After the US military occupied Peti Island in the Tarawa Atoll during the Pacific War, the last Japanese soldier defending Betio Island was killed.

 　　During the Pacific War, after the U.S. military occupied Peti Island in the Tarawa Atoll, the last Japanese soldiers defending Betio Island were killed. The bodies of some Japanese soldiers had already turned a sickly color despite having been dead for only two days. The bodies had turned black, swollen, and burst open. In the 48-degree heat, it did not take long for the human body to decompose.

　　The Battle of Tarawa took place from November 20 to 23, 1943, between U.S. and Japanese forces on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The amphibious assault and occupation operation on the Tarawa Atoll, known as Operation Galvanic, carried out by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units in November 1943, garnered significant global attention. Articles often included combat photos recently sent from the front lines. An unusually high proportion of the photos showed the bodies of U.S. soldiers. In December 1943, a list of casualties was published. The front page featured portraits of the fallen soldiers.

　　The devastated beaches of the Pacific War and marines running across them reappeared. Young men who had appeared in confident wartime photos returned home as local heroes. The bloody battle filled the small island of Bietio with 6,000 corpses in just a few days. On November 23, when the Banzai attack ended about an hour later, there were 200 Japanese soldiers dead on the Marine front lines, and another 125 dead beyond the front lines. The U.S. Marine Corps suffered 1,009 deaths and 2,101 wounded. The U.S. Navy lost 687 men. The Japanese military had 4,690 deaths, with 17 Japanese soldiers taken prisoner.