Watch Attack in the Pacific

Crusade in the Pacific is a video series that documents the fighting between the United States and Imperial Japan during and immediately after World War II. Each episode examines a crucial stage in a war that was contested bitterly and marked by unheard-of savagery. This episode, Crusade in the Pacifi Attack in the Central Pacific - Makin and Tarawa, examines the brutal fighting over the tiny islands of the Central Pacific. Tiny atolls like Tarawa, an island the size of the Pentagon, became deadly killing grounds in a test of wills between American and Japanese soldiers. Seldom has infantry combat been so personal or brutal. The seizure of these islands gave rise to the legend of the Marine Corps.