WFI Research Group

The map in the upper left photograph gives the general locations of the graves on Betio island. In 1946, the graves were consolidated into Lone Palm Cemetery.

In 1946, the 604th Graves Registration Company was sent to Tarawa to consolidate all of the graves into Lone Palm Cemetery.

To read the official after action report, click here.

The first large-scale concentration operation began in the spring of 1946. In accordance with concentration orders contained in Headquarters, Army Forces, Mid-Pacific (HAFMIDPAC) Movement Order #24, dated 28 January 1946, approximately 50 men of the 604^th QM Graves Registration Company prepared for a voyage from Honolulu, Hawaii to Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, new Zealand, the Fiji and Samoan Islands

 On 21 February 1946, the unit sailed from Oahu aboard the USAT Lawrence Philips, a small freighter build in 1917, which offered only crude accommodations. The first destination was Tarawa Atoll, a group of bleak and barren dots of land, on which many Marines had fought and died in the short space of 72 hours. This British atoll, occupied by American garrison forces during the war, was returned to its former jurisdiction following VJ Day.

 During the voyage, the Naval Dental Officer conducted classes in tooth charting, which later proved highly valuable, since this method was almost the only available means of identifying the badly decomposed remains found on Tarawa. The ship arrived at Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll on 4 March 1946. A large quonset hut was utilized for storage of equipment and supplies. The thatched frame huts, which quartered the unit, were in such poor condition that two days’ work was necessary to render them livable.

 The most important business confronting the unit was the selection of a cemetery site, which would serve as the concentration point for the approximately 1,000 dead dispersed through the atoll. A suitable location was found on the western end of Betio Island near the old chapel of the war days, and named Lone Palm Cemetery. Following this accomplishment, the Army Garrison Forces Commander, the British Administrator (who had jurisdiction over civil affairs since the return of the atoll to the British after the war), and the Commanding Officer of the 604^th QM Graves Registration Company, conferred and made all the necessary arrangements for acquisition of the land at no expense to the United States Government. These officers also laid plans for the recovery of remains interred on Apamama and Nauru Islands, which lay approximately 100 miles southeast and 500 miles southwest of Tarawa, respectively, and for their later reinterment in Lone Palm Cemetery.

The British Resident Commissioner tendered the services of His Majesty’s launch The Margaret at no cost to the United States. The offer was accepted and the subsequent roundtrip to Apamama required two days. Eleven bodies were exhumed from the island and reinterred on Tarawa. The plan to move the dead from Nauru Island was postponed, and a later search and recovery expedition located the remains there.

 After these arrangements had been made, the AGRS unit began to clear Lone Palm Cemetery of trees. The D7 bulldozer was in such poor condition that it broke down after only four days. Since neither mechanics nor spare parts were available, natives completed the task by hand. When Lone Palm Cemetery was finally ready to receive remains, the 604^th QM GR Company faced the formidable task of disinterring, identifying, and reinterring the numerous dead scatted over the atoll. Because of the large number of fatalities and subsequent hurried burials, most deceased servicemen rested in graves near the points were they had died. Consequently, the atoll contained approximately 43 separate burial sites, the majority of which were located on Betio Island.

 Several factors added to the difficulties of locating and identifying the Tarawa dead. In some cases, the Marines had constructed a monument directly above a body or a group of remains. In other instances, no remains could be located beneath monuments. Again, some memorial graves bore crosses with names but contained no deceased. Sometimes, later investigations located these individuals in cemeteries on the opposite side of the island.

 After the conquest of the atoll, an attempt had apparently been made to beautify Grave 33. The original crosses were removed and lined up in rows parallel to the airstrip. Identifying landmarks were disturbed, rendering the location of original rows and graves doubly difficult. The Marines’ custom of erecting memorial graves adorned with markers for all missing personnel further complicated the situation. After two days of excavating at Grave 33, the workers had recovered no remains. Father O’Neill, who had buried Marine dead on this site shortly after the battle, suggested that a search be made for traces of the three original rows of graves, which were supposed “to run diagonally to certain tree stumps.” After a series of excavations, the diggers discovered, first, the middle row, and then the other two, but they recovered only 129 remains of an alleged total of 400. Most of the dead had been buried as they fell; even cartridges and grenades had not been removed from the bodies. The grenades constituted a hazard since the handles, almost disintegrated by this time, usually came off upon removal from remains. One grenade actually detonated, but no injuries resulted.

 Grave 26 presented similar problems. AGRS workers dug under grave markers but found no remains. Upon advice from Father Kelly, they made a narrow trench across the length of the cemetery and so located the remains of the deceased. As in Grave 33, unexploded grenades were discovered on many of the 123 located bodies.

 Graves 14 and 27 may be described as monument cemeteries. In the former grave, the 41 remains were finally located outside the large quonset hut which served as the base theater, reportedly contained 40 dead. AGRS workers removed the monument and excavated to a depth of seven feet, but found no remains. Explorative diggins and trench excavations started throughout the area, but all efforts proved fruitless. They could find “ no remains, no remnants of equipment, nor any other debris that could have indicated a burial place.”

 In all cases, every means of identification, including tooth-charting whenever possible, was exhausted before bodies were reinterred. AGRS workers placed an identification tag and a copy of the Report of Reinterment in a sealed bottle for burial with the remains. In addition, they erected a marker at the head of each grave, together with an identification tag, and a 2-inch by 4-inch metal tag showing the name, rank and serial number of the deceased. Unidentifed dead were designated as “Unknown #…”

 Late in May 1946, after completion of the whole arduous mission, some 532 recovered remains from the 43 burial places rested in Lone Palm Cemetery after receiving full military honors.