An Old Veteran’s Last Hurrah

Quest to Repatriate American Dead from “Bloody Tarawa” Before They Sink Beneath the Waves

At 89 years of age, Leon Cooper of Malibu, CA should be recounting a life well lived and free to spend his days on the beach.  He would too if it weren’t for a beach he had the misfortune to visit 65 years ago during World War II that rightfully earned the infamous moniker, “Bloody Tarawa.”

A famous picture of Tarawa action. In three days, America lost about the same number of soldiers as two years in Iraq. It’s not a contest, but that’s a lot of blood.

Cooper’s mission today is to repatriate the confirmed remains of at least 139 Americans whose remains lie where they fell during the fateful days of November 20 - 23, 1943 when the ill-planned second naval invasion in the Pacific theatre left 1,500 of the first 5,000 invading troops either dead or wounded - and the numbers got worse from there. 

Nobody in Washington seems to care anymore according to Cooper, but he’s determined to deliver a message to legislators on the 66^th anniversary of Pearl Harbor on December 7.  He wants to see his brothers-in-arms brought home.

“I simply have to do this.  I saw so many guys getting killed.  I don’t know how I survived.  I saw these guys dying.  I feel I owe it to them,” Cooper said during a telephone interview.  “This is my last hurrah.”

Hundreds of letters have been sent to Democratic California Senators Boxer and Feinstein, Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO), Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ), but Cooper’s pleas have gone unheard despite the public rhetoric each of the above politicians devote to the sanctity of service American troops willingly give to their country.  Now these soldier’s remains may end up under water in a few decades or perhaps less.

Tarawa is part of an 80-island chain just north of the equator in the central Pacific, and two of the islands have already sunk beneath the waves due to global warming.  The remaining islands once known as the Gilbert Islands may have fewer than 40 years before they all succumb to the rising water.  But people familiar with the islands are more concerned with the immediate threat of hundreds of unexploded bombs littering the tiny nation now called Kiribati.

On the morning of November 20, 1943 the American invasion force of 17 aircraft carriers, 12 battleships, eight heavy cruisers and four light cruisers unleashed a massive bombardment on the Japanese defense force of 2,619 troops, 1,000 Japanese workers and 1,217 Korean laborers.  The entire island was so full of craters many doubted anyone could have survived such an onslaught, but Japanese defenders in concrete bunkers, 500 pillboxes and log stockades were ready for a fight.

American invasions forces came in on 36 transports and an unknown number of Higgins boats.  One of the latter was piloted by Cooper, and many got caught on a reef 500 yards offshore because the tide that day was insufficient to carry them over the underwater obstacle.  Many troops got out of the boats and walked into withering Japanese machine gunfire in an effort to reach the shore. 

Cooper was told to hold his position, but the troops in his boat were eager to get off a sitting target, but that would have meant certain drowning in 20 feet of water.  He called out for someone to find “blue water” which meant a deeper draft for the vehicle, and he was directed to a safe passage over the reef.  His troops made it to shore, but now he had to take the wounded back.  That’s the part that sticks with him to this day.

On the return trip, a 17-year-old Marine looked at Cooper and whispered, “Remember me,” as his last words.  Overcome with emotion and fear, Cooper looked for the Marine’s identification commonly known as dog tags, but he can’t remember his name.  “I was scared.  Japanese bullets were everywhere - flying over my head and bouncing all over the place.  I can’t remember if I saw his name or not.  But I’ll always remember him,” Cooper said.

The tremendous firepower unleashed that day by American naval and aerial forces remains on Tarawa.  An Australian ordnance expert who spoke to Cooper during a trip in February claimed to have removed about 75 bombs weighing 500 pound each from the lagoon alone.

Cooper related the story about one of the 100,000 natives now living near the code-named Red Beach of the invasion who has a 500-pound bomb propping up her chicken coop.  “She was worried I was going to take it from her,” Cooper laughed.  “I said, ‘Not on your life!’”

The artillery barrage of the invasion was insufficient to deter the defenders of Tarawa who had lost contact with Japanese command.  The radio silence required Japanese soldiers to honor the Bushido Code that meant fighting to the death or suicide.  Only 17 Japanese survived the invasion, and 129 Korean laborers were captured and later released.  Americans lost 1,687 and another 2,296 were wounded.

There may be more than 200 American remains left on the tiny sliver of sand known as Tarawa today.  The cost to return them and to clean the area of ordinance is about $2.25 million according to Cooper.  A paltry sum by today’s standards of war expense.

If the heart and soul of a nation is measured by how it treats those who died for it, as Cooper attributes to William E. Gladstone, then America owes a debt to those on Tarawa and one old Navy landing craft officer who refuses forget them.