Review of "Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island," John Wukovits

 Review of

Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island, John Wukovits, ISBN 9780451212054

Five out of five stars

Propaganda and military victory

 When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and many other outposts in Asia in the early part of December 1941 their forces appeared unstoppable. The list of quick victories included Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. Military installations considered formidable fell with what seemed to be a minimum of resistance.

 However, there was one American outpost that put up a very stiff fight, and that was the American garrison at Wake Island. A small outpost that served as a transit point for Pan Am airlines, Wake was a strategic location in the middle of the Pacific. There, a small garrison of American military units augmented with construction workers that joined the fight handed the Japanese a defeat.

 This book is the story of a valiant resistance against impossible odds. While there was some initial hope of being rescued by the American Navy, the American forces soon learned that there was no hope of help, resupply or relief. It is a tale of gallantry, adherence to duty, very sound military tactics and survival in Japanese POW camps.

 One thing that is debunked is that when the commander of Wake was asked if they needed anything his response was, “Send us more Japs!” This was a propaganda concoction by military people safely residing in the United States, the people on Wake considered such a message to be insanity.

 Since the American forces on Wake did surrender and some survived the war in captivity, the reference to the Alamo is not completely accurate. However, that reference is accurate to the extent that the battle for Wake was effectively used to improve American morale and demonstrated that the Japanese forces could be effectively resisted.

 This is a great book about what was a relatively small battle in terms of the size of the forces but was huge in terms of the consequences to American public perceptions of the early course of the war against Japan.

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