Rare color photographs of a moment lost in time, faraway from home in a tainted paradise. Buried in the bowels of the LIFE archives, I stumbled upon this unique glimpse into the island life of American soldiers stationed on the Tawara Atoll, located in the Gilbert Islands of the Pacific Ocean. Captured by photojournalist J. R. Eyerman in 1944, the year before the war’s end, we find ourselves taking a tour of the sun-drenched island in the aftermath of the Battle of Tarawa fought against the Japanese; an island torn between paradise and war…
At first glance, the island appears to be an ideal posting for a young American soldier sent to war.
The native people appear to welcome their presence, performing in traditional dress for the American servicemen.
A group of local women are being trained as nurses…
Through many of the photographs, we can find an island restored to peace, following a bloody battle that saw 6,400 Americans, Japanese and Koreans perish in battle.
US servicemen enjoy a drink at their own Officer’s Club.
The island has its own barber shop…
A quonset hut converted to a library…
A tiki hut for developing photographs …
Anyone for a tropical al fresco shower?
BBQs on the beach…
Someone to watch over the boys.
“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.”
But further down the sandy beach, we find another face of the island, revealing the scars of war.
Tarawa’s losses occurred in a period of 76 hours and the high casualty count caused outrage among Americans as the media sent headlines back home that described “The Bloody Beaches of Tarawa”. The island hopping campaign across the central Pacific was intended to advance towards Japan by moving from island to island, using each as a base for capturing the next, beginning in the Gilbert Islands. Once these were secure, the bombing of Japan could commence prior to a full-scale invasion. But at what cost?
A second look through the coconut trees, a longer look at the faces that have witnessed so much horror, and we might see a broken paradise…
Writing after the war in his biography, General Holland Smith, who led the U.S. Army in the assaults on the Gilbert Islands and has often been called the “father” of modern U.S. amphibious warfare, commented:
Was Tarawa worth it? My answer is unqualified: No. From the very beginning the decision of the Joint Chiefs to seize Tarawa was a mistake and from their initial mistake grew the terrible drama of errors, errors of omission rather than commission, resulting in these needless casualties.
All images found in the LIFE Archives.
