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In December 1943 the 2nd Marine Division arrived in the port of Hilo on the east coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i. They had come from what has been called the battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. The Gilberts are located in the south central Pacific. The Battle for Tarawa (Betio atoll) lasted three days. The 2nd Division lost 1,001 men killed in action with another 2,296 wounded in action. The Division had dropped off their wounded in Honolulu and the rest of the Division sailed on to the Big Island and Camp Tarawa.

WAIMEA REMEMBERS CAMP TARAWA

BY GORDON BRYSONMARCH 1995

2nd Marine Division Morning Colors

Waimea Gazette

Waimea Remembers Camp Tarawa

By: Gordon Bryson 1995

The huge man was not from Waimea. Every one from the Hayashi Store knew that, but he wasn’t army either. They had departed some weeks before with a roaring of the deuce and a half trucks that left the streets of Waimea muddy and rutted for the paniolos and horses. His blue eyes burned into theirs. He had on a government issue t-shirt and dark green pants without pockets. The pants were stained and torn.

“Do you have clothes?” The man had trouble speaking and seemed to see them as strange, as strange as he looked. “I need clothes,” he mumbled again, reaching into his front pocket for money.

Behind the huge man were other Marines in various levels of undress, not like soldiers who had been in town for the previous year. Quickly, the Hayashi Store sold all of its clothes and blankets to the shivering men. Later, truckloads wandered around town, cursing the cold wind that wasn’t supposed to have been part of their trip to paradise. The remnants of the proud Second Division, the heroes of Tarawa, had come to Waimea to rest from the bloodiest battle in the history of the Marine Corps, to replace the dead and wounded, and to prepare for the crucial battles of Saipan and Tinian.

The tents had been left stacked in the pasture and had to be set up. Not enough water could be had in town in spite of the seemingly continuous rain. Most critical was the lack of sleeping bags and blankets. Some bureaucrat had expected the Marines to come prepared; it was their motto, after all, and he had apparently decided that since each Marine had been issued blankets and sleeping materials along with a complete uniform that they would arrive ready for the Waimea weather.

Seabees at Camp Tarawa

Also included at Camp Tarawa were the USN Seabees of the 3rd Battalion, part of the 18th Marines (Engineers). Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts was one of the toughest of them all. Only after savage fighting at a cost of nearly 1,000 American dead were the Japanese defenders overwhelmed. On Tarawa, the Seabees landed with the Marines and in a mere fifteen hours put a shell-pocked airfield back into operation. All three Battalions of the 18th Marines built Camp Tarawa from scratch out of grasslands and lava rock. The Seabees drilled the first real water well on the Big Island 886 feet deep. The 18th Marines (Engineers) built the ice plant, the electric power plant, the reservoir on Waimea creek and the rest of the camp infrastructure, bringing the town of Waimea and the Parker Ranch into the 20th century.

3rd Battalion crane in operation.

3rd Battalion heavy equipment at the new airport.

The division had come directly from its victory at Betio. Much of the equipment had been lost in the fierce battle. Men had had little time to sleep and less space in the crowded troop ships. The Japanese Imperial Navy Landing Force (Marines) had fought to the last man, preferring suicide or being destroyed while carrying explosives to surrender. The bodies of the U.S. Marines had filled the lagoon and the palm groves from one end of the island to the other. Horrified men had stripped off their clothes to rid themselves of the smell of Betio and its memories. Since they were in the midst of war, they had been shipped directly to Oahu, had left their wounded for treatment, and had disembarked at Hilo Harbor without their packs or their uniforms. Marines marched or staggered into waiting trucks to begin the cold journey across the Saddle Road. Others filed into the narrow-gauge cane train that wound through deep gulches and small towns. Smiling people threw fruit into the train. One Marine was hit in the stomach with a coconut. All of them tried hard to smile back at the strange people who looked so little like the families they had left behind on the mainland. A few squads rode in landing craft to nearby Kohala beaches and hiked several miles up to their cold, windy camp. The ranking officers, “brass,” flew into the new camp landing strip, later to be Bordelon Field after it got its first coat of asphalt and concrete. The newcomers called their new home Camp Tarawa in honor of one of the greatest sacrifices that the Corps had ever had to make to save its country.

Clearing enemy bunkers Tarawa Atoll

The town was as taken aback as the Marines. It had been glad to see the hundreds of army trucks rumble into town in 1942. When Pearl Harbor had been attacked, the National Guard of Hawaii had been on maneuvers on Maui. Hisa Kimura was one of the only paniolos who had a weapon, a 32 pistol. He and several other men from town had guarded the beaches from the invasions that many expected to follow the Japanese attack. Indeed, Admiral Yamamoto’s plan of battle called for an invasion of the Big Island shortly after he had destroyed the remnants of the U. S. Navy at Midway. Fortunately for Hisa, the miracle of Midway shut the door to Japanese conquest of Hawaii.

Shortly after that battle, the army stationed Company F 299th Infantry and a medical detachment in the town and around the rest of Kohala. They set up their tents under trees and under the cover of the hills. Paniolos and farmers were told to drive stakes into their fields to keep enemy planes from landing. America was not to attain air supremacy for another year. Blackouts and mobilization of men and resources followed the army’s arrival. Men from Kohala and Waimea rushed to volunteer and were assigned to the war in Europe. Many were told that they were too valuable to the war effort in their jobs as farmers and ranchers. Farmers began to farm intensively and ship their goods to the Food Center in Hilo. Parker Ranch sent cattle to Honolulu while supplying necessary beef to the men in uniform in its own town. Many townspeople redoubled their Red Cross work that had begun in 1939 and was to last the entire war. At first they had knit navy blue, gray or maroon beanies, sweaters and socks for the English people under attack from Hitler’s Luftwaffe. Later they sewed bandages for use by the American troops in Europe. Finally, the mothers and sisters sewed “sennimbari” bands with one thousand stitches to protect their men on the European front.

Families received ration booklets for gasoline, liquor and foodstuffs. Each person received a thirty-five cent coupon per day. Inventive youngsters waited behind particularly bad bumps in the ridged Waimea road. Marine trucks could be counted on to bounce at least one or two boxes of cigarettes or food onto the road. Many older townspeople thought that the luck was just a little too good to be true. In order to sustain themselves, many Waimea farmers began to raise “Victory Gardens.” Acres of beans and potatoes supplied the civilian needs, so that the “boys at the front” could eat the best that America could provide.

The men of the Second Division were different. They had come to Waimea from the tropical heat of Tarawa, so that the many suffering from malaria could recover from their illness in the cool plateau breezes. After their first shivering months of getting adjusted to the climate and getting necessary equipment and replacements, the division began to train for battle on Island X. Many of the officers guessed that it would be Saipan after extensive maneuvers took place in Hamakua cane fields. Landing with air cover and amphibious tanks was another drill practiced endlessly.

On weekends, the Marines and town got to know each other. Ball games pitted combined teams of Marines and town men against outsiders. Boxing matches and basketball games were held at the sports center. Woman and girls joined the USO dancers at Barbara Hall (Kahilu, now Parker School) so that endless lines of seventeen and eighteen-year old veterans could grasp a moment of peace. Women took in washing from the thousands of boys so far from home, and some weekends took these lonely visitors in for a home-cooked meal.

Marines waiting for the USO to open.

Waimea leapt into the twentieth century because of the technology and plenty that seemed to have followed the Marines into town. An electric generator allowed settlement houses to be lit by bulb rather than kerosene. The Waimea Elementary School and the Waimea Hotel became a 400-bed hospital with modern medical facilities. The engineers dammed the Waikoloa stream, constructed reservoirs to supply water to the division and the town, and erected temporary Canek structures behind St. James Church. An icehouse helped Marine cooks to turn out seeming tons of ice cream for delighted town children and adults. Entrepreneurs from all over the island began to show up to sell the thousand of papers that the Marines read and the hills of hot dogs that everyone consumed while watching the ball games at the park.

Baseball field

Finally, the harbormaster went to Hilo to rehearse the complex embarkation and disembarkation of a division of heavily equipped Marines. One spring morning, hundreds of truck engines coughed to life, and grim men stared at Waimea for the last time. They embarked for the invasions of Saipan-Tinian and later in 1945 the invasion of Okinawa while the Town of Waimea awaited the arrival of the 5th Marine Division.

2nd Marine Division Marines, Saipan, Mariana Islands, D Day

15 July 1944

Marines moving off of the beach at Saipan

Training in the cane fields of Hamakua pays off.

Tanks and infantry advance on Saipan.

The 2nd Division that trained at Camp Tarawa had a total 2,729 Killed in Action or died of their wounds and 8,753 Wounded in Action during the Saipan Tinian Campaign. 15 June-8 July 1944

5th Marine Division

Camp Tarawa

1944-1945

Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment,

5th Marine Division. The two flags on Mount Suribachi.

The 5th Marine Division was activated at Camp Pendleton, California on 21 January 1944. The early months of that year saw the activation of the division's infantry regiments. At the same time, many support units were created to keep "The Spearhead" supplied, armed, and fighting. Like every new outfit in World War II, the Fifth was confronted with problems and crises as it prepared for its rendezvous with destiny in combat.

PREPARING FOR WAR

The 5th Marine Division was never really a "green" outfit, even from the very start. Among its ranks were thousands of combat veterans, many of them former members of the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment, the Raider Training Battalion, the Parachute Training School, West Coast, and the Parachute Replacement Company. These Marines, most of whom had already served in combat, gave The Spearhead a fighting edge in training and battle. In addition, all over the United States, posts and stations of the Corps were scoured for Marines who had not yet served in combat.

5th Division troopship loading at San Diego for trip to Camp Tarawa.

Elements of the division began departing for overseas service in July 1944 as the reserve for the Guam campaign. Not needed, they arrived at Camp Tarawa, near Hilo, Hawaii. The rest of the division arrived between August and November 1944.

Life at Camp Tarawa and the Town of Waimea

“

"Waimea Remembers Camp Tarawa” by Gordon Bryson, Waimea Gazette 1995.

(Continued)

Just days afer the 2nd Division left, it seemed new trucks rumbled into town bearing the 5th Division. Well-dressed and well equipped, these men went about their maneuvers. Pu’u Ula’ula and Buster Brown were scaled daily so the men would be able to climb the infamous Mt. Suribachi when the time came and live ammunition drill covered squadrons as they crept forward on the lava deserts that surrounded the camp. It seemed as if the 2nd had never left, but these Marines seemed younger and more prone to laugh.

Like a cowboy riding a horse Waimea had gotten the hang of caring for a division of Marines. By this time the hamburger stands and newspaper kiosks were permanent. “The Magnolia” and “The Chuckwagon” sold thousands of meals a week. Each day, Tsugi Kaiama picked up a steer from the ranch slaughter-house and ground it into hamburger with her gas grinder. Her hamburgers tasted better because the steak and rib sections joined rump as the whole cow went through the grinder. Later she added celery and breadcrumbs to give her hamburgers the perfect taste. “No one from town could ever eat them”, attested I Isa Kimura “the lines were to long” One day, Tsugi (“Aunt Sue” as she was called by Marines). saw a boy who looked local in the endless line of diners. When she asked him if he were a local or not, he introduced himself as Ira Hayes, an American Indian. Everyone in town eagerly scanned the backstop for the sign “Game Today!” One weekend a team of town players and Marines took on a visiting team that had several major league players on it. The local boys lost by the respectable score of 4-3. Each morning the Marine band marched through town, usually with a band of delighted children in tow.

In a wild rodeo, Marines from the southwest and a few “lolos” who had never ridden a horse challenged the local paniolos to feats of cowboy skill. The results of this contest were not as close as the ball game, but no serious injuries resulted. Bruised contestants consumed several steers at the BBQ “the ranch” threw for the competitors. More informal parties took place in “Honey Cow,” what the Marines called Honoka’a. Men on furlough took the school bus down to the local bars and returned in raucous moods. The owner of the bus company finally had to direct the bus drivers to transport their adult guests separately because the children were getting too much of an education. Other Marines on liberty started walking along the roads out of Waimea. When picked up by local drivers or riders, they told the carrier that they wanted to see “where the road went.” Usually they wound up in local houses sharing a good meal and marveling at the normal life they were momentarily part of. Sometimes they got lost and had to be carried back by paniolos who rounded up stray khaki-clad strays as readily as they caught the bovine variety.

Outdoor Movie Theater Camp Tarawa

The town had fallen in love with the Marines. Children had gotten used to ice cream at their school lunches. The teenagers expected to have professional musicians like Bob Crosby (Bing Crosby’s brother) band. Daring twelve-year old kids hid in the bushes of Camp Tarawa to watch the latest movies at the camps outdoor theaters. Farmers and storeowners expected to sell whatever in days.

But war time romances can be short and on Christmas day 1944, the 5th Division left for final rehearsals at Ma’alea Bay and the invasion of Iwo Jima. The men who had not been killed or seriously wounded returned in March, but the camp finally closed in November as the 5th Division was transferred to Japan for occupation duties. Many of the boys who had played ball with the townspeople or eaten Thanksgiving dinner at Kohala homes were never heard from again. The army took over the camp, held an auction, and suddenly the town receded into the mists like Brigadoon.

At Camp Tarawa, the Fifth honed its combat skills and waited for the call to duty. It came in late 1944 when the division received its combat orders to assault Iwo Jima. Now the Marines began a period of intensified training on terrain that was a close match to the ground on Iwo. From all over the world, ships and equipment were marshaled for the invasion. In December 1944, transports began arriving at Hilo. Loading began on 16 December, and the last units of The Spearhead pulled out of Camp Tarawa on 4 January 1945.

Life aboard an APA (attack troop transport).

Moving off of the black sand beach at Iwo Jima

"Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue." Chester W Nimitz

This invasion was the first time the Japanese home islands had been invaded during WW II. The invasion of Iwo Jima started on Febuary 19 and the island was declared secure on March 16, 1945. In almost two months of constant combat the 5th Marine Division had a listed total of 2,416 killed in action or died from their wounds and 9,276 were wounded in action.

RECONSTITUTION

Mail Call

Returning to Camp Tarawa, the Fifth started an extensive liberty program called "Operation SHAKE-DOWN." Marines could take in Hollywood USO shows and movies. They went to Hilo on liberty, and sometimes even Honolulu. Thousands of new replacements reported aboard to fill the division's depleted ranks. Combat reports were completed, new equipment of every type arrived, and the old cycle of combat training began again. Detailed planning and maneuvers started for the largest objective ever: the Invasion of Japan.

“The scuttlebutt [about the a-bomb] started on either August 6th or 7th. I heard about the Hiroshima bomb from a guy in a jeep as we were marching from the ocean up to Camp Tarawa after an overnight landing exercise involving most of the division. When we got back to camp, I found a printed news bulletin that said we had dropped a single bomb with a power of 20,000 tons of TNT that destroyed a whole Japanese city. I could not imagine such a bomb, and thought it must be a misprint. " 2ndLt Craig Leman, USMCR How company 3/26, 5th MarDiv.

Then, in early August 1945, scuttlebutt flew across Camp Tarawa like wildfire–the Army Air Force had dropped a giant new bomb that could destroy an entire city. The Fifth sweated out the rumors, which were confirmed a few days later. On 14 August 1945, the Japanese government surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

OCCUPATION DUTY

Marines hoped they would soon return home, but this was almost immediately squelched when the Fifth learned it was to participate in the Occupation of Japan. In only twelve days, the division completed all preparations for combat embarkation. On 27 August, the Fifth loaded on transports and sailed for Japan.

Arriving on 22 September 1945, the Fifth executed a combat assault near the Japanese naval base at Sasebo. The landings went off without a hitch and the City of Sasebo was in Marine hands. Then, the Fifth spread out across the island of Kyushu and beyond.

As part of the occupation force, the division enforced surrender terms. Tens of thousands of Japanese military personnel had to be demobilized and their weapons destroyed. In the zone of occupation, the Marines became the government for one of the most densely populated areas in Asia. They became the police, the grocery store and provided services of every kind to the population of their former enemies.

HOMEWARD BOUND

Beginning on 23 November 1945, the Fifth began mounting out once more, this time for the long-awaited trip home. Their transports docked in San Diego during the week before Christmas. The Marines reported aboard Camp Pendleton for discharge or transfer. In January 1945, more than 11,000 Spearhead Marines were processed for discharge. Just over 600 were transferred to other outfits.

While Marines streamed out of Camp Pendleton, the units they had served with were deactivated. Regiments, battalions and companies closed out their unit diaries and sent their records to division headquarters. Finally, on 5 February 1946, in a simple ceremony on the mainside parade deck, the 5th Marine Division was deactivated. The division colors were cased for the last time and The Spearhead marched into history.

In July 1983, Barbara Elliott one our associate members and the Waimea Civic Club renewed old ties by erecting a monument to the brave servicemen who had been our guests during WW II. The late John Raleigh, journalist and veteran, had provided the dream that many others took and made real. A large rock, symbolic of Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima with a brass plaque made from shell casings, now stands at the entrance of Pu’uopoloon the Mamalahoa Highway. Richard Smart generously supplied the land that the monument stands on just as he had supplied the many acres that Camp Tarawa occupied during WW II.

The granite stones that are now part of the Camp Tarawa Memorial briefly tell the story of the V Amphibious Corps and the 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions that trained at Camp Tarawa in 1943-1945 and were dedicated in 1995. The Memorial would not be here without the many hours spent getting it built.

Camp Tarawa Commemoration Febuary 19, 1985, and finished in 1998

So thank you Barbara Elliott, The Waimea Civic Club, Alice Clark of the Pacific War Memorial Association, and Bee Clark her husband, Becky Carter, wife of A. Hartwell Carter, the former manager of the Parker Ranch, all the folks in the town of Waimea, and Richard Smart, owner of the Parker Ranch, for keeping a small, but very important part, of WW II history alive after all these years. So a “Very Well Done” to all, from Marines past, present, and future.

For more information on the Pacific War Memorial and Camp Tarawa on the web go to: www.pacificwarmemorial.org/.

Thanks to:

John Ratomski for the pictures and history of the 3rd Battalion (USN Seabees) as well as the picture of the baseball field in the park at Waimea. John’s dad was a member of the 3rd Battalion 18th Marines throughout WW II.

Carl Crouch for the copy of the 5th Marine Division Spearhead newsletter. It was from this newsletter that I obtained the pictures of the outdoor theatre, the troopship at the dock in San Diego, the troop compartment aboard the troop transport, and Roscoe the lion as well as much more information on the 5th Division at Camp Tarawa.

Bert Clayton editor of the Spearhead newsletter for helping our docent program by providing interesting information, verbal and written, on the lives and times of the men that trained at Camp Tarawa during WW II.

The text not in italics was taken from the 2nd and 5th Marine Division websites. Some of the pictures were taken from the same sources as well as other WW II websites. The editor added to the history from bits and pieces compiled from personal phone contacts. The text in italics is from the Waimea Gazette and by Gordon Bryson written in 1995. Norm Stahl for his picture of raising the colors at Camp Tarawa.

The War Memorial of the Pacific Association for, “Waimea Remembers Camp Tarawa”, by Gordon Bryson 1995.

Historical notes:.

1.More than fifty-five thousand Marines, Navy Corpsman and Seabees trained at Camp Tarawa. Of those Marines Navy Corpsmen and Seabees that trained at Camp Tarawa with the 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions a total of 5,145 were listed as killed in action or died from their wounds and 18,029 were wounded in action in the invasions of Saipan-Tinian and Iwo Jima.

2.Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts was one of the toughest of them all for the Seabees. Only after savage fighting at a cost of nearly 1,000 American dead were the Japanese defenders overwhelmed. On Tarawa, the Seabees landed with the Marines and in a mere fifteen hours put a shell-pocked airfield back into operation. In the North, Central, South and Southwest Pacific areas, the Seabees built 111 major airstrips, 441 piers, 2,558 ammunition magazines, 700 square blocks of warehouses, hospitals to serve 70,000 patients, tanks for the storage of 100,000,000 gallons of gasoline, and housing for 1,500,000 men.

3.Three regiments of the 5th Division were reactivated for the war in Viet Nam. After the Viet Nam war the division was again deactivated and it’s colors cased but standing ready to be reactivated should our nation need the 5th Marine Division at any time in the future.

4.Richard Smart the then sole owner of the Parker Ranch (the largest cattle ranch in the United States) was a star actor, singer and dancer on Broadway when WW II started. He left his career on Broadway and joined the US Army for the duration of the war. When the Marine Corps needed a base to train for the Saipan-Tinian campaign and then for the invasion of Iwo Jima he, Richard Smart, leased 40 thousand acres of Parker Ranch land to the government for 1 dollar a year.

5.Additional training was carried out at CAMP DREWES (2nd Amtrack Battalion, 2nd Marine Division), the tent camp by a shallow reef-fringed cove (Hapuna Beach State Park) on the northern coast of the island. Units in turn marched the twelve miles down the slopes of Mauna Kea over a road built by the engineer battalions, for combat exercises at the coastal camp. In addition to normal unit training at Camp Drewes, Division set up a program of swimming instruction under Warrant Officer Melvin K. Archer, former Olympic champion. In the clear, warm water of the lagoon, Archer and his assistants taught non-swimmers the fundamentals of staying afloat and alive in the water."

Camp Drewes, tents at right, at what is now Hapuna State Beach, then home to the 2nd and 5th Amtrak Battalions 1943-1947. Just above on the cliff now stands the Prince at Hapuna 5 Star Resort.

Finally, a thank you from all the members of the Camp Tarawa Detachment for taking the time to read just some of the history of Camp Tarawa. Our detachments mission: to keep the history of Camp Tarawa and the memories of the men that trained here alive so future generations of Americans will understand the sacrifices these man made in the defense of our country during WW II.