 A detachment of soldiers from Tarawa island also occupied the island of Abemama in September 1942, and though initially numbering about 300, by the time the Americans invaded the island on November 1943, most of them had been evacuated back to Tarawa, leaving only 25 Special Naval Landing Forces behind to defend the island.Lieutenant Junior Grade Seizo Ishikawa, the Japanese commander in charge of defending Makin, ordered his troops to build extensive fortifications on the island.These included coastal defense guns, anti-tank gun positions, machine gun emplacements, rifle pits, deep tank barriers with anti-tank guns, and barbed wire.