Wake Island :: essays research papers fc

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on celestial latitude 7, 1941, America was at last forced to officially project World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt officially declared war on the Japanese and in his famous radio address to the American people, he professed that December 7 was a day that would live in infamy. Americans and Japanese alike, still reckon Pearl Harbor Day, but how many remember the gallant, fighting Marines who served on a precise atoll in the Pacific by the name of Wake Island?Prior to the war, Wake Island, located 2300 miles west of Honolulu, was an unorganized territory of the United States, which was placed under the jurisdiction of the Navy in 1934. It was also a Clipper stop on Pan American Airlines famed Trans-Pacific run, and in 1939, the U.S. Navy began construction of an subscriber line and submarine base, which was one-half completed at the time of the attack. Because of the construction of the base, approximately one hundred twenty0 civilians were on the island, functional for the American construction firm, Morrison-Knudsen, in addition to the Navy personnel and Marines who had been direct to defend the island. The first attack came at noon on December 7, 1941, when 36 Japanese bombers initiated the first bombing of the island. The bombings by the Japanese keep until December 23, when under continuous shelling, the Americans, under U.S. Navy Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, were at last forced to surrender. Although the Japanese finally took the island, they incurred heavy losses. Three cruisers and one reassign sustained heavy damage, 2 destroyers and one patrol boat were sunk, spot 820 Japanese soldiers were killed, with another 333 wounded. In contrast, American military machine casualties included 120 killed, 49 wounded, with two missing in action. Initially, Japanese strategists assumed that the tiny island would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours. However, they underestimated the fighting sp irit of the military personnel and civilians stationed on the island. For sixteen days these brave men fought against whelm odds, but demonstrated both to the Japanese and to their fellow Americans back at home that the Americans could and would put up a courageous fight. During the first air raid, Pan Americans facilities were destroyed, and ten civilian employees of the airline were killed. When the spoil on the island was first launched, the Americans had twelve aircraft. By December 21, they were down to two planes and by the 22nd of December, none was left in the fleet.