MovieChat Forums > 'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943) Discussion > mission objective of the Makin Island ra...

mission objective of the Makin Island raid

posted 10 years ago by pathfinder616
1 reply | jump to latest

can someone please tell me the mission objective of the Makin Island raid in relation to the subsequent bombing of Tokyo? a great deal of the 'island hopping' combat in the Pacific theater during WW2 has been criticized as unnecessary in hindsight in recent years. could it be said that this was the first such unnecessary mission?

i just saw Gung Ho for the first time on TMC 1/21/2014. all things considered i thought it was a very good combat action movie for its time with an excellent closing message for its audience.

"We deal in lead, friend."

[–] crockett_john 10 years ago

I think they had a few reasons for the raid, including gathering intelligence, and creating a diversion. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, but I'm giong to watch it again soon. When they recovered the bodies of some of the Marines back in 2001, I found out that one of the bodies belonged to a Marine who was from my hometown (Sikeston, Missouri), which I found interesting.

I have heard some of the theories about how the island-hopping campaign was somewhat avoidable, but I don't think that's a new theory. Even during the war, there were conflicting theories on the best path to victory. I think the war could have gone so many different ways and there wasn't just one way to defeat the Japanese. At the time of the war, the news and the military counted the Makin Island Raid as a huge victory, but it wasn't until years later that the truth came out about it not being nearly as successful as they'd said. I don't think that reflects poorly on the Marines who fought there, their leadership, or the media that reported it. I think there is value in promoting success as a morale-builder.

----------