Reported Burials
1943
Remains Recovered
1946
Unidentified Remains
2021
Unaccounted For
2021
The island of Buariki – codenamed “Sarah” – is located in northern Tarawa atoll, about eighteen miles from Betio. It was the scene of the last stand of Japanese forces on 26-27 November 1943. The Second Battalion, 6th Marines pursued the fleeing garrison from island to island for two days before catching them on Buariki; a “sharp exchange of fire” on the evening of 26 November heralded a tough fight to come. In the words of PFC Robert L. “Bob” Groves:
G-2-6 [Groves’ company] and E-2-6 were lined up across the island with F-2-6 in reserve. Japs were scattered through the dense jungle-like brush and were very hard to see until you almost stepped on them, or they crawled for their machine-gun nests. Snipers were scattered through the palm trees. It reminded me of the patrols we made on Guadalcanal, very intense firing, hot, and no drinking water, Marines wounded everywhere. But we prevailed and reached the farthest beach before night. A deathly quiet set in until the rising sun revealed the island battle site was covered with our dead.
By evening on 27 November, some 175 Japanese fighters lay dead and two Korean laborers were in captivity. The fight wounded 59 Marines and killed 34, mostly from Murray’s 2/6. Fallen Japanese troops were buried in a mass grave near the village of Buariki, while the Marines were carried to a clearing in the palm trees. Individual graves were dug, marked with scrap-wood crosses, and given borders of coconuts. Bob Groves continued:
We held funerals for three Marines from my squad. After the night alone, they had the eternal look that would be theirs from then on. I still remember those Marine buddies.
PFC Wilfrid Urban of H/2/6th Marines recalled burying his buddies in the “Sarah” cemetery:
The final outcome was a small plot surrounded by a white picket fence. Two rows of regulation markers denoted individual graves, which were covered in mounded white sand carried up from the beach. Unlike the numerous “memorial” cemeteries on Betio, these markers actually did represent the individuals buried beneath.
The objectives of the 1944 “beautification” program were twofold: to create more permanent memorials in a style more befitting those who gave their lives, and to create living and working space based on military need. Buariki’s cemetery was still subject Captain Erl C. B. Gould’s modifications, but because the island was not being built up in the same manner as Betio, there was no need to create memorials and monuments, or move the original markers at all. Instead, “beautification” was just that – a general tidying up of the original cemetery including landscaping, new markers, and properly aligning the rows.
A photographer on assignment from LIFE Magazine traveled from Betio to Bauriki in 1944 and snapped a remarkable color photograph of sailors at work in the cemetery.
Buariki was the first of the outer islands visited by the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company. Lieutenant Isadore Eisensmith led the team of nine enlisted men and four Gilbertese islanders aboard an LCVP for the short boat ride from “Helen” to “Sarah.” They arrived at low tide and had to cross-load equipment from the LCVP to a rubber life raft to get ashore.
Eisensmith estimated a day and a half of work to exhume the cemetery. When they caught sight of the beautified plot with its formal layout, the soldiers must have groaned – they had just finished frustrating work on Cemetery 25, where individual markers were just memorials. However, when work began on the morning of 4 April 1946, they were pleasantly surprised to find the remains right where they should be. The activity attracted onlookers from the nearby village, and with the help of six more locals, the digging went quickly. Only two markers did not have bodies beneath, and these errant remains were located after a half-day of searching. This proved to be the most time-consuming part of the entire operation.
Lieutenant Eisensmith further noted that two men were buried under incorrect markers – “this error was apparent as one of the men was found with an identification tag that did not agree with the marker.” However, the standard protocol of cross-checking remains with dental records quickly resolved the mistake. Only one Marine was determined unidentifiable due to dental discrepancies – and he was confirmed as PFC Roger W. Dehring a few months later.
The Buariki expedition ended on 5 April 1946, and all remains were returned for burial in Lone Palm Cemetery.
