Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands

From 1941 to 1943, Imperial Japanese Navy forces occupied the islands, and from 1942 until 1945 Ocean Island which was home to the headquarters of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony (GEIC).^[1]

The Japanese occupation of the Northern Gilbert Islands can be divided into three periods:


On the day of their attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese military forces embarked on board the minelayer Okinoshima which was serving as flagship for Admiral Kiyohide Shima in Operation Gi (the invasion of the Gilbert Islands) and had deployed from Jaluit with a Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF). From 9–10 December, Okinoshima supported the Japanese landings on Makin and on Tarawa, and on 24 December, the seizure of Abaiang.^[3] The 51st Guards Force from Jaluit occupied on 10 December 1941 (local time 0045), Makin and on 11 December Little Makin, then later Abaiang and Marakei in the northern Gilbert Islands. Japanese immediately seized the New Zealand Coastwatchers of Makin.^[4] Within two days, a seaplane base was built on Makin lagoon by Nagata Maru.


A few hours before the Makin occupation, on 10 December 1941, the same Japanese landing military (DesDiv 29/Section 1's Asanagi and Yūnagi) also visited Tarawa, where they rounded up the Europeans and informed them that they could not leave the atoll without the permission of the naval commander, Kiyohide Shima. The Japanese destroyed all means of transportation and ransacked the Burns Philp trading station, then departed for Makin.


The Imperial Japanese Navy forces on Makin were part of the Marshall Islands Garrison, and officially titled the 62nd Garrison Force.^[5] At the time of the Makin raid on 17–18 August 1942 the total force opposing the American landing consisted of 71 armed personnel of the Japanese seaplane base led by Warrant Officer (Heisouchou) Kyuzaburo Kanemitsu of the Special Naval Landing Force equipped with light weapons. In addition there were also four members of the seaplane tender base and three members of a meteorological unit. Two civilian personnel were attached to the Japanese forces as interpreters and civilian administrators.


On 31 August 1942, Japanese troops also occupied Abemama. On September, some remote central and southern islands were also briefly visited or occupied (Tamana was the southernmost) especially in order to destroy the Coastwatchers network, headquartered on Beru.^[6] On 15 September 1942, Japanese forces occupied Tarawa and began fortifying the atoll, mainly Betio islet where they built Hawkins Field, an airfield.


In response, on 2 October 1942, US forces occupied the Ellice Islands and began constructing airfields on Funafuti, Nukufetau and Nanumea as a base of operations against the Japanese occupation in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.^[7]


The first offensive operation from the new American airfield at Funafuti was launched on 20 April 1943 when 22 B-24 Liberator aircraft from 371 and 372 Bombardment Squadrons bombed Nauru. The next day the Japanese made a predawn raid on the strip at Funafuti that destroyed one B-24 and caused damage to five other planes. On 22 April, 12 B-24 aircraft bombed Tarawa.^[8]


On 6 November 1943, the United States Seventh Air Force established its forward headquarters base on Funafuti, to prepare the battle of Tarawa.^[8][9]


Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki was killed on 20 November 1943, as the last commander of the Japanese 3rd Special Base Force — in garrison on the island of Betio — and of the Gilbert Islands, Nauru and Ocean Island. Admiral Carl Henry Jones (1893 - 1958) became thereafter the U.S. commander of the Gilbert Islands subarea (from 18 Dec 1943 to 1 Oct 1944), at the end of this battle.^[9]