Slaughtered in Silence: Honoring the Fallen of Wake Island
Wake Island USMC Helmet
October 7, 2025 — On the 82nd anniversary of the atrocity
On October 7, 1943, in a remote outpost of the Pacific theater of World War II, one of the lesser-known yet most tragic episodes of American wartime sacrifice took place. On that day, 98 American civilians—prisoners of war held by the Japanese Imperial Navy—were executed on Wake Island. Their deaths marked a deliberate and brutal violation of the laws of war and stand as a somber reminder of the human cost of global conflict.
Wake Island, a small atoll located roughly halfway between Hawaii and Japan, gained strategic importance during World War II. On December 8, 1941—just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor—the Japanese launched an assault on Wake Island, defended by a small contingent of U.S. Marines, Navy personnel, and civilian construction workers under contract with Morrison-Knudsen Company.
Despite fierce resistance and a temporary repulsion of the initial assault, Wake fell to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The surviving American personnel were taken prisoner. While many of the military prisoners were removed from the island shortly thereafter, 98 civilian contractors were retained by the Japanese and forced to perform hard labor under harsh and deteriorating conditions.
Nearly two years after the island’s capture, in early October 1943, U.S. naval forces launched a bombing raid on Wake Island. In retaliation—and fearing the possibility of an American invasion—the Japanese garrison’s commander, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, ordered the mass execution of the 98 remaining American civilian prisoners.
On October 7, the prisoners were blindfolded, bound, and led in small groups to a prepared trench near the shoreline. There, they were summarily executed by Japanese soldiers using machine guns and rifles. One man reportedly escaped during the execution and etched a haunting message into a nearby rock before being recaptured and killed. The message, later discovered by U.S. forces, read simply:
"98 US PW 5-10-43"
This inscription, carved into coral with makeshift tools, served as the final testimony of the victims' presence and fate.
Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, the atrocity on Wake Island came to light through eyewitness testimony and physical evidence found by U.S. forces. Rear Admiral Sakaibara and several of his officers were arrested and tried by a U.S. military tribunal. Sakaibara admitted to ordering the executions but attempted to justify his actions as a military necessity. The tribunal rejected this defense.
In 1947, Sakaibara and Lieutenant Commander Tachibana, who had overseen the executions, were convicted of war crimes. Both were sentenced to death. Sakaibara was hanged in 1947. Several other Japanese officers and soldiers were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths for their roles in the massacre.
The Wake Island Massacre remains a painful chapter in American military history. For decades, it received relatively little attention compared to more prominent battles and atrocities of the war. However, in recent years, historians and military scholars have worked to bring greater awareness to the event.
A memorial stands today on Wake Island to honor the 98 murdered civilians, listing their names and preserving the message carved by the lone escapee. It is a site visited by U.S. military personnel, historians, and descendants of the victims, who come to pay tribute to those who were denied a voice in life but who endure in memory.