Wake Island

Wake Island

Map of Wake Island
Geography
Location	North Pacific
Total islands	3
Area	2.85 sq mi (7.38 km2)
Coastline	12.0 mi (19.3 km)[1]
Highest elevation	20 ft (6 m)
Highest point	Ducks Point
Country
United States Wake Island is under the administration of the United States Air Force

Wake Island (also known as Wake Atoll, pronounced /ˈweɪk/) is a coral atoll having a coastline of 12 miles (19 kilometers) in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu (2,300 statute miles or 3,700 km west) to Guam (1,510 miles or 2,430 km east). It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior. Access to the island is restricted, and all current activities on the island are managed by the United States Air Force. There is also a missile facility operated by the United States Army. The largest island (Wake Island) is the center of activity on the atoll and has a 9,800 foot (3,000 m) runway.

On January 6, 2009 President George W. Bush included the atoll as a part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.^[2][3] For statistical purposes, Wake is grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

Geography

Aerial overview of the atoll

Wake Island's Main Lagoon

Wake is located to the west of the International Date Line and is one day ahead of the 50 states.

Although Wake is officially called an island in the singular form, it is actually an atoll comprising three islands surrounding a central lagoon:^[4]

Referring to the atoll as an island is the result of a pre-World War II desire by the United States Navy to distinguish Wake from other atolls, most of which were Japanese territory.

Climate

Wake Island lies in the tropical zone but is subject to periodic temperate storms during the winter. Sea surface temperatures are warm all year long, reaching above 80 °F (27 °C) in summer and fall. Typhoons occasionally pass over the island.

Typhoons

On September 16, 1967, at 10:40 pm local time, the eye of Typhoon Sarah passed over the island. Sustained winds in the eyewall were 130 knots, from the north before the eye, and from the south afterward. All non-reinforced structures were demolished. There were no serious injuries, and the population was evacuated after the storm.^[5]

On August 28, 2006, the United States Air Force evacuated all 188 residents and suspended all operations as category 5 Super Typhoon Ioke headed toward Wake. By August 31, the southwestern eyewall of the storm passed over the island, with winds well over 185 miles per hour (298 km/h),^[6] driving a 20 ft (6 m) storm surge and waves directly into the lagoon inflicting major damage.^[7] A US Air Force assessment and repair team returned to the island in September 2006 and restored limited function to the airfield and facilities leading ultimately to a full return to normal operations.

History

Pre-European discovery

Indigenous Marshallese oral tradition suggests that prior to European exploration, nearby Marshall Islanders traveled to what is now Wake Island, which the travelers called Enen-kio after a small orange shrub-flower said to have been found on the atoll. In ancient Marshallese religion, rituals surrounding the tattooing of tribal chiefs, called Iroijlaplap, were done using certain fresh human bones, which required a human sacrifice. A man could save himself from being sacrificed if he obtained a wing bone from a certain very large seabird said to have existed on Enen-kio. Small groups would therefore brave traveling to the atoll in hope of obtaining and returning with this bone, thus saving the life of the potential human sacrifice.^[8][9] However, no evidence suggests there was ever a permanent settlement of Marshall Islanders on Wake Island.^[8]

Based upon this oral tradition^[10] along with concepts of first-usage land rights claims commonly held in Micronesian cultures as legitimate for settling indigenous land disputes,^[11][12][13] a group of Marshall Island descendants called the Kingdom of EnenKio lay claim to Wake Island. The Marshall Islands and U.S. governments, who also have competing claims over the island, vigorously deny the claim.

Wake Island as seen by the Expedition, drawn by Alfred Thomas Agate

European discovery and exploration

On October 20, 1568, Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra, a Spanish explorer with two ships, Los Reyes and Todos Santos, discovered "a low barren island, judged to be eight leagues in circumference", to which he gave the name of "San Francisco". The island was eventually named for Captain William Wake, master of the British trading schooner, Prince William Henry, who visited in 1796.^[14]

Jeremiah N. Reynolds's 1828 report to the US House of Representatives describes Capt. Edward Gardner's discovery of a 25-mile (40 km) long island situated at 19°15' N, 166°32' E, with a reef at the eastern edge, while captaining the Bellona in 1823. The island was "covered with wood, having a very green and rural appearance" and was probably, Reynolds concludes, Wake Island. It was placed on charts of the time by John Arrowsmith.^[15]

On December 20, 1840, the United States Exploring Expedition commanded by Commodore Charles Wilkes of the U.S. Navy, landed on and surveyed Wake. Wilkes described the atoll as "a low coral one, of triangular form and eight feet above the surface. It has a large lagoon in the centre, which was well filled with fish of a variety of species among these were some fine mullet." He also noted that Wake had no fresh water and that it was covered with shrubs, "the most abundant of which was the tournefortia." The expedition's naturalist, Titian Peale, collected many new specimens, including an egg from a short-tailed albatross and various marine life specimens.

Wreck of the Libelle

Wake Island first received international attention with the wreck of the Libelle. On the night of March 4, 1866, the 650 ton barque Libelle of Bremen, Germany, struck the eastern reef of Wake Island during a gale. The ship was under the command of Captain Tobias and en route from San Francisco to Hong Kong. Among its passengers were opera singer Anna Bishop (ex wife of the celebrated French harpist Nicolas Bochsa), her husband Martin Schultz (a New York diamond merchant), and three other members of an English opera troupe.

After 21 days, the 30 stranded passengers and crew set sail in a longboat and a gig for the then Spanish island of Guam. The longboat, containing the opera troupe, Mr. Schultz and other passengers, arrived on Guam April 8. The gig, commanded by the Libelle's captain, was lost at sea. While stranded on Wake Island, Captain Tobias had buried valuable cargo including 1,000 flasks (34,500 kg) of mercury, coins and precious stones worth approximately $150,000, and at least five ships conducted salvage operations in their recovery. The plight of the Libelle and its passengers and cargo was reported by many newspapers.

American possession

Flag of Wake Island

Wake Island was annexed as empty territory by the United States on January 17, 1899. In 1935, Pan American Airways constructed a small village, nicknamed "PAAville", to service flights on its U.S.–China route. The village was the first human settlement on the island and relied upon the U.S. mainland for its food and water supplies; it remained in operation up to the day of the first Japanese air raid.

Military buildup

In January 1941, the United States Navy constructed a military base on the atoll. On August 19, the first permanent military garrison, elements of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion,^[16] totaling 449 officers and men, were stationed on the island, commanded by Navy Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham. Also on the island were 68 U.S. Naval personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers.

They were armed with six used 5 inch/51 cal (127 mm) cannons, removed from a scrapped battleship; twelve 3 inch/50 cal (76.2 mm) M3 anti-aircraft guns (with only a single working anti-aircraft director among them); eighteen Browning M2 .50 caliber heavy machine guns; and thirty heavy, medium, and light, water or air-cooled Browning M1917 .30 caliber machine guns in various conditions but all operational.

World War II

Wake Island
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The formal surrender of the Japanese garrison on Wake Island—September 7, 1945. Shigematsu Sakaibara is the Japanese officer in the right-foreground.
Location:	Pacific Ocean
Governing body:	U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs
Added to NRHP:	September 16, 1985
Designated NHL:	September 16, 1985
NRHP Reference#:	85002726

Battle of Wake Island

On December 8, 1941, the same day after the Attack on Pearl Harbor on the opposite side of the International Date Line, at least 27 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M medium "Nell" bombers flown from bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Island group attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft belonging to Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-211 on the ground. All of the Marine garrison's defensive emplacements were left intact by the raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft.

The garrison—supplemented by civilian volunteers—repelled several Japanese landing attempts. An American journalist reported that after the initial Japanese amphibious assault was beaten back with heavy losses on December 11, the American commander was asked by his superiors if he needed anything, to which the commander sent back the message "Send us more Japs!", a reply which became a popular legend.^[17][18] However, when Lt. Col. James Devereux learned after the war that he was credited with that message he pointed out that he was not the commander, contrary to the reports, and denied sending that message: "As far as I know, it wasn't sent at all. None of us was that much of a damn fool. We already had more Japs than we could handle."^[19]

Winfield S. Cunningham, Commander, US Navy, was in charge of Wake Island. He had ordered coded messages be sent during operations and a junior officer had added "send us" and "more Japs" to the beginning and end of a message to confuse the Japanese code breakers. This was put back together at Pearl Harbor and became part of the lore of WWII. Cunningham and Deveraux each wrote books about the battle and the aftermaths and imprisonment.

The garrison was eventually overwhelmed by a reinforced and numerically superior Japanese invasion force on December 23. American casualties were 52 military personnel and approximately 70 civilians killed. Japanese losses exceeded 700 killed, with some estimates ranging as high as 1,000; in addition, the Japanese lost two destroyers, one submarine and 24 aircraft.

In the aftermath of the battle, most of the captured civilians and military personnel were sent to POW camps in Asia, while some of the civilian laborers were enslaved by the Japanese and tasked with improving the island's defenses.

Capt Henry T. Elrod, USMC, one of the pilots from VMF-211, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for shooting down two Japanese Zero fighters, sinking a destroyer and fighting on the ground to defend the island. Many of his comrades were also highly decorated for their roles in the fighting. The Wake Island Device was created for American veterans of the battle.

Japanese occupation and surrender

The 98 rock

The Japanese-occupied island (called Otori-Shima or "Bird Island" for its birdlike shape)^[20] was bombed several times by American air forces; one of these raids was the first mission for future United States President George H. W. Bush.

After a successful American air raid on October 5, 1943, the Japanese garrison commander Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, IJN, ordered the execution of the 98 captured American civilian forced laborers remaining on the island. They were taken to the northern end of the island, blindfolded and machine-gunned. One of the prisoners escaped the massacre, carving the message "98 US PW 5-10-43" on a large coral rock near where the victims had been hastily buried in a mass grave. The unknown American was recaptured and beheaded. After the war, Sakaibara and his subordinate, Lieutenant Commander Tachibana, were sentenced to death for this and other war crimes. Tachibana's sentence was later commuted to life in prison. The murdered civilian POWs were reburied in Honolulu Memorial Cemetery, Hawaii.

During the Japanese occupation, Wake Island's native species of flightless Rail Bird was hunted and eaten to extinction after the Japanese military occupants became cut off from their supply route in 1944. Because of its flightlessness and curiosity, it was easy for just two men to catch barehanded. The last rail was killed in 1945 by the starving Japanese soldiers.

US Civilian POWs Memorial

On September 4, 1945, the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of the United States Marine Corps. In a brief ceremony, the handover of Wake was officially conducted.

Postwar

President Harry S. Truman reads citation to General Douglas MacArthur following their meeting at Wake Island. In the background are from left: Press Secretary Charles Griffith Ross, Commander in Chief Pacific Admiral Arthur Radford, Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Omar Bradley. October 15, 1950.

15 October 1950 U.S. President Harry S. Truman and General Douglas MacArthur met on Wake Island (Wake Island Conference) to confer about the progress of the Korean War. They chose to meet at Wake Island because of its closer proximity to Korea so that General MacArthur would not have to be away from the troops in the field for long.^[21]

Since 1974, the island's airstrip, Wake Island Airfield, has been used by the U.S. military and some commercial cargo planes, as well as for emergency landings. There are over 700 landings a year on the island. There are also two offshore anchorages for large ships. On September 16, 1985, the World War II–related resources on Peale, Wilkes, and Wake Islands were designated a National Historic Landmark^[22][23] (and thereby also listed on the National Register of Historic Places).

The United States military personnel have left, and there are no indigenous inhabitants. Wake, with an undelineated maritime boundary with them, is claimed by the Marshall Islands, and some civilian personnel ("contractor inhabitants") remain. As of August 2006^[update], an estimated 200 contractor personnel were present. The island remains a strategic location in the North Pacific Ocean and serves as an emergency landing location for transpacific flights. Some World War II facilities and wreckage remain on the islands.

Subsequently the island was used for strategic defense and operations during the Cold War. It was administered by the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (formerly known as the United States Army Space and Strategic Defense Command). Since 1974, Wake Island has served as a launch platform for military rockets involved in testing anti-missile systems and atmospheric re-entry trials. Launches take place from .

From late April until the middle of August 1975, Wake Island was used as a refugee camp for more than 8,000 Vietnamese refugees who fled their homeland after the fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War.

Territorial claim by the Republic of the Marshall Islands

The territorial claim by the Republic of the Marshall Islands on Wake Atoll^[24] leaves a certain amount of ambiguity regarding the actual or hypothetical role of the U.S. military, responsible under agreement for the defense of Marshallese territory, in the event of any strategic crisis or hostilities involving Wake. A small separatist group is known as the Kingdom of EnenKio. However, the atoll was formally annexed by the U.S. in the 19th century and is still administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs.

Notes

References

• Sloan, Bill. Given up for Dead: America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island. Bantam Books, 2003. ISBN 0-553-80302-6.
• Heine, Dwight and Jon A. Anderson, "Enen-kio: Island of the Kio Flower", Micronesia Reporter, 1971.
• Urwin, Gregory J.W. ..Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island. University of Nebraska Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8032-9562-6.
•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.
• Drechsler, Bernd; Begerow, Thomas; Pawlik, Peter-Michael. Den Tod vor Augen - Die unglückliche Reise der Bremer Bark Libelle in den Jahren 1864 bis 1866. Bremen 2007.

External links

• Geography of Wake Island
• Current Weather, Wake Island
• AirNav - Wake Island Airfield - Airport details, facilities and navigational aids
• CIA World Factbook - CIA World Factbook
• Rocket launches at Wake Island
• The Defense of Wake - United States Marine Corps historical monograph
• Surrender of Wake by the Japanese - Marines in World War II
• U.S. Army Strategic and Missile Defense Command - Logistics, flight schedules, facilities
• Photographic history of the 1975 Vietnamese refugee camp on Wake Island
• Wake Island travel guide from Wikitravel
• Wake Island - Pacific Wreck Database
• "Wake Island" (1942) - Internet Movie Database
• "Wake Island: Alamo of the Pacific" (2003) - Internet Movie Database
• "Map with Pictures-Geotaged of Wake Island" (2004)