Surrounded Marines At Wake Island: "Send Us More Japs!"
Written: Jan 05 '05 (Updated Jan 08 '05)
Product Rating:
Pros: Outstanding history of the last stand of U. S. Marines at Wake Island in WWII.
Cons: None, unless a 730-page paperback is a problem for you.
The Bottom Line: This 730-plus-paged paperback is well-illustrated and a very enjoyable, intelligent, well-researched read. This is a story that should make Americans proud.
Don_Krider's Full Review: Gregory J. W. Urwin - Facing Fearful Odds: The Sie...
In "Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege Of Wake Island," Professor Gregory J. W. Urwin reminds us of the heroic defense of Wake Island by a small band of U. S. Marines at the outbreak of World War II.
The "defeat" of the garrison was actually one the few "successes" of U. S. forces following the Japanese destruction of the U. S. fleet at Pearl Harbor and the fall of the Marine garrison at Guam in December of 1941.
It was a "success" in the sense that the "sacrifice" of these Marines gave the United States time to "breathe" after Pearl Harbor and the fall of Guam. The tale is every bit as heroic as any "last stand" story from American history.
The Allies were being attacked by Japanese forces everywhere: Indonesia, China, the Phillipines, Guam, Midway and Hawaii (even the U. S. west coast was shelled (on at least two occassions) by passing Japanese submarines, though they caused little damage).
The British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese bombers while at sea without "air cover" on December 10, 1941, three days after the U. S. disaster at Pearl Harbor, meaning the Japanese had firm control of the Pacific Ocean.
When Germany declared war on the U. S. four days after Pearl Harbor, the U. S. Atlantic coast became the death bed for hundreds of Allied ships sunk by German submarines. If you ever visit Norfolk, Va., visit the old Coast Guard station on the beach there and view the photos of burning Allied vessels off the Virginia coast that are on display in the museum.
Amid all the bad news of that bloody December of 1941, the United States got its pride back as a small force of barely 400 U. S. Marines and attached personnel (Navy and civilian) held off an enormous Japanese invasion force trying to seize the three islands that made up the Wake Island atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
Their brave stand slowed the Japanese game plan in the Pacific and bought the United States some valueable time.
As Professor Urwin notes, "The story of the Wake Island defenders shows how men can remain at their best under the most trying circumstances. It also provides a closer look at the generation whose sacrifices led to American victory in World War II."
The author:
"Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege Of Wake Island" was written by Gregory J. W. Urwin, a professor of history at Temple University. Urwin has written a number of magazine articles and numerous books over the years, including the much praised "Custer Victorious: The Civil War Battles Of General George Armstrong Custer" (http://www.epinions.com/content_25624088196).
Urwin's books have a wonderful narrative style of writing that never fails to make for interesting reading.
The book:
First published in hardcover in 1998, "Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege Of Wake Island" was published in paperback in 2002.
I'm reviewing the oversized, 730-page paperback. The paperback features several sections of photos and maps, making it a very well-illustrated book.
Urwin, the author, interviewed and/or corresponded with 70 survivors from among Wake Island's defenders to get the story right. He thoroughly researched the U. S. and Japanese military records to verify details.
It is his stated attempt to seperate the fact from the myth (much of the "myth" coming from 1942 Best Picture nominee, "Wake Island," which was released on DVD in 2004 and which I reviewed at http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-7551-10FE13C9-38BCB9C4-prod4).
The book features, at its end, detailed notes on every chapter, an extensive bibliography and an index.
The story:
Urwin dispells myths like the widely circulated report that when asked what they needed, the Marines replied, "Send us more Japs!" The truth is that "send us" was at the beginning of a message and "more Japs" was at the end of the same message --- a skillful propoganda officer simply cut out the center of the message to create the heroic sounding "send us more Japs" message. For the duration of World War II, that message of defiance brought Americans hope (after the war, the commander of the Wake Island defenders, when he heard of the "message," said "that's the last thing we needed").
The Marines had roughly 400 men to guard three islands located some 1,200 miles from the U. S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor and standing firmly in the way of advancing Japanese invasion forces. On Guam, a garrison of roughly the same size had been overwhelmed by the advancing Japanese forces in a matter of hours, but that garrison had no fighter planes or artillery defenses.
The victory over Guam seems to have created an over-confidence among the Japanese, according to Urwin. The Japanese invasion force, featuring troop ships supported by cruisers, destroyers and submarines steamed toward Wake as Japanese bombers pounded the island's defenses in preparation for an invasion.
Thing is, the motto of Marine Major James Devereux was "Marines don't surrender." He had drilled this into his men. His men were well aware of how the Japanese treated prisoners after Japan invaded China in 1931 --- torture, beheadings and executions were the norm --- and the Marines decided to a man that they would rather die fighting than surrender.
Wake Island also had 12 fighter planes with Marine pilots, dropped off by the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise on December 5, 1941. They also had a handful of powerful 5-inch guns and additional anti-aircraft weapons which actually proved more effective against Japanese ground forces. Constant training had made the Marine gunners very effective.
When the Japanese came into view, the defensive plan of the base's senior officer, Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, and Marine commander Devereux would prove deadly to the Japanese.
Devereux devised a plan allowing the Japanese to shell the Marines as they closed in. It meant the U. S. forces had to endure a ferocious barrange until, as at Bunker Hill in the American Revolution, "you see the whites of their eyes." He ordered, "Hold your fire until I give the word."
"Commence firing!" Devereux ordered and his five-inch gun batteries found their marks when the Japanese were finally well within range. Japanese warships exploded, burned and/or sank after direct hits.
Other warships were crippled and turned to retreat. A Japanese destroyer, the Hayate, charged the island only to suffer a hit in her ammuntion magazine that split the ship in two "like a folding jackknife," according to Urwin, and the ship sank with its 168 crewmen.
The loss of the destroyer Hayate was the first loss of a Japanese warship in World War II. The first Japanese landing attempt of December 11, 1941, had been turned back and U. S. forces had their first "victory" of World War II.
The Japanese retreated. Four of the 12 Marine fighter planes were airborne on patrol, arriving back at Wake as the Japanese retreated. Marine Major Paul Putnam, seeing no Japanese air cover, told his pilots, "Let's go down and join the party!"
Aboard damaged and burning Japanese warships, anti-aircraft batteries desperately tried to shoot down the four Grumman Wildcats descending on them. The Marine pilots bombed and strafed, returned to Wake to reload and refuel, then continued the attack --- they made nine such "sorties" that day (Putnam allowed two pilots after one "sortie" to rest on the ground so two of his mechanics could fly their planes to "trade blows" with the Japanese who had bombarded their island).
Captain Henry Elrod dropped a bomb from his plane that penetrated below the decks of the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi, which "mushroomed into an exploding fireball" soon after. Another Japanese warship slipped beneath the waves, taking 150 Japanese lives with her.
Unfortunately, the fighting that day would end with only two American planes still able to fly (some had been destroyed on the ground and Japanese anti-aircraft fire had heavily damaged other planes).
Amazingly, not a single American life was lost that day on Wake Island, though five Marines were wounded. It was the only time in all of World War II that "coast defense guns" like the Marines' 5-inch guns "beat off an amphibious landing," Urwin states.
Waiting for a decent meal, Marines celebrated their "victory" by raiding their rations to eat Hershey and Mounds candy bars, along with some mints.
Apparently President Franklin Roosevelt enjoyed the good news from Wake Island. When those around him dispaired of U. S. chances to win the war, he reportedly glared at them and angrily said, "Tell it to the Marines!"
The Marines on Wake would sink more Japanese warships, including a submarine, in their two-week-long stand. A number of Japanese planes were also shot down, or at least presumed as "kills" when they flew away trailing smoke.
The Marines endured much hardship, as detailed by Urwin. The Japanese continued to try landing troops on the island, only to pile the bodies of their dead on Wake's beaches and to lose their landing craft to Marine firepower.
The Marines were promised that a relief force, with two aircraft carriers, was headed their way. At the last minute, this force was turned around by a Navy admiral, angering the Marines on troop ships who thought they were going to save the Wake Island garrison; that anger went straight to Washington, which relieved the Navy admiral from command.
Wake's fate was sealed, however, although Urwin makes a case for the belief the recall was actually the proper move since U. S. Navy forces were stretched thin at the time and could ill afford anymore losses after Pearl Harbor. The admiral had made his decision after a report from Wake saying, "Enemy on island - issue in doubt."
Urwin details the bravery of men under fire. He follows the garrison through its surrender on December 23, 1941, two days before Christmas.
The Marines had actually destroyed Japanese invaders on two of the atoll's three islands (the Japanese suffered between 350 and 500 killed that day alone, they later admitted, compared to the loss of 28 Marines that day), but communications were severed in the battle and the base commander, Commander Cunningham, ordered Major Devereux to surrender his battalion to the Japanese, thinking the battle was lost. It was bitter pill for the Marine defenders.
Aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, news of the surrender led the ship's newspaper to issue an edition with the headline, "Remember Wake!" Soon newspapers around the U. S. barked the same headline.
POWs:
What follows in Urwin's account is the torture and outright murder of U. S. personnel. To the Japanese, to surrender showed a lack of honor.
Further, since the Americans had killed so many Japanese during the two-week battle, the Japanese chose five Americans at random, read the charges against them to them in Japanese (the charges were generic against the entire garrison, not individual charges against the doomed men), forced the bound men to kneel before them and then beheaded them (sometimes with a single strike from a sword, sometimes it took several strikes).
In a further vulgarity, the beheaded Americans' bodies were dismembered and their torsos used for bayonet practice by Japanese soldiers before being tossed overboard as the ship they were on carried the other American POWs to Japan.
The conditions of transportation of the remaining POWs was deplorable, from being bound with wires from head to hands to feet as they were forced into kneeling positions (causing bloody wounds as the human bodies tried to stretch straight) to outright torture for information.
U. S. personnel killed during the two-week fight were 46 Marines, 3 Navy sailors and 34 civilians (some civilians, at first reluctant to join the fight, later joined in).
As Prisoners Of War of the Japanese Empire, U. S. casulaties increased by an additional 10 Marines, three more sailors and another 100 civilians while in captivity.
Marine pilot Captain Elrod got the first Medal Of Honor given to a Marine aviator posthumously, cited for action in the air and for ground combat.
President Roosevelt personally issued the first Presidential Unit Citation for gallantry to the garrison. It was the only citation he personally signed during the war.
After the war, it was discovered that the Japanese had lined up 100 of the civilian construction workers on the island and machine-gunned them. The Japanese commander was later hanged for this war crime.
That Devereux's discipline continued to inspire and guide his men to survival over the nearly four years remaining in World War II in prisoner of war camps is a great narrative in itself. Urwin tells the story well.
Also detailed is the Devereux-Cunningham conflict. The "conflict" was over who commanded the defense of Wake Island. The Navy correctly claimed Cunningham was in command of overall operations, but the Marines claimed it was Devereux who was in command --- the Marine Corps defending its legends and winning the argument during the war years.
The Hollywood story told by Urwin:
The 1941 fall of Wake Island became the Marines' battle cry of "Remember Wake Island" during World War II and was a huge Marine Corps' recruiting plus. In Los Angeles, 385 recruits were formed into a giant "W" and signed up.
When Hollywood was looking for its first World War II film, the folks at Paramount approached the U. S. government about making a film called "Wake Island" at a time while the Marines were still fighting the battle.
The year before, Hollywood's treatment of Custer's Last Stand in "They Died With Their Boots On," filmed as being a sacrifice of troops in order to save other American troops (according to Urwin), was a huge box office success starring Errol Flynn as General George Armstrong Custer, and Paramount now proposed making a film about a similar sacrifce.
"Wake Island," the film completed after the island's fall, was first shown to 8,000 U. S. Marines in training at Quantico, Virginia, in August of 1942 to "thunderous cheers from the recruiits," according to Urwin.
Elsewhere, Urwin tells us, at the Detroit public premiere showing of the film, 4,200 movie-goers bought $1.3 million in War Bonds to fund the war effort. At the film's end, 350 recruits marched onstage to take the oath of enlistment.
When the film was shown to battle-hardened Marines fighting at Guadalcanal, one Leatherneck who saw the film said, "Every time those Marine gunners would knock off those Japs, we'd cheer like hell."
Final recommendation:
"Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege Of Wake Island" by Professor Gregory J. W. Urwin is a story that should make every American proud.
I find myself wondering where such men come from, then realizing these Marines were often kids in their late teens whose previous "combat" was trying to get a date in high school or adults with families left behind "in harm's way" at Pearl Harbor.
It is obvious that these were the "few good men" of Marine recruiting posters. Their sacrifice made Japan slow down for a crucial two weeks in World War II and to divert valueable military resources to take a tiny Pacific atoll known as Wake Island. The time these Marines bought their country with their lives was the "breather" the United States needed in order to get on a "war footing."
"Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege Of Wake Island" by Professor Gregory J. W. Urwin is not only an enjoyable read, I believe it is an essential one. We should never forget men such as those who fought at Wake Island. This is the perfect gift for the history buff and, I think, for that military veteran in your life.
Leatherneck magazine article on Wake with photos of survivors: http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/dec01wake.htm
My review of Pappy Boyington's autobiography, "Baa Baa Black Sheep," the story of the Sioux Indian who became the Marine Corps top ace in World War II and who won the Medal of Honor (inspiring the TV series starring Robert Conrad): http://www.epinions.com/content_142122126980
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.