Given Up for Dead: America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island

Within hours of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese strike at Wake Island. Thinly defended by a few companies of Marines and a very small Marine Air Squadron VMF-211, Wake Island was in the process of being fortified. Beside the small military detachment, there was large numbers of civilian construction crews on the Island that were sent to Wake to build various bunkers, hospitals, and barracks. PanAm also has a facility on Wake to service it's clippers that stop periodically on there way to the orient and back again. It is this small population of Americans that must face the Japanese assault that has not met defeat yet.

Bill Sloan is a master storyteller. In Given Up for Dead he tells the story in a way that will stir your admiration for the defenders, both military and civilian. He uses standard sources but also mixes in information from the few survivors that are still alive. Primary sources, especially eye witness accounts, form the backbone of this book.

Ultimately the American Marines are forced to surrender, but not until they give the Japanese a preview of what's in store for them in the subsequent months. It was the Marines at Wake Island that stopped the Japanese for the first time. It was also the Marines of Wake Island that sank the first Japanese naval vessel of WWII.

This is a pivotal book both in the history of the Marine Corps and the history of WWII. If you're a history buff then you'll want this book on your own bookshelf.


A Compelling and Worthwhile Read   October 11, 2003
Bookreporter.com (New York, New York)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

The "desert island" fantasy is a common enough parlor game in America --- imagining who you would want to be stranded with, what books or movies you would bring, and figuring out how you might survive if you were lost and alone on a coral beach out in the endless blue waters of the Pacific. What most of us would consider a fantasy was a stark reality for a few hundred Americans --- some Navy, some Marines, and some civilian contractors --- who were trapped on Wake Island in the days after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Wake Island was meant to be an advance base against possible Japanese aggression in the Pacific, but the attack on Pearl Harbor left the small Wake Island garrison isolated behind enemy lines. The island, a way station for Pan American's fleet of Pacific clippers, had a minimal number of defenders, a small squadron of aircraft, and not much else. The supply line back to Hawaii was cut; there could be no hope of food, fresh water, ammunition or reinforcements until the Navy, battered by the surprise attack, could put together a relief squadron out of spare parts.

No sooner had word of the attack on Pearl Harbor spread across the three islands at Wake than the Japanese struck, first with bombers and then with a naval task force bent on an amphibious assault of the island. The brave defenders managed to beat back the Japanese ships with the few remaining airplanes on the island and some well-timed artillery strikes, but a second wave of the Emperor's soldiers was on its way, racing against a rescue fleet dispatched from Hawaii.

To tell more about the valiant defense of Wake Island here in this review would spoil things, which I am constitutionally opposed to doing. Besides, there's no need to do that here. GIVEN UP FOR DEAD is so phenomenally well-written, so lucid in its prose, so clear in the way that it lifts the "fog of war" that hangs over the mysteries of combat, that you'll want to read the whole thing all at once; you won't be able to put it down, even though you know the ending.

Sloan's stated purpose in writing the book is to restore the heroes of Wake Island --- there really isn't another word --- to the American pantheon, to ensure that the defense of the island is mentioned in the same breath with the Alamo and Thermopylae and other gallant, doomed last stands. It is a goal that he more than accomplishes.

It is amazing that any of the American forces were able to survive Wake Island; that so many of them survived both the invasion and the subsequent horrors of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp is nothing short of miraculous. Sloan documents every day of the siege, supplementing the official account with detailed interviews of the few remaining survivors. His commitment to accuracy and his teasing out the details of the conflict makes GIVEN UP FOR DEAD a compelling, worthwhile read.

--- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds


One of the first tough fights for the American army in WWII   February 27, 2005
David Roy (Vancouver, BC)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

Everybody knows about Pearl Harbor, and the sneak attack by the Japanese that helped usher the Americans into World War II. On the other hand, not that many people know about Wake island, the heroic stand of less than 1000 U.S. Marines and the civilian contractors who were there to help build it up, which began very shortly after Pearl Harbor and ended two days before Christmas. With Given Up For Dead, Bill Sloan has done his part to rectify this lack of knowledge. With powerful prose and words from the men who served there (and even a few from the invaders), Sloan tells us the story of these men and what they went through. The book is riveting, relatively easy to read, and quite thorough.

Wake island is a sleepy little atoll out in the middle of the Pacific, but it is strategically located. It was originally supposed to be built up during the 1930s, but lack of funding hampered this, until the coming of Pan Am, who wished to use it as a base for transoceanic travel. The island is mostly coral, scrub and trees, and is pretty desolate. For these men, however, it would become a crucible, and it would also gain the American army its first victory over the Japanese, though it was short-lived. The final defeat is shown to be completely unnecessary, as only a few miscues by the commanders (both on the island itself and back in Hawaii) result in the premature ending of a battle that was actually going fairly well for the Americans.

Sloan has interviewed most of the survivors from this battle, and he references the books written by the two commanders who died in the 1980s. This gives a very vivid view of the battle, right on the ground watching as the 3-inch gun crews manage to blow up two Japanese destroyers who ventured too close to land. We see the maneuvering during the second invasion, as Captain Wesley Platt manages to clear Wilkes island (one of the three islands that make up Wake Atoll) of all Japanese invaders, just prior to being ordered to surrender. Sloan pulls no punches, with the occasional description of battle that is quite graphic, but he doesn't go overboard. Instead, he makes it real.

The book begins with the history of the Wake atoll, from its discovery until its use as a military base, culminating in the pre-war years of build-up through Pan-Am and the military. This sets up the rest of the battle, as many of the civilian contractors who were on the island for this construction end up playing pivotal roles in the defense of the island. Some of the most heroic men who died were the civilians who volunteered to do whatever they could to help the Marines who were dying for them. Sure, some of the contractors fled to the jungle and survived on their own for two weeks, though strangely enough we never really hear about them again. Sloan mentions them in passing, but we never know exactly what happened to them. They were presumably killed, but if they were captured, Sloan never mentions them. Most of the civilians, however, took part in the defense.

Even more important than a detailed description of the battle, however, is the aftermath. Sloan tells us about the horrifying sea voyage of some of the prisoners, from Wake to Japan and then to a camp near Shanghai, about the desolate conditions on the ship and the brutality of their captors. There is no mention of any deaths on this voyage, except for the five who were beheaded up on the deck for no apparent reason (and Sloan states that the reason for this has never been revealed), so I'm not sure if that's glossed over or if it's just a fact that nobody died. The journey was horrible, though. Sloan also shows a few "good" Japanese soldiers, including Doctor Ozeki, who saved the life of Wiley Sloman back on Wake. Sloman had taken a bullet in the head, and Ozeki eventually saved him. None of the men had anything bad to say about him, and he even met with some of the survivors in 1995. Ed Borne even called Ozeki his best friend after years of correspondence with him.

In addition to all of this, Sloan examines the surrender and why it happened. A relief fleet was sailing toward Wake, but it was going too slow because of both the slowest ship's speed and the ambivalence of the new temporary commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Pye, toward the relief effort. Add this to the severed communications between the commanders of the Wake defense and the troops giving the commanders a wrong impression of what was going on and you get a recipe for a premature surrender. Platt had cleared one island and was looking to go help on one of the others. The Marines could probably have held out for two or three more days, but the relief convoy was aborted as soon as Commander Cunningham, commander of the garrison, indicated to the Pacific Fleet headquarters (in a cryptic, though dramatic message) that Japanese troops were on the island and the situation was grim. What could have been a major American victory turned into another defeat.

Given Up For Dead is a book that's hard to put down. The book is well-researched, with most of the sources being interviews or the books written by men who fought there. There are a few details missing, as mentioned above, but overall this is quite the comprehensive work. It will keep any military history reader turning the page, and it is an important book for bringing to light a forgotten battle. Everybody remembers the Alamo, but hardly anybody seems to remember the Alamo of the Pacific.

David Roy


The Alamo of the Pacific   August 2, 2004
Jeffrey T. Munson (Dixon, IL)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

The heroic defenders of Wake Island have often been compared to the band of soldiers who defended the Alamo , and in this fine book, author Bill Sloan describes the battle for Wake Island from early on December 8 until the Marines finally and grudgingly surrendered to the overwhelming Japanese forces on December 23, 1941.

The first bombs began to fall on Wake just five hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eight of the twelve aircraft from Marine fighter squadron VMF-211 were destroyed on the ground and the airfield was left pot-holed, but the Marines' spirit was never broken. A few days later, the Japanese tried an amphibious landing, but the Marines, led by Major James Devereux, succeeded in replusling the invasion attempt. Wake had three twin batteries of five inch naval guns, and these batteries succeeded in sinking two Japanese destroyers and heavily damaging a light cruiser and several other ships.

For the next two weeks, the brave Marines endured daily bombing raids by the Japanese, but the Marine anti-aircraft gunners managed to put up a tremendous volume of flak and succeeded in downing several Japanese planes. However, on the 22nd and 23rd of December, the Japanese, supported by two aircraft carrier groups detached from the returning Pearl Harbor strike force, managed to successfully land troops on Wake. For the next few days, the Japanese faced the wrath of the greatly outnumbered Marines and civillian workers. Japanese casualties were horrendous, while the greatly outnumbered Americans fought with bravery and gallantry right up until the controversial surrender order was given.

Many of the Marines on Wake thought the order must have been a mistake. The Japanese were being pushed back into the sea at many points, but the overly conservative Commander Winfield Cunningham thought that there was no way to stop the advancing Japanese. Many men contimplated mutiny and vowed to continue fighting the Japanese, but, in the end, the valiant Wake defenders surrendered to the Japanese after having inflicted many more casualties on the enemy than they suffered. These heroic defenders were now condemned to finish the war as prisoners of the Japanese.

I've read dozens of books about the Pacific war, and this is one of the best I've read. Bill Sloan has done an amazing job in bringing the heroic struggle for Wake to life. The book reads like a novel, and I definitely felt like I came to know each Marine mentioned in the book. Sloan tells it all; from the American's decision to turn Wake into a military base in the late 1930's, the attack by the Japanese, the aborted rescue mission by an American task force in which many American airmen came dangerously close to mutiny, and to the final surrender. I give this book my absolute highest recommendation. From the day the Japanese landed until the surrender, the Marines fought with gritty determination against vastly superior forces, yet they didn't waiver in the face of battle. This battle solidified the meaning of being a Marine. Semper Fi.


A fantastic narrative history of little known Wake Island   February 24, 2005
Eric Hobart (Gastonia, NC United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Every high school student knows about the events of December 7, 1941 ("Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy..."), but almost nobody knows what happened on the other side of the globe only a few hours after that surprise attack on Pearl Harbor started - the Japanese attacked a tiny island of coral in the midst of the Pacific Ocean known as Wake Island.

Starting on December 8 (local time) and ending on December 23, the Japanese attempted to overrun Wake Island, but the Marine bastion stationed there resisted with passion and courage unknown to most. For 2 weeks, these marines held out against superior odds, and that is the crux of this book.

Sloan does a fabulous job of describing the history of the battle - it's more than a recant of the military posturing or the general's orders; it is a true narrative history of the soldiers that participated intertwined with the civilians that were unlucky enough to be on Wake when the attacks started and the actions of the commanding officers.

Publishers Weekly called this "The best account yet of the battle for Wake Island", and I would agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment. This is indeed an awesome book, and every student of World War II history should read this to better understand why Wake is so important in our history. It may have ended in the surrender of American troops on the island, but it was important from a psychological perspective - it proved to the Japanese and the world that America would not die quietly; we would indeed persevere even in the face of tough odds.