All Topics  
Betio

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Betio
 
 
  Topics Betio Topic Home

Betio is an island at the extreme southwest of South Tarawa
South Tarawa

South Tarawa is the official Capital of the Republic of Kiribati on Tarawa Atoll Atoll. The meaning of Teinainano is "down of the mast", alluding to the sail-shape of the atoll....
 in Kiribati
Kiribati

Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is composed of List of islands belonging to Kiribati and one Tectonic uplift island, dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres, straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line to the east....
. The main port of Tarawa Atoll
Tarawa Atoll

Tarawa is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously the capital of the former British Empire colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands....
 is located there.

The island is most well known as the scene of the Battle of Tarawa
Battle of Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific War of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. It was the second time the United States was on the offensive , and the first offensive in the critical central Pacific region....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Betio'
Start a new discussion about 'Betio'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Usmc M Tarawa 3
Battle Tarawa
Betio is an island at the extreme southwest of South Tarawa
South Tarawa

South Tarawa is the official Capital of the Republic of Kiribati on Tarawa Atoll Atoll. The meaning of Teinainano is "down of the mast", alluding to the sail-shape of the atoll....
 in Kiribati
Kiribati

Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is composed of List of islands belonging to Kiribati and one Tectonic uplift island, dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres, straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line to the east....
. The main port of Tarawa Atoll
Tarawa Atoll

Tarawa is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously the capital of the former British Empire colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands....
 is located there.

The island is most well known as the scene of the Battle of Tarawa
Battle of Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific War of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. It was the second time the United States was on the offensive , and the first offensive in the critical central Pacific region....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Relics of the Japanese
Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until its defeat in World War II in 1945....
 invasion, and the subsequent American assault on the islet in 1943, remain there. The Japanese airstrip no longer exists, but its effect can be seen in the stunted growth of palms
Arecaceae

Palm or Palmae or Panamea , the palm family, is a family of flowering plants belonging to the Monocotyledon order, Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known Genus with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropics, subtropics, and warm temperate climates....
 along its length. Many bunkers remain, as well as the wrecks of military equipment.

It was also the scene of a massacre by beheading of New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
 and Fiji
Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu....
an civilians by Japanese forces prior to the US landings. The massacre may have been in retaliation for assistance given to the escape of seamen from the captured merchant ship Nimanoa (also sometimes written as Niminoa). These seamen had been captured by the Japanese at the start of the Pacific War
Pacific War

The Pacific War was the part of World War II?and preceding conflicts?that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, between July 7, 1937 and August 14, 1945....
 when their ship was scuttled in Betio harbour to prevent its use by the invading Japanese forces. The partly submerged hulk of the Nimanoa would later be used as a machine gun post by the Japanese against the US forces that re-took Tarawa.

The seamen escaped in a small, open boat that they sailed to Fiji. News of the massacre was covered up by British authorities at the time to the extent that New Zealand and Fijian governments were prevented from informing the families of the men killed of their deaths. However, persistent rumours eventually reached the families and it has been proposed that the shooting of Japanese prisoners held in a New Zealand POW
Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict....
 camp was done in retaliation for this massacre. The New Zealand camp guard who fired on the Japanese prisoners during the prison riot was the brother of one of the civilians massacred on Betio.

Since the 1970s, the islet has become increasingly more crowded, being the main centre of economic activity in Kiribati, and the construction of the causeway
Causeway

In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated on a sandbank, usually across a broad body of water or wetland. A transport corridor that is carried instead on a series of arches, perhaps approaching a bridge, is a viaduct....
 to Bairiki in the early 1980s exacerbated this. Betio has a similar population density to Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
 and is the densest urban settlement in the Pacific Islands.