‘Jack’ Pease’s Tarawa Experiences Recorded
by Michael Salvatore, EWHS
A local man’s ordeal at the World War II Battle of Tarawa was featured in
a recent issue of Connecticut History (Winter 2007, pp. 244-252). Eileen
Hurst, the author, and Matthew Warshauer, editor, have generously given EWHS
permission to post the essay on its website www.eastwindsorhistory.tk to
allow access by members and the general public. Hurst, assistant director of
the Center of Pubic Policy and Social Research at Central Connecticut Statue
University, has also donated a DVD of her interview for our Veterans’ Voices
collection.
Broad Brook native John E. Pease, like many graduates of Ellsworth Memorial
High School in the 1940's, joined the service after the Japanese bombing
Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was an outstanding athlete at Ellsworth,
particularly as a member of the record breaking basketball team.
He and long-time friend George Neelans enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps a
year after Pear Harbor. George did not survive the war, however.
In introducing her interview, Hurst wrote, “Jack and George left Broad Brook
for 13 weeks of basic training at Parris Island, SC. Even after 63 years,
Jack still remembers Sergeant Roche, his drill instructor, describing the
training as, ‘hard and good and fair.’ He especially enjoyed the three weeks
of training on the rifle range where he became a crack shot.”
Jack volunteered for overseas duty and was shipped from San Diego to
American Samoa, where he was assigned to a special unit receiving advanced
training in heavier weapons. His 97 percent correct test on the Browning 30
caliber machine gun is reproduced in the “Connecticut History” essay. The
special weapons squad of the 2nd Defense Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, was
chosen to participate in an attack on Betio, the largest of 47 isles in the
Tarawa Atoll, which the Japanese had attacked and occupied the day after
Pearl Harbor.
Betio was occupied by some 5,000 Japanese defenders. American leaders were
unaware that they were the elite “Rikusentai” Imperial Marines and that
massive fortifications had been built around the perimeter.
Hurst
noted, “Tarawa marked the southernmost tip of Japan’s defense perimeter. The
Allies maintained bases to the south and the east and wanted to halt the
Japanese expansion to preserve their lifeline from Hawaii to Zealand and
Australia. Re-capturing the island and use of the airfield would put the
Allies in striking distance to begin their controversial ‘island happing
campaign’ towards the Japanese mainland.”In his interview, Jack said, “They told us it wasn’t going to be much; that they were going to bomb the place from the air...to soften it up.”
Landing day was Nov. 20, 1943, and Jack’s squad followed two others that suffered heavy losses. Hurst writes, “Casualty figures later revealed that half of the 990 Marines who were killed on Betio died in the water before ever reaching the beach.” By the time fighting had stopped a week later, the death toll was estimated at 5,000. Only 17 Japanese were taken prisoner, the rest having been killed or committing suicide to avoid the dishonor of capture.
Jack’s unit remained to defend the island until Jan. 21, when he was medevaced to Hawaii to be treated for elephantitis. While there, he met Eleanor Dorman, a nurse who was also from Broad Brook. He returned home for leave before serving as a guard in Bremerton, Washington, and was discharged in February 1946.
After his return home, Jack married Thelma Barry, a fellow Ellsworth High graduate and charter member of the East Windsor Historical Society. He attended Hillyer College on the GI Bill, became an accountant and worked his way up to vice president in the Celtic Life Insurance Co. He also served as East Windsor tax collector in the 1960's.
Hurst wrote, “He (Jack) has never forgotten the sacrifices that so many men made in taking and defending a tiny strip of land that was of strategic importance to the larger war effort. In many ways the Battle of Tarawa was a first for American forces. Never before had they attempted a beach-front landing at a heavily fortified position.” It also marked the start of the “island hopping” strategy and the release of graphic battle film coverage to the American public.
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