the day of the invasion. He encouraged his troops, saying "it would take one million men one hundred years" to conquer Tarawa.

Among the Imperial Japanese Navy Land Forces [海軍陸戦隊], the best elite troops were sent to the small island of Betio. More than 2000 civilian workers built 500 concrete bunkers, Tochika, underground fortresses, trenches and coastal defenses.

▲ Keiji Shibazaki (柴崎 恵次, Shibazaki Keiji, 9 April 1894 – 20 November 1943)

Keiji Shibazaki (柴崎 恵次, Shibazaki Keiji, 9 April 1894 – 20 November 1943) was a Rear Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was the commander of the Japanese garrison on the island of Betio of the Tarawa atoll during World War II.

Major General Keiji Shibazaki (柴崎 恵次, Shibazaki Keiji, 9 April 1894 – 20 November 1943) was a very capable and courageous soldier. He declared that the US invasion could be repelled.
Japan had 2,500 elite troops and 2,400 civilian workers, all 5,000.

On the other hand, the United States believed that Bethio was easy to conquer because it was an atoll of 3 km long and 1 km wide.
The United States was a total of 35,000 troops, including the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. The Army played the leading role in the Battle of Guadalcanal, but the Marine Division became the main force of the ground battle in the fight against Tarawa.

American soldiers anticipated an easy victory because they overwhelmed Japan in the United States' troops and firepower.

An American veteran said.

I didn't know if Japs would be so strong.

▲ Bodies sprawled on the beach of Tarawa atoll testify to the ferocity of the battle for this stretch of sand in late November 1943.