1942 Tarawa Massacre
 

Talk of the best beach vacation had me doing some reading on Kiribati (Christmas Island to be exact). A friend went down there to fly fish one of their reefs. The island is 1,300 miles South of Honolulu. IIRC, there is only one flight a week to Kiribati from Honolulu.

Anyway...while reading about Christmas Island, I came across the story of the 1942 Tarawa Massacre. It's interesting and there is a weird twist involving two brothers from NZ. One who was murdered at the hands of the Japanese and then the other who pulled the trigger of a tommy gun a mass of Japanese prisoners. The later may not have known of the fate of the antecedent.

Give it a read:

http://www.wysiwyg.co.nz/kiribati/ta...awa%20Massacre