Betio is an island and a town at the extreme southwest of South Tarawa

South Tarawa

South Tarawa is the official capital of the Republic of Kiribati on Tarawa Atoll. The meaning of Teinainano is "down of the mast", alluding to the sail-shape of the atoll...

 in Kiribati

Kiribati

Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...

. The main port of Tarawa Atoll

Tarawa Atoll

Tarawa is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously the capital of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. It is the location of the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, South Tarawa...

 is located there.

Overview

The island is most well known as the scene of the Battle of Tarawa

Battle of Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa, code named Operation Galvanic, was a battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. It was the first American offensive in the critical central Pacific region....

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Relics of the Japanese

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

 invasion, and the subsequent American assault on the islet in 1943, remain there. The Japanese airstrip no longer exists, but its effect can be seen in the stunted growth of palms

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 along its length. Many bunkers remain, as well as the wrecks of military equipment.

It was also the scene of a massacre by beheading of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

an civilians and military coastwatchers by Japanese forces prior to the US landings. The massacre was in retaliation for an American air raid and not in retaliation for assistance given to the escape of civilians and seamen from the RCS (Royal Colonial Ship) Nimanoa (also sometimes wrongly written as Niminoa).

Pacific Wrecks. The partly submerged hulk of the Saidu Maru, a Japanese merchant ship often wrongly called the Niminoa, would later be used as a machine gun post by the Japanese against the US forces that re-took Tarawa. Note: RCS Nimanoa was a wooden-hulled ketch, whereas Saidu Maru was a steel-hulled vessel, part of which is still visible on the reef off Red Beach.

The seamen escaped in a small, open launch, towing two lifeboats They sailed to Nonouti, in the Southern Gilberts, where they were met by the Degei, commanded by Captain Jack Webster in which they returned from Nonouti to Fiji. News of the massacre was covered up by British authorities at the time to the extent that New Zealand and Fijian governments were prevented from informing the families of the men killed of their deaths. However, persistent rumours eventually reached the families and it has been proposed that the shooting of Japanese prisoners held in a New Zealand POW

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 camp was done in retaliation for this massacre. The New Zealand camp guard who fired on the Japanese prisoners during the prison riot was the brother of one of the coastwatchers massacred on Betio.

Since the 1970s, the islet has become increasingly more crowded, being the main centre of economic activity in Kiribati, and the construction of the causeway

Causeway

In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...

 to Bairiki in the early 1980s exacerbated this.

Unexploded artillery shells, mortar rounds, anti-aircraft shells and live machine gun bullets are found all over the island and surrounding reef. There are also remains of several hundred U.S. and Japanese soldiers still buried on the island.