Overview

Told here for the first time in vivid detail is the story of the defenders of Wake Island following their surrender to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The highly regarded military historian Gregory Urwin spent decades researching what happened and now offers a revealing look at the U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilian volunteers in captivity. In addition to exhaustive archival research, he interviewed dozens of POWs and even some of their Japanese captors. He also had access to diaries secretly kept by the prisoners. This information has allowed Urwin to provide a nuanced look at the Japanese guards and how the Americans survived three-and-a-half years in captivity and emerged with a much lower death rate than most other Allies captured in the Pacific. In part, Urwin says, the answer lies in the Wake Islanders' establishment of life-saving communities that kept their dignity intact. Their mutual-help networks encouraged those who faltered under the physical and psychological torture, including what is today called water boarding. The book notes that the Japanese camp official responsible for that war crime was sentenced to life imprisonment by an American military tribunal. Most spent the war at a camp just outside Shanghai, one of the few places where Japanese authorities permitted the Red Cross to aid prisoners of war. The author also calls attention to the generosity of civilians in Shanghai, including Swiss diplomats and the American and British residents of the fabled International Settlement, who provided food and clothing to the prisoners. In addition, some of the guards proved to be less vicious than those stationed at other POW camps and occasionally went out of their way to aid the men. As the first historical work to fully explore the captivity of Wake Island's defenders, the book offers information not found in other World War II histories.

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9781682476703

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Reviews

The Americans captured on Wake Island depended on wits and will power for their high survival rate. They created a buddy system--structured by leadership and discipline--that became a lifesaving community. They benefited from the luck that put them for much of the war in a camp near Shanghai, in the orbit of the city's Western civilians, the Red Cross, and the Swiss government. Because the Japanese treated the camp as a showplace, guards and administrators exhibited enough decency, kindness, and compassion to demonstrate that the atrocities committed elsewhere reflected policy, not culture. Urwin's brilliantly nuanced presentation of the synergy among these factors is a unique contribution to understanding the POW experience. --Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the 20th Century

Author Information

Gregory J. W. Urwin is Professor of History at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he specializes in American and British military affairs. He is the author of eight other books, including Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island, which won the Gen. Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. He lives in Doylestown, PA.

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