

It was also the first time in the Pacific War that the United States had faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. This engagement was the first American offensive in the critical central Pacific region. 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. It took place at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S.

The Battle of Tarawa was an amphibious landing operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II that was fought on 20–23 November 1943.
