How more complex of a home does one really need.
23 February 2011
Like Tarawa, Butaritari was occupied by the Japanese in WW2. The Japanese enslaved the local villages to build by hand the earthen pier which is still, today, very much used. According to one very old villager, who was a young boy at the time, a single Japanese soldier told the villagers to work slow and make the project last as long as possible. When the pier is finished, all the men would be killed and the women kept as slaves for the soldiers. It is well documented the Japanese followed brutal patterns wherever they planted themselves in the Pacific and into China. But on 20 November Tarawa was invaded by the U.S., so too was Butaritari.
Today, life on Butaritari is industrious. The ever present coconut palms are thick and tall. The palms are a staple of food and housing. Nearly all buildings are made of palm trunk structure and pandanus thatch roofs. It is careful craftsmanship which tightly joins the building together, bound with natural hand woven line. Laboriously, tightly plaited mats, which take at least a week each to craft, cushion the raised floors.