US Army soldiers facing the beaches of Makin Atoll, with 165th Infantry assault wave attacking Yellow Beach Two, finding it slow going in the coral bottom waters while Japanese machine gun fire from the right flank makes it more difficult for them. From my point of view, the Battle of Makin Atoll, lasting four days, was a tactical defeat in the US Marines, which lost at least twice the number of men than Japanese forces, although having a widely military supremacy. Opposed to 6,500 Marines landing on the beaches of Makin, a resistance of 400 Japanese soldiers and nearly 400 Japanese and Korean laborers managed to kill 763 US soldiers, wound 185 and sunk one aircraft carrier, the USS Liscome Bay, with a submarine. Of course, amphibious landings are always one of the hardest movements in war, but comparing the Battle of Makin with others, such as the Battle of Arawe or the Battle of Cape Gloucester, it is difficult to understand why this operation took so many lives. All in all, it is true that several naval actions and raids had been fought before and that the atoll was extremely well defended, so we shall do nothing but try to correct all our mistakes in the future.

20/11/1943