Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story

Academy Award-nominee Ed Harris narrates this documentary following the efforts of United States Navy Veteran and war historian Leon Cooper to preserve the litter-strewn shores of Tawara Island, where in 1943 he helped rescue numerous U.S. marines from certain death. In the process of doing researching for his book The War in the Pacific: A Retrospective, Cooper discovers that the beaches where he once risked his life to save his fellow Americans has been so neglected over the years that it now looks like a garbage dump. Concerned that the remains of MIA soldiers and live military munitions may be buried somewhere deep beneath the refuse, the devoted veteran vows to clean up the beaches as a means of honoring both his country and the many American servicemen who perished on the battlefield.