| Original caption: “Graves of United States Marines who died taking Tarawa, before headstones were prepared. In the background are the first tents put up after the occupation of the island.” All over Betio island in late November 1943 – an area of just over 1 square mile – more than 5,000 bodies were now putrefying under the equatorial sun. The 1st priority was to dispose of them, as much to prevent disease as from any considerations of decency. This ghastly aspect of the Battle of Tarawa was central to the experience and the memories of the men who fought there, and to pass over it too lightly would be deeply dishonest. Finding space for the thousands of dead Japanese and Americans was almost impossible on Betio. The stench of death and decay overwhelmed the island. “Betio would be more habitable,” reported war correspondent Robert Sherrod (February 8, 1909 – February 13, 1994), “if the Marines could leave for a few days and send a million buzzards in.” Working parties, many of the men wearing gas masks, sought doggedly to identify the dead. Often, the bodies were so badly shattered or burned as to eliminate distinction between friend and foe. Chaplains worked alongside burial teams equipped with bulldozers. The island seemed too small to accommodate the thousands of corpses. Pharmacist’s Mate Stanley Bowen (January 30, 1923 – December 25, 2013) recalled the horror. “You could not dig a grave for a body without exposing another body.” With his crew, Carpenter’s Mate Lawrence E. Klatt (November 11, 1920 – February 18, 2016), 18th Naval Construction Battalion, had the gruesome task of burying a 100 Japanese in a swale near Black Beach 1. “Where possible, we dragged these guys by their heels into this swale. Many of these were so badly hit that by taking them by their heels, it was doubtful that the shoulders would follow.” Many Japanese corpses had already been tipped into bomb craters and shell-holes and bulldozed over. Now that the island was relatively quiet, hundreds of Japanese bodies were moved to the south shore and taken out to sea, where they were unceremoniously dumped overboard for the sharks to take care of – in those waters, it would be a rapid process. The pilot of 1 of the Kingfisher spotters, which flew over the island during the battle, had reported seeing sharks feeding on the bodies of “dead Japanese” out in the lagoon, but as so few of the Japanese were killed during the landings, it is almost certain that what he saw were Marines. The dead of the United States Marines were treated with more dignity than the Japanese. A collection point was established at the end of the main pier, where identifications were made, and personal possessions gathered together by the Grave Registration crews. In many cases, identification was virtually impossible – an added misery for the many Marines who came to the pier looking for friends, not knowing who had survived the battle. Eventually, a cemetery would be laid out in the area behind Red Beach 2, now known as the Memorial Garden, with row after row of neat white crosses surrounded by a low wall of palm logs – the best that the Seabees could manage with the available resources. In time, some of the Marines would be returned to America at the request of their families to be laid to rest in their hometowns; others would be remembered at the huge war memorial, nicknamed the Punchbowl, in Hawaii. PFC Hugh Adams (January 26, 1925 – December 20, 2008) recalls: “I will never forget the day that our ship got underway for Hawaii after Tarawa was secured. I was standing at the rail and watching several small boats working their way among the bodies of Marines floating about. The bodies were so bloated that the Navy men used bayonets to puncture them, and then weighed them down with chains so they would sink. This was a sea burial for some, and probably there was no other choice. [After a] few days at sea…we conducted more proper sea burials for those Marines who died aboard ship from wounds.” According to some estimates, the 2nd Marine Division had to consign nearly 200 dead Marines to the deep from troop transports offshore. The remains of the fallen at Tarawa, on the other hand, would know little peace. Many of the graves had to be moved up to 4 different times, partly to accommodate wartime expansion of the airstrip, partly because of subsequent resettlement by natives. With this disruption, and the fact that the ships had to bury so many men at sea, barely 1/4 of the dead made it home to America, identified, for burial. At upper left, a signpost with “To Tokio,” “To the Beach,” “Golden Gate in ‘48, Bread Line in ‘49,” and “To Frisco” hand-painted directions. This was erected by 5 Marines in January 1944 and reflected the sardonic humor of the garrison as they built the airfield and cleaned up from the battle. Photo by Lieutenant Charles E. Kerlee (March 28, 1907 – January 23, 1981), United States Naval Reserve. Kerlee was already well-known as a professional, award-winning commercial photographer. As such, he was approached by a United States Navy Reservist, Lieutenant Commander Edward Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973), himself a famous commercial photographer from New York. Steichen had a simple proposal – that Kerlee consider joining the United States Navy, not as a sailor or soldier, but as a cameraman. The top brass within the United States Navy, realizing that Steichen’s talents could help foster public support, had tasked him to assemble into a special naval unit the world’s best photographers and videographers to document the war effort. Steichen, in turn, called on his circle of friends, associates, and competitors, including Kerlee. Within a few months, Charles Kerlee found himself on board the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) and headed out to sea and into battle. His camera remained at work until the last days of the war, when he documented the flight crews and actions of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12) in the South China Sea, not far from the coast of Japan. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1605.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.16 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 2455 x 2486 |
| Photographer | Charles E. Kerlee |
| Photographer Title | United States Navy |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Betio |
| State or Province | Tarawa |
| Country | Gilberts |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-80-G-401598 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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