The determined resistance put up by Japanese soldiers against the Americans in their assault on Tarawa in November 1943 prompted the US Army, which had sustained terrible losses in taking the island, to make plans for use of chemical weapons in further attacks of the kind. General Douglas MacArthur was in favor of this approach, heavy naval bombardment having been unexpectedly ineffective at lowering the enemy's resistance. Brook Island, off the Queensland coast around 30 km east of Cardwell, was prepared with various forms of tunnel and foxhole to simulate the kind of emplacements used by the Japanese army, and goats tethered in these locations. Bombers then carpeted the island with mustard gas bombs and the following day unprotected Australian soldiers were landed on the island to assess the damage, and spent 12 hours there, suffering some lung damage and blisters where their bodies came into contact with contaminated foliage.