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

Given Up for Dead: America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island by Bill Sloan, Bantam, 30 September 2003, 432 pp., $15.00

Given Up for Dead does justice to the valiant stand of the U.S. Marines, sailors, and civilians who found themselves trapped on Wake Island following the start of the war in the Pacific theater on 7 December 1941. The conquest of the tiny atoll of Wake should have been an easy affair for Imperial Japan, but a combination of U.S. preparedness (as much as was possible, given the circumstances), and Japan's overconfidence and incompetence resulted in an initial repulse of the Japanese navy with heavy loss of life. Despite their valiant stand, which lasted over two weeks, the garrison surrendered on 23 December 1941.

Sloan's work provides useful background and context for the events that surrounded the Wake Island fight, but the story is primarily described through the eyes of the U.S. participants. This approach successfully conveys the intensity of the fighting, especially once the Japanese landed on the island. Sloan's recount of the years military prisoners spent as prisoners of war, grippingly conveys their ordeal, and sadly notes the 1943 massacre of U.S. civilians who remained on Wake following its capture.

Sloan discusses the major controversy of the battle for Wake, which was whether the island could have been relieved by the U.S. Although a relief effort was mounted from Pearl Harbor, it was turned around when the message "Enemy on island. Issue in Doubt," was received from Wake's commander in the early hours of 23 December. Whether Wake could have been relieved is, in this reviewer's opinion, not the issue. Whether Wake could have been held, is the more relevant question, along with the potential price (both materiel and moral), the U.S. might have paid for trying. Given the superiority of Japan at the outset of war, the need to conserve U.S. forces, and Wake's distance from Pearl Harbor, the decision to sacrifice the garrison, while regrettable, was logical.

Sloan's goal was to pay tribute to those who fought at Wake and his work achieves this goal. That said, Sloan's contention that the U.S. stand on Wake Island deserves to be recognized in the same category as the battles of Bunker Hill, the Alamo, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, or Belleau Wood is highly debatable-the U.S. stand at Bataan and Corrigedor in the Philippines lasted longer, involved far greater forces, and represents one of the worst defeats in U.S. history; the loss of Wake pales in comparison, lf the valor of those who fought at Wake is as unrecognized as Sloan argues, it is due more to an overemphasis in the U.S. on the European theater, not from a lack of courage by those who fought in the Pacific. While there is little here for the practitioner of armored tactics, Given Up For Dead is solid military history, and a worthwhile addition to the literature of the war in the Pacific Theater.

BENJAMIN TUCK MA J, U.S. Army

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