Tarawa

Type: Event

As of November 2026, Tarawa has been mentioned in one podcast episode on Dan Carlin (Nov 2020). Dan Carlin's episode "Supernova in the East 5" discusses the Battle of Tarawa as a key event in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He emphasizes its significance by noting that it ranks among the costliest battles in American military history and highlights the shocking losses faced by marines during the conflict.

The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, now part of the Republic of Kiribati but then a Japanese-occupied British colony. The battle was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts, and ended in a decisive American victory. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died during the battle, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll. At the