WAKE ISLAND

I got to go on land to Wake Island just before we left. One of the Air Force guys on the island gave us a great tour in a school bus. The island has a pretty amazing history. Wake was attacked at the same time as Pearl Harbor, ending in the surrender of the American forces to the Japanese on Dec.23, 1941, and the capture of all remaining men on the island. The captured men were kept to perform forced labor, building much of the existing infrastructure. On Oct.3, 1943 the Naval aircraft Yorktown raided Wake and the Japanese Rear Admiral Sakaibara ordered the 98 remaining men, mainly American civilian contractors, executed. Today, the island serves as a fueling station and is managed by the US Air Force. The US Army also has a missile facility. There are many Thai nationals that help maintain the island. We received about 35 of the islanders on the ship for Hi'ialakai tours. They seemed as excited to get off the island for a short while as we were to later get off the ship! Overall, they all seemed pretty happy living on Wake.

This is just one of the many examples of the infrastructure built by the WWII prisoners

This is POW Rock. One of 98 captured civilian workers escaped when the others were massacred by machine gun, and carved this over their mass grave. 5.10.43 is the date they were captured. He was eventually captured and beheaded.

The Thai workers on the island have little hangouts all over called the Beach Houses. Apparently each one is like a neighborhood bar with its own little spin, personality, and food etc.

The bar was closed :(

Fueling next to the aircraft carrier

Thought I would share some photos from when we first left for this trip and went to the fueling pier. We had to snuggle up next to this insane Aircraft Carrier. It was massive and very impressive. I could not fit the entire view in my camera...