By: HISTORY.com Editors

1943

Japanese execute nearly 100 American POWs on Wake Island

Published: November 05, 2009

Last Updated: June 30, 2025

On October 7, 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 98 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces.

In late December 1941, the Japanese reinforced existing forces on Wake Island, part of a coral atoll west of Hawaii, in massive numbers after being unable to wrest the island from a small number of Americans troops earlier in the month. The Japanese strength was now overwhelming, and most of those Americans left alive after the battle were taken by the Japanese off the island to POW camps elsewhere. Ninety-eight remained behind to be used as forced labor. The Allied response was periodic bombing of the island—but no more land invasions, as part of a larger Allied strategy to leave certain Japanese-occupied islands in the South Pacific to basically starve in isolation.

The execution of those remaining American POWs, who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of the more brutal episodes of the war in the Pacific.

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Citation Information

Article title
Japanese execute nearly 100 American POWs on Wake Island
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
August 07, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
June 30, 2025
Original Published Date
November 05, 2009

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