Kiribati is an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, located in the central Pacific Ocean. It is part of the division of the Pacific islands that is known as Micronesia. It is located along the equator and International Date Line about halfway between Hawaii and Australia (about 2,500 mi southwest of Hawai‘i).
The islands in Kiribati are divided among three island groups: the Gilbert Islands in the West (named after British Captain Thomas Gilbert who on June 20, 1788 first sighted Tarawa – Adam von Krusenstern named the group of islands the Gilbert Islands in the 1820s (Macdonald)) …
… the Phoenix Islands Protected Area or PIPA (formerly known as the Phoenix Islands Group – reportedly named by Captain John Palmer on the whaling ship ‘Phoenix’ on Feb 23, 1824) in the center, and the Line Islands (a chain/alignment of islands) in the East.
The name Kiribati is the local rendition of ‘Gilberts’ in the Gilbertese (it is pronounced as kee·ree·bas; in the Gilbertese language the letters ‘-ti’ together make an ‘-s’ sound).
Of the 33 islands of Kiribati, 21 are inhabited. Most of the population is concentrated in the Gilbert Islands and only one of the islands in Phoenix Group (Kanton Island) is inhabited and three of the Line Islands are permanently inhabited. The capital of Kiribati is Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Bairiki, an islet of Tarawa, serves as an administrative center. (Kiribati Tourism)
The atoll Kiritimati (kee-ris-mahs – a rather straightforward respelling of the English word “Christmas” in the Kiribati language) is the largest coral atoll in the world; it has a land area of 150 square miles – its lagoon is roughly the same size.
The atoll is about 93 mi in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline extends for over 30 mi. Kiritimati comprises over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati. This is where Captain Cook spent Christmas.
Cook’s third (and final) voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)
After a year among the islands of the South Pacific, many of which Cook was the first European to make contact, on December 8, 1777, they were in Bora-Bora (northwest of Tahiti).
Proceeding north, they discovered the Pacific’s largest atoll, Kiritimati (what Cook called Christmas Island (where they celebrated Christmas)) and Cook observed an eclipse of the sun. After stocking up on over a ton of green turtles, the ships departed on January 2, 1778. (Smithsonian)
“On the 2d of January, at day-break, we weighed anchor (at Christmas Island,) and resumed our course to the north; having fine weather, and a gentle breeze at east, and east-south-east …”
“We continued to see birds every day … sometimes in greater numbers than others; and between the latitude of 10° and 11% we saw several turtle. All these are looked upon us signs of the vicinity of land.”
“However, we discovered none till day-break, in the morning of the 18th, when an island made its appearance, bearing northeast by east; and, soon after, we saw more land bearing north, and entirely detached from the former.” (Cook’s Journal)
On January 18, 1778, Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)
In another Hawai‘i connection, Hiram Bingham II, son of Pioneer missionary Hiram Bingham, was born on O‘ahu born on August 16, 1831. He was ordained a Congregationalist minister in New Haven, Connecticut on November 9, 1856, and married Clara Brewster nine days later.
Like his father, he set sail less than two weeks later to begin his missionary career. He left Boston on December 2, 1856, on the brig Morning Star, arrived in Honolulu on April 24, 1857, then he went on to the Gilbert Islands in November 1857.
Hiram II spent seven years in the Gilbert Islands (he settled at Abaiang, just north of Tarawa), struggling against disease, hunger and hostile merchants. During that time, he made few converts, about fifty in all, but learned the language and began translating the Bible into Gilbertese.
Due to ill health, he was forced to return to Honolulu in 1864. Except for occasional visits to the US and another short stay in the Gilberts (1873-75,) Hiram II spent the remainder of his life in Hawaiʻi where he translated of the entire Bible into Gilbertese.
Bairiki, on Tarawa Atoll, serves as the head of Kiribati government and administrative center. During WWII, Tarawa was a Japanese stronghold.
RADM Shibasaki, the Japanese commander there, proclaimed, “a million men cannot take Tarawa in a hundred years.” The US Marines attacked; 9,000 marines took only four days (November 20 to November 23, 1943) to take it – but not without a staggering 37% casualties.
The Marines would reconstitute at Camp Tarawa at Waimea, on the Island of Hawaiʻi; it became the largest Marine training facility in the Pacific following the battle of Tarawa.
Over 50,000 servicemen trained there between 1942 and 1945. On Maui, Marines trained in Upcountry, as well as Ma‘alaea. One of the training scenarios was to take Japan’s Iwo Jima.
During the nearly month-long battle for Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), the Marines seized Mount Suribachi. The 36-day assault on Iwo Jima cost America more than 26,000 casualties, including 6,800 dead. Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,083 survived.
