Controversy revolves around the tropical paradise of Wake Island, part of Eneen-Kio Atoll, the collection of three islands also known as Wake Atoll, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island is claimed by both the United States and the Marshall Islands. It is further claimed as an independent sovereignty in the name of the Kingdom of EnenKio.
Wake Island
The World Factbook, published by the CIA, states that the 2.5-square-mile Wake Island has no arable land, no crops, no forests or woodland, no indigenous inhabitants.
The population consists (as of the latest record from January 2001) of only one US Army civilian and 123 civilian contractor personnel. The island is economically insignificant, as all food and manufactured goods must be imported.
There is no domestic or international telephone system, no radio service, no television broadcasting. There isn’t even a harbor. However, despite its lack of agriculture or an economy, the island is rich in historical significance, warranting a lengthy and subsequently fascinating lesson on the history of Wake Atoll.
Discovered by Spain
According to Theodore Leverett’s history of the island on the Flags of the World website, “Wake Island was first discovered by the Spaniard Álvaro de Mendana in 1586, who named it San Francisco and claimed it in the name of the King of Spain. This claim was internationally recognized, the atoll being viewed as worthless…
In 1796 the Englishman Captain Samuel Wake of the merchant vessel Prince William Henry rediscovered it. He gave the atoll its present name, also carried by its largest island… On December 20, 1840, the USS Vincennes brought the explorer Charles Wilkes and the naturalist Titian Peale to the island where they conducted a series of surveys and eventually lent their names to the other two islands of the atoll…
The Treaties of Paris and Washington
During the Spanish-American War, an American troop convoy bound for the Philippines (then owned by Spain) stopped off at Wake. Major General Francis V. Greene hoisted the Stars and Stripes, then with 45 stars, there on July 4, 1898… The subsequent peace treaty [signed with Spain in December 1898 and approved by the US Senate in February 1899] which ended the war transferred Wake to the United States.”
The Treaty of Paris, signed by officials from the United States of America and the Spanish Empire on December 10, 1898, relinquished all Spanish claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba, Puerto Rico, the island of Guam in the Marianas, all islands in the West Indies under Spanish sovereignty, and all islands within approximately 116 degrees and 127 degrees longitude east near and including the Philippine Island archipelago.
Concept and Diagram © Richard D. LeCour
Satellite Imagery © TerraMetrics
An amendment three years later (the Treaty of Washington) added several additional islands located southwest of the island chain of Palawan that had been omitted from the original treaty. No other specific islands or locations of any kind were mentioned.
Wake Island did not fall within the boundaries of either the Treaty of Paris of 1898 or the Treaty of Washington of 1900 as the atoll is located at approximately 166 degrees of longitude east of Greenwich.
This directly contradicts the common misconception that Wake Island was included in the spoils of war between the United States and Spain, as insisted upon by such historians as Stanley K. Schultz, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, but the language of both treaties is indisputable — neither of them include the tiny atoll 1,300 nautical miles east of Guam.
Wake as a US Military Base
However the island was acquired, the US Navy recognized the potential of Wake as a military base and contributed both materially and financially to the construction of Pan American facilities.
John Godfrey Borger
Photo © The Borger Family
The historical recollections of the original Pan American World Airways and the newsletter of The Pan Am Historical Foundation quote the then 21-year-old Junior Assistant Engineer for the S.S. North Haven, regarding the initial construction of the airbase.
“On March 27, 1935, the S.S. North Haven embarked from San Francisco for Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, and Manila, to prepare bases for Pan Am’s flying boats to cross the Pacific. Wake was totally uninhabited; all we had on it were a hydrographic chart with no detail, and an article in National Geographic magazine…
We loaded into the ship 12 prefabricated buildings for Midway, and 12 for Wake. We loaded for each base two diesel engines to generate electricity, two windmills to pump water up and get water pressure, a Caterpillar tractor with interchangeable bulldozer blade and crane, and 4,000-gallon tanks for both aviation gas and water… On the deck we loaded two 38-foot power launches, one for Midway and one for Wake, and a 26-foot launch for Guam, intended for air-sea rescue…
Wake is made up of three islands. It’s true it was uninhabited except for birds; we had to wear hats. We’d planned to put the station on Wilkes Island, which is open to the sea, but the survey team found it was too low in the water. So was Wake Island. But Peale Island, on the far side of the lagoon, was okay. We unloaded the cargo into a storage yard on Wilkes Island, then built a 50-yard railroad (somebody by inspiration had brought light-gauge railroad track) to the lagoon. We put the small launch on a barge and, with the help of the tractor, we shoved it across the knee-deep channel between Wake and Wilkes. The launch towed the barges of cargo across the lagoon to Peale Island. Wake depended on rainfall for water, so we rigged canvases on the roofs, drained them into underground tanks, then pumped the water up to the windmills.
We had to clear the coral heads to provide a six-foot deep open landing area in the Wake lagoon for the M-130 to land. So we hung a length of a light-gauge railroad track six feet deep under a barge, and a launch towed the barge back and forth across the lagoon. When the track hit coral, it shook the barge, wakened the guy sleeping on it, and he threw a cork buoy with an anchor to mark the spot. Then Bill Mullahey and I, in a rowboat, rowed out to the buoys. Bill put on goggles he’d made out of bamboo, took a bamboo spear, and dove down and inspected the coral head… Bill surfaced and said, give me six, or eight, sticks of dynamite, dove back down and tied them to the coral. He resurfaced, I rowed us upwind as far as we could, and he pressed a magneto button and blew up the coral. We rowed back, picked up the fish the blast had killed, and brought them back for dinner. We did this [until] we cleared a pie-shaped landing area [where we] built a 400-foot dock.”
— John G. Borger
After the completion of the airbase and a 48-room hotel, Wake Island became one of the stopping points on regular Pan American flights for servicing and refueling of the famous “Pan Am Clippers”, four-engined flying boats. Pan American published a 24-page brochure in 1937 to promote the transpacific China Clipper service from San Francisco to Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, Manila, and its final destination of Hong Kong.
“A tiny pinpoint on the vast Pacific’s map — five thousand miles from America’s mainland. A land unheard of until a few years ago — uninhabited, until the coming of the airway pioneers — became the scene of one of the most dramatic struggles in the history of American transportation. Here hardship, toil and thrilling courage overcame tremendous odds to set in final place four thousand tons of materials. Scarcely eight hours from Midway — another change in time — you are ashore in the early afternoon and the island is yours to explore… Down paths lined with magnolia are living quarters for the base staff, the power plant, the big refrigerators, a little hospital, a pergola where you will find an unusual collection of the little atoll’s lore – bits from ancient sailing craft that came to grief on the treacherous reefs that so effectively shelter the lagoon’s water for the flying clipper ships; heaps of coral in fantastic designs; sea shells of every form. Along the arcs of glistening beach you can find all these for yourself — and perhaps a dozen little hollow balls of glass — floats from Japanese fishing nets that have drifted half way across the Pacific…
Wake Island, so newly added to the world’s travel map, is already becoming a favorite vacation spot for travel-wise voyageurs. A beautiful, unspoiled land a world away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. A land reserved to those who fly, where every comfort and convenience, excellent food and expert attention are as much a part of your stay as the breath-taking sunsets, the soft thundering of the sea and its magnificent thirty-foot surf. Not soon can one forget these rainbow waters, soft deep sands, the friendly sun, the cool sweet trade winds blown from across the broadest sea.”
James W. Wensyel, in his article titled Odyssey Of The Wake Island Prisoners, states that the US Navy never lost sight of Wake Island’s military potential and turned the commercial airfield into a full-fledged defensive fortification, complete with 449 Marines, 71 Naval personnel, 5 Army radio operators, and 12 fixed-wing Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats fighter planes, all under the overall command of Commander Winfield S. Cunningham.
Japan Seizes Wake in World War II
“War with Japan was imminent, and an airstrip on Wake, about 2,000 miles west of Hawaii, would allow American heavy bombers to strike the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. And, if Guam were lost to the Japanese, Wake would be one of the closest American outposts to the Japanese mainland… [Early on the morning of December 8, 1941,] at 8:50 the Marines raised the American flag on its staff, something Marines did every morning all over the world… Not long after the flag raising, 36 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M2 Nell bombers crossed Wake in three V-formations. Soon their fragmentation bombs, accompanied by a steady drumming of machine-gun fire, tore the island to pieces… Japanese land-based aircraft from Roi in the Marshalls, later joined by aircraft from approaching Japanese carriers, pounded the atoll day after day. Before each attack, a dwindling number of American Wildcat fighters rose to meet them.
At 3 a.m. on December 11, a Japanese invasion task force commanded by Rear Adm. Sadamichi Kajioka, consisting of a light cruiser, six destroyers, two troop carriers and two armed merchantmen, confidently approached Wake’s beaches. Marine gunners let them close to 4,500 yards before their 5-inch naval guns opened fire. Their patience was rewarded with the sinking of one Japanese destroyer and damaging of the cruiser and three additional destroyers.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy National Archives
Kajioka retreated, now knowing that Wake would not be taken without a fight. By the 21st, the last of the Wildcats had been destroyed in dogfights over the atoll… Japanese airplanes now roamed over the island at will, pounding American positions in preparation for a renewed attempt to seize the atoll.
In the dark, rain-swept early morning hours of December 23rd, Kajioka returned, his fleet bolstered by four heavy cruisers and various other warships, including landing craft, to assault Wake’s beaches with more than 900 well-trained infantrymen of the Special Naval Landing Force. At 2:35 a.m., the first Japanese landing barge ground ashore.
Soon a desperate battle was being fought across the atoll between groups of men fighting with rifles, bayonets, grenades and fists. The Americans fought hard, but more Japanese landed and pushed them toward the island’s center… Reports from the three islands were discouraging; there were simply too many Japanese and too few Americans… Cunningham, as the ranking officer, made the inevitable decision to surrender… Stunned defenders threw away rifle bolts, destroyed delicate range-finding instruments, drained hydraulic fluid from recoil cylinders and then surrendered. Eighty-one Marines, eight sailors and 82 civilian construction workers had been killed or wounded. The Japanese, however, paid a heavy price for their victory. The fight for Wake Island had cost them two destroyers and one submarine sunk, seven additional ships damaged, 21 aircraft shot down and almost 1,000 men killed.
Enraged by their losses, the Japanese treated their prisoners — military and civilian — brutally. Some were stripped naked, others to their underwear. Most had their hands tied behind their backs with telephone wire, with a second wire looped tightly from their necks to their wrists so that if they lowered their arms they would strangle themselves… The prisoners were then jammed into two suffocating concrete ammunition bunkers. Later they were herded to the airstrip and made to sit, naked, on the blistering hot concrete. When the Japanese set up machine guns nearby, most of the prisoners expected to be executed. That night, bone-chilling winds replaced the heat. The prisoners sat there, still waiting for food, water or medical treatment. The unfortunate prisoners remained sitting on the airstrip for two days. Finally, they were given food, much of it spoiled by the heat, and water, contaminated from being placed in unclean gasoline drums. Piles of assorted clothing seized earlier were placed before them… After returning his prisoners’ clothes, Kajioka, resplendent in white dress uniform and gleaming samurai sword, read a proclamation to the assembled prisoners. When he concluded, a Japanese interpreter informed the Americans that ‘the Emperor has graciously presented you with your lives.'”
After World War II
The defense of Wake was testimony to the valor and professionalism of the Marine garrison and its officers, December 11th being the only successful thwarting of an attempted amphibious landing by enemy forces in the Pacific throughout the war. The tale of the heroic battle for Wake Island inspired American soldiers worldwide. Almost four long years later, World War II ended, the prisoners were released, and control of the island was returned to the United States by the Japanese.
After a 7000-foot runway was paved over the existing coral runway in 1949, the island base also played a key role as a refueling stop for aircraft during the Korean War. And, as a result of the foresighted runway lengthening in 1959 to 9800 feet, the island was able to participate in Desert Storm in 1991, once again as a fueling station. Today, the former commercial airbase is used primarily by the US Army Space and Strategic Defense Command and for emergency landings of trans-Pacific flights. There are over 700 landings a year on the island.
An understanding of the history of Wake Island is fundamental for understanding the claims made by the Marshall Islands and the Kingdom of EnenKio.
I was a crewmember on C-141s from 66-73 . Wake was one of my favorite crew rest. Exploring, swimming and eating were my favorites. What a great place. Had the 100 mission patch past/crewrest Wake. Made it back on a C-5 with an inflight emergency in 1998. What a change! Sure would like to take family and friends there to relax.
There was a rumor that the then corrupt President Johnson and his wife Lady Bird had stock in FMC during the Viet Nam War. If so, must have made millions off the USAF. Does any one know if this was true? I can’t find anything on it as if there would be public knowledge of this. Anyway Lady Bird was buried today near her corrupt and incompetent husband , Pres Johnson at their ranch.
I have some pictures during that time.If anyone knows of a collection site, I could send them by CD.
Good Morning from the Pacific Northwest. I am trying to find out some information about Wake Island, and a fixed radio station of some type that was there many years ago. A close friend and I use to stopped at Wake for refueling or crew rest on military missions in the Pacific. We both flew HC-97’s and HC-130’s from March Air Force Base in California to Hickam and then on to Wake. We also supported the old 76th Air Rescue Unit at Hickam. We flew most of these support missions during the late 60’s; 70’s and late 80’s. The last time “we” flew and stopped at Wake was in 1992. This is when we found the remains of which we had never seen before, of what was a old radio station. This topic has been become a very strong subject between my friend Roger Gill and me regarding the purpose of this radio station. Neither of us can remember have using a Long Range Navigation (Loran station) coming from wake, nor hearing an armed forces radio station originating from Wake. Thus we have argued many times during these many years about what was the purpose of this station. So if some one could tell be exactly what this station was for it would solve a long time question. If you know this answer, could some one please forward this information to me with any pictures that you may have to Bill Kratch at r621@comcast.net..
Thank You,
William E Kratch, SMSgt, USAF (Ret.)
I was on the Coast Guard Loran Station from 1964-1965 Wake Island, it was classed as issolated duty but I really enjoyed the time i was out there
I was stationed on Wake Island from Jun 1963 to Jun 1964. Yes indeed there was a Coast Guard Loran Station on Peale Island and it was run by a great bunch of guys. On the second floor of the then new terminal building was a very small AFRTS radio station. AFRTS had no personnel there but sent in monthly shipments of music. While I was there one of the Communitions guys named Steve Navarro would do a daily show for a couple of hours. When it was unattended anyone could go in and play the records which were broadcast on the island. There was also a MARS radio station run by the civilian Army personnel. And finally when you checked into the billeting office when you walked past the first building on the right there was the AF Radio Station on the first floor. The second floor was AF personnel stationed on Wake. That radio staion was operated by those of us who had radio licenses. It was KW6DS or “Kilowatt Whiskey Number 6 Dirty Socks” If I remember right it had a Collins KWM2 with a Thirty S1 linear amplifier. It was really a powerful unit and most every day we were able to reach the west coast and get phone patches from there to anywhere in the US. You have probably noticed this is more information than you wanted, but I am a firm believer that you will never know if you dont ask.
Hi to all, I have really enjoyed the sight.My uncle Lacy Franklin Tart was one of the 98 civilians executed, Oct.7, 1943. He was from North Carolina.I have been searching records and any where I can find information.On the list of 98, he was listed as being from Portland, Organ & that is incorrect.Also they listed his name as Leroy& that is wrong.I want to know if the 98 men were honored and if family member can accept awards in his honor.Uncle Lacy has 2 sisters left and their health isn’t good.We never received anything over the years from the Navy, Army, or War department. If there is anyone that can help, please!If anyone has any pictures befor they were attacked.Never heared from him after Wake was attacked..God bless all. JoAnn
Hello Al Stevenson…So you had duty on the Coast Guard Loran Station. Wow!! We could never find that information any where, and when we were flying in and out of Wake I don’t remember any Loran stations operating in that area. Now could you be so kind and tell me if it was a Loran A or Loran C station. I got a pile of good information from Pat Minoughan just a few minutes ago via email. Again thanks for all your help..
Bill Kratch
Was TDY to Wake for almost two years, “67-“68, Our acft parked next to Fire Station, a JKC-135 “The LIKI TIKI”. We would come to Wake about every other week or so, AFSC, working missile re-entry. We were over to Kwaj. the day the KC-135 crashed in “68, flew back to Wake to transport survivors back to Hickham., got a few photos of the acft in question, will try to post after getting them scaned.
follow up to posting 15 aug 07
johnfox@gimail.af.mil
I am doing research on Wake Island due tho the fact that my father, Clifford Milton Reed, was stationed on Wake with the 1st Marine defense Battalion. He never said anything about the atack or about his time in the japanese POW camp. He was, as far as I know, repatriated back stateside about 1946 and spent the next year in the naval hospital in San Francisco where he met my mother. He only started to talk about his time in service about 15 years ago. He died and was buried with military honors on 24 February, 2002.
I am currently working on Wake Island and am volunteering some time to try to get some comprehensive maps together and scan/post the photos that can be found here in the museum. I am also trying to get a website setup to post all the historical photos/documents that I run into. If anyone has any photos taken on Wake Island, any year/era, and would like them to be posted in the museum, on the website please email them to me with the owner/photographer’s name, and any info you have about the photo.
Thanks, John
Email to skynetworks(at)gmail.com
I am doing a history fair project on Wake Island. I would like to interview anyone who was on, or is related to someone on, the island during the battle with the japanese in WWII. I have a limited time before the regional contest so please reply soon. If possible please give me a phone number or e-mail address by which i can reach you.
I worked on Wake for 3 summers, 1956, 57 58 in construction; family there in the weather bureau; loved it and would love to go back for a few days. don’t remember many names, but for some reason Colleen Teruyia comes to mind. She was a little toddler. I had and lost a number of photographs and slides from then and wanted to do a photo essay, as there was still tons of WW II detritus around. Oh, and ‘Dusty’ Rhodes, I think a nurse. My sister Betsy Ann married the LT in charge of the Coast Guard Loran station Charles ‘Bud’ Mathieu, on a tanker just off the Island; the captain said he had always wanted to do a wedding at sea. Played a lot of bridge with my parents and Commander Pealer,(?) pilot of the PBY rescue plane who rotated in from Guam as the crews changed. Would love to hear from anyone who flew in on N65; if you know what that is you are for real!
Hubert ‘Butch’ Boyd
Just re-read some of this, and had to chime in again. One of my favorite memories was around Christmas; there was a tea-pot station, likely illegal with call letters WAKE; it was on a low harmonic of one of the tower frequencies. I heard, “We three kings of orients are…” and immediately thereafter, “Maintain 8000, extend your down-wind leg!” There was also a ham station whose call letters I don’t remember.
Hubert ‘Butch’ Boyd bboyd3@verizon.net. Love to hear from anyone.
My father Philip Maxted was stationed there working for the FAA from 1950-1952. I was born in Honolulu in 52′ as there were no doctors on the island then. We were evacuated later that year because of a typhoon. Anyone who knows any knowledge about this time frame or event I would appreciate hearing from anyone, pics, comments, etc. Al Maxted ajmnd@yahoo.com
Hi.
I am, as I type, on Wake Island. I lived out here as one of the contractors from 1983-1987 and was here for the first reunion of the Survivors & Defenders. I just returned last week to work here again. The devastation of IOKI typhoon is apparent and hopefully the Air Force will not let this island disappear….
Anyone wanting to talk, email me or call 808-424-2351. Remember time here is GMT+12, and we work (our)Tuesday thru Saturday.
Hope to hear from someone interested in the future of Wake Island.
Barbara,
I would love to ask you a few questions about working on Wake Island. I am considering a position there with a contractor and am very curious about the working conditions on the Island. Are you with the Air Force or with a private contractor? What are the logistical arrangements for traveling off the island? Any info you can give me would be helpful.
Thanks
I lived on Wake Island from 1958 thru 1962 with my brothers, Greg and Doug Nakagawa. My parents were Ray and Kiyo Jeffcott. My father was employed by Pan American Airways and we lived in their housing complex. The best times of my life were spent on Wake Island and really treasure those memories. I often think of those days… I remember the Burris family, the Clark family and the White family of Pan American Airways. I also remember you Anna Marie, the Eulitt family, Dale McFarlane, James Kilpatrick, the Bayne family, Gaylor & Ronald Kualii, Sharon, Sandra, Samantha & Sammy White, the Piper family, the Joao family,”Cookie”, the Figueroa family, Billy & Lester Makolo, Leonard Kubo, Nelson Nakanishi and others however the names escape now.Wake Island was the best!
I have been trying to track down my family history and im only able to get bits and pieces!I was hoping that someone could inform me as to how part of the island came to bare the name wilkes.
@Cindy: As mentioned above:
You might get more than just bits and pieces if you stop skimming and take the time to actually read the articles.
On July 5th, 2008 Wake Island Defender and POW Albert Hicks died at age 86. I am incredibly proud of the time my Grandfather spent serving our country (6 years as a Marine) and the time he spent as a POW (3 years 9 months). He will be greatly missed.
Hi, I lived on Wake from 1960 to 1961. My dad worked for FAA and after taking time off from collage, he got me a job for the Domestic Services group. I was a room boy, worked in the laundry, The Commessary, the dining room for FAA and in the office of the domestic services manager. I remember roaming the beaches and the pill boxes, the good fishing and working on a lot of drift wood. My dad “Baldy” Dickson, was a navigator for FAA and I got to see him each time he flew down to the island on the Constalations and the old DC 4 N-65. I played ball for the domestic services team while there. Wake has good memories for me and im so glad I had the experience of being there.
Hi all. I have just found this website and fondly remember my tour of duty on Wake in 1971. I was in the Royal Air Force and was posted there for a year. The place was just beautiful and the people were so friendly. Jim Lovelace and Kerry O’Brien from Base Ops and Bob Melrose from the Met Office were good friends and I mustn’t forget Bob Schneidenbach from USAF. I’m 67 now and can honestly say that Wake gave me one of the happiest years of my life. I talk about it to my grandchildren all the time. Really great times.
I thought I’d contribute a few more names to Phil Nakagawa’s list; I remember Phil well, because his brother Douglas was a good friend, and I used to go over to his house alot–which, by the way, had numerous spectacular lion fish in an aquarium! Anyway, here’s the names, just to stir people’s memories:
William, Phyllis, and William (Jr.) Valentine
Clayton Nakamitsu
Michael and Lynn Greene, and family
The Cook Family
The Herrings
Russell and Matthew Bailey
Henry, Wesley, and Jeffrey Tanoue
Anna Marie Clark and her six brothers and sisters
The Pipers
The Eulitt Family
Richard and Linda White
Wendell and Roddy Bayne
Sandra Haanio
Edwin Kokubun
The Saidas
Buster
Mr. and Mrs Furman
Miss Panui
Miss Bredehoft
Lynn Yamane
Candice and Joanne Kubo (my sisters)
The Beckner family
The Keliihoomalu family
The Yoneshige family
Fred Lau and his wife
Michael Samuels
Patricia MacMinn
I came found this website and have enjoyed the comments very much. My father John R Dale, served on the 5 inch gun on Wilkes that was credited with sinking the first Japanese ship. He was one of the marines featured on the History Channel Documentary. He still receives calls and letters everytime the program is shown. I am very proud of him and would love to visit Wake, but that is extremely difficult if not impossible, so that is why I enjoy websites like this!
I too can contribute more names. My family lived on Wake from 62-66. I was 10 when we left. My brothers are Mike and Ken. My father and mother, Arnold and Phyllis. My Father was the manager of Page Communications. I remember fondly the spitwad fights at the windy palace, the Green Bunker as well as many others, Al Chin’s bowling alley, jumping off “the bridge”, diving around the causeway, the wreck of the Sua Maru, our first view of The Beatles (A Hard Days Night), the terns and albatros, the typhoon that washed through one door of our house out the other (the entire family, dog, and cat slept in the car), our house roof literally cabled into the ground, and all the war relics. I use to play with John Baniago and Cliff Sitton. Also were there when the Thrasher went down. Remember Ms. Casey and I believe Lynn Yamane had a sister by the name of Gale. Also remember Debbie Dreyer, the Herrings, Russell Baily, The Olson’s, The principle Mr. Green, 4th grade teacher Mr. Gordon (all 6’4″ or more of him). Loved playing softball and the snorkelling (as well as the number and types of eels) was unparalleled. Also remember Bob Hope (several times) and the many Vietnam troops whose shoes we use to shine and the money we use to spend on candy and pinpal in the FAA building.