page_title: Raid on Makin Island
section_title: Casualties
hierarchical_section_title: Raid on Makin Island / Evacuation of Raiders / Casualties
caption_attribution_description: English: A Marine Raider, injured during the Makin Raid, is lifted through a hatch on USS Argonaut (SM-1) to be taken ashore at Pearl Harbor, 26 August 1942.
context_page_description: The Raid on Makin Island was an attack by the United States Marine Corps Raiders on Japanese military forces on Makin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The aim was to destroy Imperial Japanese installations, take prisoners, gain intelligence on the Gilbert Islands area, and divert Japanese attention and reinforcements from the Allied landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
context_section_description: USMC casualties were given as 18 killed in action and 12 missing in action. Of the 12 Marines missing in action, one was later identified among the 19 Marine Corps graves found on Makin Island. Of the remaining eleven Marines missing in action, nine were inadvertently left behind or returned to the island during the night withdrawal. They were subsequently captured, moved to Kwajalein Atoll, and executed by Japanese forces. Kōsō Abe was subsequently tried and executed by the Allies for the murder of the nine Marines. The remaining two Marines missing in action have never been accounted for.
  Carlson reported that he had personally counted 83 Japanese bodies and estimated that 160 Japanese were killed based on reports from the Makin Island natives with whom he spoke. Additional Japanese personnel may have been killed in the destruction of two boats and two aircraft. Morison states that 60 Japanese were killed in the sinking of one of the boats. Japanese records are however more precise and the entire garrison casualties were 46 killed of all ranks (not including the purported large casualties Carlson reported for the boats he had sunk). This was confirmed when supporting Japanese forces returned to the island and found 27 Japanese survivors of the raid.
caption: A Marine Raider, injured during the Makin operation, is lifted through a hatch on USS Argonaut to be taken ashore at Pearl Harbor, 26 August 1942.
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