Wake Island
Wake Island is a small atoll located in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 2,300 miles west of Hawaii. The atoll consists of three islets: Wake Island, Peale Island, and Wilkes Island, with a total land area of three square miles. Discovered in 1792, Wake remained uninhabited until the 1930s, when the United States established a landing strip there to support trans-Pacific air travel. The island gained significant historical importance during World War II as a site of fierce conflict between Japanese and American forces, particularly during the Battle of Wake Island in December 1941.
Despite initial American resistance, the Japanese ultimately captured Wake Island, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. After the war, Wake Island returned to U.S. control and has since been used primarily as a military outpost and airfield. The U.S. Air Force oversees the island, which continues to serve as an emergency landing strip and a site for various government research activities, including earthquake and climate monitoring. Concerns about climate change have prompted studies on its impact on the island's infrastructure and operations. Today, Wake Island remains a symbol of resilience and a reminder of its complex history.
Wake Island
Wake Island is a small atoll located 2,300 miles west of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Wake was discovered in 1792 but remained uninhabited until 1935, when the United States set up a landing strip on the island. Almost completely forgotten today, the island took center stage in a clash between Japanese and US forces in the Pacific at the start of World War II.
Geography
Despite its name, there are actually three small islands, or islets, in the Wake atoll: Wake Island, Peale Island, and Wilkes Island. Wake is the main island, and Peale and Wilkes are its extensions, separated on opposite sides of the main V-shaped island by a narrow channel. The land area of Wake is three square miles, and the highest elevation is twenty-one feet. The islets form a lagoon with a depth of up to fifteen feet, surrounded by a coral reef. Trees grow in some areas of Wake, and there are also several species of tropical plants and flowers on the island. Wildlife consists mostly of sea birds, and crabs and rats have found their way onto the island from visiting ships.
History
The United States came to possess Wake after the Spanish-American War in 1899. Nothing much was done with the island until the 1930s, when air travel across the Pacific Ocean began. Wake was deemed a suitable location for an airstrip for the Pan American Clipper, a large passenger plane which would stop over at Wake for refueling. Several buildings were constructed, including a small hotel, to support the staff that stayed on the island to maintain the airstrip.
The US military became interested in Wake as the threat of war with Japan grew more serious. Admiral Kimmel, commander of the naval forces at Pearl Harbor, decided to use Wake as a base from which to patrol the surrounding Pacific region. Kimmel began to fortify Wake by sending civilian construction workers and Marines to the island, along with a small detachment of fighter and scout planes. He intended to do much more, but ran out of time when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The Battle of Wake Island
The battle for Wake Island began on December 8, 1941, when thirty-six Japanese bombers attacked the US military installations on the island. A Japanese naval invasion force appeared on December 11 and began to bombard the island. The commander of the American ground forces, Major James Devereux, USMC, ordered his men not to fire at the Japanese ships until they came closer. After a few hours, Devereux ordered his artillery to open fire. The Japanese were taken by surprise: several of their ships were damaged, and one was sunk.
The four Wildcat fighter planes that survived the Japanese bombardment of Wake Island attacked the Japanese fleet. One Japanese destroyer was bombed and sunk, while the remaining Japanese ships retreated. The US Marines had scored a rare victory in the opening stages of the war in the Pacific, and the American people were thrilled by stories of the brave defense of the Wake garrison.
Surrender
The Japanese returned to their bases to gather more ships, aircraft carriers, and invasion troops, and returned to Wake Island on December 23rd. This time they made sure that the American aircraft were all destroyed, and riddled the island with gunfire from their ships. The Japanese landed over nine hundred soldiers on the island, and suffered heavy casualties gaining ground due to the resistance of the Marine and civilian defenders. Eventually, the Japanese broke through and overwhelmed the defenders, and the island's commander, Winfield Cunningham of the US Navy, surrendered Wake Island.
The Japanese had won the battle, but their losses were severe, and they were enraged. Between water and ground forces, the Japanese lost one thousand troops, two destroyers, and twenty-one aircraft. The losses were a high price to pay for what turned out to be a useless island.
Among the US dead or wounded were eighty-one Marines, eight sailors, and eighty-two civilians. The Japanese humiliated the prisoners and tortured some of them by forcing them to sit on the runway with no food or water for two days. Japanese soldiers were taught that surrender was worse than death, and they had nothing but contempt for enemies who surrendered to them. More than 1,400 Americans were relocated to prisoner-of-war camps elsewhere in Asia. The Japanese executed ninety-eight prisoners of war on October 10, 1943, a crime for which the Japanese commander was later hanged.
After the war's end in 1945, Wake Island returned to US possession. In 2016, the US Air Force commemorated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the battle, and survivors held reunions periodically until 2017, when only eight remained.
Military and Government Base
After World War II, Wake Island returned to relative obscurity. The island remains a US possession under US Air Force command, although the Marshall Islands claim they are the rightful owner. The US Army took custody of the island from the US Air Force in 1994 in order to conduct ballistic missile tests; the island returned to air force control in 2002. Super-typhoon Ioke forced a total evacuation in 2006 and damaged part of the island's infrastructure, which the air force later repaired. As of 2024, tje Wake Island Airfield was still in service and was modernized in 2020. Its main functions were as an air force outpost in the Pacific region and as an emergency landing strip for commercial aircraft. The military continues to use the island for satellite communications.
Other government agencies use the island for various reasons as well. In 1997, the US Geological Service began operating an earthquake hazards station there. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also maintains weather and sea-level monitoring facilities there. As with other island formations, concerns had grown by 2019 that climate change could begin to negatively impact the operation, while more minor, of activity on the island. The US Air Force launched a study to see how climate change has affected Wake Island in 2021.
Bibliography
Cressman, Robert J. A Magnificent Fight: Marines in the Battle for Wake Island. World War II Commemorative Series, Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1992. NPS, www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online‗books/npswapa/extcontent/usmc/pcn-190-003119-00/sec7.htm. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.
Garamone, Jim. "Wake Island Embodies Reality of America as Pacific Power." U.S. Department of Defense, dod.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1431996/wake-island-embodies-reality-of-america-as-pacific-power/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.
Gordinier, John. "Battle of Wake Island 75th Anniversary: Honoring the Sacrifice of the Wake Defenders." Pacific Air Forces, US Air Force, 15 Dec. 2016, www.pacaf.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1032814/battle-of-wake-island-75th-anniversary-honoring-the-sacrifice-of-the-wake-defen. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.
Lang, Sharon Watkins. "SMDC History: Missile Defense Testing Moves to Wake Island." US Army, 29 Sept. 2016, www.army.mil/article/175762/smdc‗history‗missile‗defense‗testing‗moves‗to‗wake‗island. Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.
Olson, Wyatt. "Air Force Wants to Know if Key Pacific Airfield Could Disappear Under Rising Sea." Stars and Stripes, 11 Feb. 2021, www.stripes.com/theaters/asia‗pacific/air-force-wants-to-know-if-key-pacific-airfield-could-disappear-under-rising-sea-1.661775. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.
Tremblay, Tami. "'Grand Finale' for Wake Island Reunion." KTVB.com, 8 Sept. 2017, www.ktvb.com/news/local/grand-finale-for-wake-island-reunion/472541541. Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.
"Wake Island." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 15 Feb. 2024, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wq.html. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.