The Marines who were able to make it ashore took cover behind a sea wall and attempted to break past the Japanese’s first line of defense. Compounding this problem, the extra time it took to get ashore allowed the Japanese to recover from the bombardment and shift forces to counter the Marine landings. The Marines began their landing around 900 however, because of poor planning, many of their landing craft were unable to reach the shore as the tide was not high enough, forcing many Marines to wade ashore.
This unit was bolstered by 14 Type 95 light tanks under the command of Ensign Ohtani.On the morning of 20 November, the Battle of Tarawa began with a preliminary naval bombardment, which was followed by an air attack, before the Navy initiated their final bombardment. It was commanded by Commander Takeo Sugai. They were reinforced by the 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, with a strength of 1,497 men. The 3rd Special Base Defense Force assigned to Tarawa had a strength of 1,112 men. The Special Naval Landing Force was the marine component of the IJN, and were known by US intelligence to be more highly trained, better disciplined, more tenacious and to have better small unit leadership than comparable units of the Imperial Japanese Army. The garrison itself was made up of forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Approximately 1,200 of the men in these two groups were Korean labourers. Navy, along with the 970 men of the Fourth Fleet's construction battalion were brought in. The Japanese worked intensely for nearly a year to fortify the island.To aid the garrison in the construction of the defenses, the 1,247 men of the 111th Pioneers, similar to the Seabees of the U.S.
Answer: 4,836 (2,636 IJN Marines and 2,200 construction labourers)
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