Wake Island

Etymology

Wake Island derives its name from British sea captain Samuel Wake, who rediscovered the atoll in 1796 while in command of the Prince William Henry. The name is sometimes attributed to Captain William Wake, who also is reported to have discovered the atoll from the Prince William Henry in 1792.

Peale Island is named after the naturalist Titian Peale, who visited the island in 1841, and Wilkes Island is named after U.S. Naval officer Charles Wilkes, who led the U.S. expedition to Wake Atoll in 1841.

History

Prehistory

The presence of the Polynesian rat on the island suggests that Wake was likely visited by Polynesian or Micronesian voyagers at an early date. In the Marshallese oral tradition, stories tell of Ānen Kio, or "island of the orange flower," where men would collect albatross bones for tattooing rituals. Dwight Heine speculated that the Marshall Islanders treated Ānen Kio similarly to a game preserve for hunting and gathering food and that no one permanently lived there, similar to land usage practices on Bokak Atoll and Bikar Atoll. He also speculated that the islanders may have stopped traveling to Wake Atoll in the mid-1800s, around the time the first missionaries arrived in the Marshalls. However, the atoll's remoteness and lack of fresh water may have prevented permanent pre-modern human habitation; no ancient artifacts have been discovered.

Early exploration and shipwrecks

The first recorded discovery of Wake Island was on October 2, 1568, by Spanish explorer and navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. In 1567, Mendaña and his crew had set off on two ships, Los Reyes and Todos los Santos, from Callao, Peru, on an expedition to search for a gold-rich land in the South Pacific mentioned in Inca tradition. After visiting Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, the expedition headed north and came upon Wake Island, "a low barren island, judged to be eight leagues in circumference". Since the date, October 2, was the eve of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the captain named it St Francis Island (Spanish: Isla San Francisco). The ships were in need of water and the crew was suffering from scurvy, but after circling the island, it was determined that Wake was waterless and had "not a cocoanut (coconut) nor a pandanus" and "there was nothing on it but sea-birds, and sandy places covered with bushes." (It was while attempting to relocate Wake according to Mendaña's description of its coordinates that James Cook first reached the Hawaiian Islands.)

In 1796, Captain Samuel Wake of the merchant ship Prince William Henry also came upon Wake Island, naming the atoll Wake, for himself. Soon thereafter, the 80-ton fur trading merchant brig Halcyon arrived at Wake and Master Charles William Barkley, unaware of Captain Wake's visit and other prior European contact, named the atoll Halcyon Island in honor of his ship. In 1823, Captain Edward Gardner, while in command of the whaling ship Bellona, visited an island at 19°15′00″N 166°32′00″E, which he judged to be 20–25 miles (32–40 kilometers) long. The island was "covered with wood, having a very green and rural appearance". This report is considered to be another sighting of Wake Island.

On December 20, 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition, commanded by US Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, arrived at Wake on USS Vincennes and sent several boats to survey the island. Wilkes described the atoll as "a low coral one, of triangular form and eight feet [2.4 m] above the surface. It has a large lagoon in the center, which was well filled with fish of a variety of species; among these were some fine mullet." He also noted that Wake had no fresh water but was covered with shrubs, "the most abundant of which was the tournefortia." The expedition's naturalist, Titian Peale, noted that "the only remarkable part in the formation of this island is the enormous blocks of coral that have been thrown up by the violence of the sea". Peale collected an egg from a short-tailed albatross and added other specimens, including a Polynesian rat, to the natural history collections of the expedition. Wilkes also reported that "from appearances, the island must be at times submerged, or the sea makes a complete breach over it".

American annexation

With the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and the acquisition of Guam and the Philippines resulting from the conclusion of the Spanish–American War that same year, the United States began to consider the unclaimed and uninhabited Wake Island, located approximately halfway between Honolulu and Manila, as a good location for a telegraph cable station and coaling station for refueling warships of the rapidly expanding United States Navy and passing merchant and passenger steamships. On July 4, 1898, United States Army Brigadier General Francis V. Greene of the 2nd Brigade, Philippine Expeditionary Force, of the Eighth Army Corps, stopped at Wake Island and raised the United States flag while en route to the Philippines on the steamship liner SS China.

On January 17, 1899, under orders from President William McKinley, Commander Edward D. Taussig of USS Bennington landed on Wake and formally took possession of the island for the United States. After a 21-gun salute, the flag was raised, and a brass plate was affixed to the flagstaff with the following inscription:

Although the proposed Wake Island route for the submarine cable would have been shorter by 137 miles (220 km), the Midway Islands and not Wake Island was chosen as the location for the telegraph cable station between Honolulu and Guam as part of the Commercial Pacific Cable Company. Rear Admiral Royal Bird Bradford, chief of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Equipment, stated before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on January 17, 1902, that "Wake Island seems at times to be swept by the sea. It is only a few feet above the level of the ocean, and if a cable station were established there, costly work would be required; besides, it has no harbor, while the Midway Islands are perfectly habitable and have a fair harbor for vessels of 18 feet (5 m) draught."

On June 23, 1902, USAT Buford, commanded by Captain Alfred Croskey and bound for Manila, spotted a ship's boat on the beach as it passed closely by Wake Island. Soon thereafter, the Japanese launched the boat on the island and sailed out to meet the transport. The Japanese told Captain Croskey that they had been put on the island by a schooner from Yokohama in Japan and that they were gathering guano and drying fish. The captain suspected they were engaged in pearl hunting. The Japanese revealed that one of their parties needed medical attention, and the captain determined from their descriptions of the symptoms that the illness was most likely beriberi. They informed Captain Croskey that they did not need any provisions or water and expected the Japanese schooner to return in a month or so. The Japanese declined an offer to be taken on the transport to Manila and were given some medical supplies for the sick man, some tobacco, and a few incidentals.

Pan American Airways

Juan Trippe, president of the world's then-largest airline, Pan American Airways (PAA), wanted to expand globally by offering passenger air service between the United States and China. To cross the Pacific Ocean, his planes would need to island-hop, stopping at various points for refueling and maintenance. He first tried to plot the route on his globe, but it showed only open sea between Midway and Guam. Next, he went to the New York Public Library to study 19th-century clipper ship logs and charts and he "discovered" a little-known coral atoll, Wake Island. To proceed with his plans at Wake and Midway, Trippe would need to be granted access to each island and approval to construct and operate facilities; however, the islands were not under the jurisdiction of any specific U.S. government entity.

Meanwhile, U.S. Navy military planners and the State Department were increasingly alarmed by the Empire of Japan's expansionist attitude and growing belligerence in the Western Pacific. Following World War I, the Council of the League of Nations had granted the South Seas Mandate ("Nanyo") to Japan (which had joined the Allied Powers in the First World War) which included the already Japanese-held Micronesia islands north of the equator that were part of the former colony of German New Guinea of the German Empire; these include the modern nation/states of Palau, The Federated States of Micronesia, The Northern Mariana Islands and The Marshall Islands. In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan restricted access to its mandated territory and began to develop harbors and airfields throughout Micronesia in defiance of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which prohibited both the United States and Japan from expanding military fortifications in the Pacific islands. With Trippe's planned Pan American Airways aviation route passing through Wake and Midway, the U.S. Navy and the State Department saw an opportunity to project American air power across the Pacific under the guise of a commercial aviation enterprise. On October 3, 1934, Trippe wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting a five-year lease on Wake Island with an option for four renewals. Given the potential military value of PAA's base development, on November 13, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley ordered a survey of Wake by USS Nitro and on December 29 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6935, which placed Wake Island and also Johnston, Sand Island at Midway and Kingman Reef under the control of the Department of the Navy. Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell designated Wake Island as a bird sanctuary to disguise the Navy's military intentions.

USS Nitro arrived at Wake Island on March 8, 1935, and conducted a two-day ground, marine, and aerial survey, providing the Navy with strategic observations and complete photographic coverage of the atoll. Four days later, on March 12, Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson formally granted Pan American Airways permission to construct facilities at Wake Island.

Military buildup

In January 1941, the United States Navy began constructing a military base on the atoll. On August 19, 1941, the first permanent military garrison, elements of the U.S. Marine Corps' First Marine Defense Battalion, totaling 449 officers and men, were stationed on the island, commanded by Navy Cmdr. Winfield Scott Cunningham. Also on the island were 68 U.S. Naval personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers from the American firm Morrison-Knudsen Corp. The base plan was not complete at the time the war started, and work continued even during the Battle of Wake. One shortcoming was that the hangars and bunkers were incomplete, so repairing damaged aircraft during the battle was hard.

On February 14, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8682 to create naval defense areas in the central Pacific territories. The proclamation established the "Wake Island Naval Defensive Sea Area", encompassing the territorial waters between the extreme high-water marks and the three-mile marine boundaries surrounding Wake. "Wake Island Naval Airspace Reservation" was also established to restrict access to the airspace over the naval defense sea area. Only U.S. government ships and aircraft were permitted to enter the naval defense areas at Wake Island unless authorized by the Secretary of the Navy.

In November 1941, VMF-211 embarked with 12 of its 24 F4F-3 Wildcats and 13 of its 29 pilots aboard USS Enterprise for movement to Wake Island launching from the carrier and arriving at Wake on December 3.

World War II

On December 8, 1941, the Japanese began an assault on Wake Island. At the time, there were about 500 Marines, 1100 civilian contractors, and dozens of Pan-Am airline employees and passengers. Shortly after a bombing raid that killed dozens, the Pan Am Flying Boat took off with the passengers and many employees. Three days later, the Japanese began a multi-ship amphibious invasion led by a cruiser, which was turned away at the loss of two destroyers by Wake's artillery. This action was widely reported as the first American battlefield success of the war. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy began a plan to resupply the island and evacuate the contractors; however, before this could happen, a much larger amphibious invasion took place on the island on December 23, 1941, losing two more ships and additional casualties. The Japanese stationed about 4,000 troops on the island. All but 100 of the POWs were sent away; the ones that remained were executed in 1943 after a U.S. bombing raid. In June 1945, the Allies allowed a Japanese hospital ship to evacuate about 1000 soldiers from Wake. The island was bombed many times by the Allies throughout the war but never invaded; it was surrendered to the U.S. in September 1945.

On December 8, 1941 (December 7 in Hawaii, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor), at least 27 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" medium bombers flown from bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft belonging to USMC Fighter Squadron 211 on the ground. The Marine garrison's defensive emplacements were left intact by the raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft. On December 9 and 10, there were more air attacks, and two Japanese bombers were shot down. However, the bombing of Wilkes Island detonated an ammunition dump; the Wake hospital was destroyed, and many other buildings were damaged. Meanwhile, the Japanese naval landing force was on its way from Roi in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands and would arrive at Wake on December 11, 1941. On the night of December 10, the US submarine USS Triton engaged an enemy destroyer near Wake while on patrol; it fired torpedoes, but in the battle neither vessel was sunk. This was the first time a U.S. submarine launched its torpedoes in the Pacific war.

The Japanese are known to have lost one of the submarines they sent as part of the operation. Still, it was because two of their submarines accidentally collided with one another on December 17, sinking one. Japanese submarine Ro-66 was on the surface 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) southwest of Wake Island – bearing 252 degrees from the atoll – to recharge her batteries in a heavy squall in the predawn darkness of December 17, 1941, when her lookouts suddenly sighted Ro-62, also on the surface and recharging batteries. Both submarines attempted to back off, but it was too late to avoid a collision, and Ro-62 rammed Ro-66 at 20:20 Japan Standard Time. Ro-66 sank at 19°10′N 166°28′E with the loss of 63 lives, including that of the commander of Submarine Division 27. Ro-62 rescued her three survivors, who had been thrown overboard from her bridge by the collision.

Post-World War II military and commercial airfield

With the end of hostilities with Japan and the increase in international air travel driven partly by wartime advances in aeronautics, Wake Island became a critical mid-Pacific base for the servicing and refueling of military and commercial aircraft. The United States Navy resumed control of the island, and in October 1945, 400 Seabees from the 85th Naval Construction Battalion arrived at Wake to clear the island of the effects of the war and to build basic facilities for a Naval Air Base. The base was completed in March 1946, and on September 24, Pan Am resumed regular commercial passenger service. The era of the flying boats was nearly over, so Pan Am switched to longer-range, faster, and more profitable airplanes that could land on Wake's new coral runway. Other airlines that established transpacific routes through Wake included British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Transocean Air Lines. Due to the substantial increase in the number of commercial flights, on July 1, 1947, the Navy transferred administration, operations, and maintenance of the facilities at Wake to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). In 1949, the CAA upgraded the runway by paving over the coral surface and extending its length to 7,000 feet. Previously Pan Am was still operating the airport at Wake.

In July 1950, the Korean Airlift started, and the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) used the airfield and facilities at Wake as an essential mid-Pacific refueling stop for its mission of transporting men and supplies to the Korean War. By September, 120 military aircraft were landing at Wake per day. On October 15, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and General MacArthur met at the Wake Island Conference to discuss progress and war strategy for the Korean Peninsula. They chose to meet at Wake Island because of its proximity to Korea so that MacArthur would not have to be away from the troops in the field for long.

In September 1952, Typhoon Olive struck, causing 750 people to shelter in World War II bunkers as the island was battered with 150 mph winds. Olive, the second typhoon to affect the island since 1935, produced sustained wind speeds of 120 mph (190 km/h) and peak gusts of 142 mph (229 km/h) on the island. Significant flooding was also recorded. Damage was severe; it is estimated that 85% of the island's structures were demolished due to the storm. All of the homes and the island's hotel were destroyed. Additionally, the island's chapel and Quonset huts were destroyed. The island's LORAN station, operated by the United States Coast Guard, was also damaged. On September 18, 1952 water and power services were restored. The facilities on the island were fully restored in 1953. The total cost to repair damages caused by Olive amounted to $1.6 million (1952 USD; $13 million 2009 USD). No fatalities occurred on the island, and four injuries were reported. None of the 230 Pan Am employees received injuries. In 1953, the bridge between Peale and Wake Island was rebuilt.

U.S. military administration

In the early 1970s, higher-efficiency jet aircraft with longer-range capabilities lessened the use of Wake Island Airfield as a refueling stop, and the number of commercial flights landing at Wake declined sharply. Pan Am had replaced many of its Boeing 707s with more efficient 747s, thus eliminating the need to continue weekly stops at Wake. Other airlines began to eliminate their scheduled flights into Wake. In June 1972, the last scheduled Pan Am passenger flight landed at Wake, and in July, Pan Am's last cargo flight departed the island, marking the end of the heyday of Wake Island's commercial aviation history. During this same period, the U.S. military had transitioned to longer-range C-5A and C-141 aircraft, leaving the C-130 as the only aircraft that would continue to use the island's airfield regularly. The steady decrease in air traffic control activities at Wake Island was apparent and was expected to continue.

On June 24, 1972, responsibility for the civil administration of Wake Island was transferred from the FAA to the United States Air Force under an agreement between the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Air Force. In July, the FAA turned over the administration of the island to the Military Airlift Command (MAC). However, legal ownership stayed with the Department of the Interior. The FAA continued maintaining air navigation facilities and providing air traffic control services. On December 27, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) General John D. Ryan directed MAC to phase out en-route support activity at Wake Island effective June 30, 1973. On July 1, 1973, all FAA activities ended, and the U.S. Air Force under Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), Detachment 4, 15th Air Base Wing assumed control of Wake Island.

In 1973, Wake Island was selected as a launch site for testing defensive systems against ICBMs under the U.S. Army's Project Have Mill. Air Force personnel on Wake and the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) provided support to the Army's Advanced Ballistic Missile Defense Agency (ABMDA). A missile launch complex was activated on Wake, and, from February 13 to June 22, 1974, seven Athena H missiles were launched from the island to the Roi-Namur Test Range at Kwajalein Atoll.

In 1973, Wake Island was claimed by what would become the Republic of the Marshall Islands, based on oral legends.

Geography

Although Wake Island is officially called an island in its singular form, it is geologically an atoll composed of three islets (Wake, Wilkes, and Peale islets). They enclose a shallow lagoon of 3.3 by 7.7 kilometers (2.1 by 4.8 miles), with average depth of around 1 meter (3.3 feet) and a maximum depth of 4.5 meters (15 feet). It is ringed by a sandy beach of around 80 meters (260 feet) wide with an offshore fringing reef. The atoll has an average elevation of about 3.6 meters (12 feet) and maximum elevation of 6.4 meters (21 feet), with a total land area of about 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles).

The island is made of coral and sand, as it sits on a coral reef that grew on the top of a seamount made of the remnants of an old volcano. This is consistent with many islands in the Pacific, which are formed when waves erode extinct volcanoes until they reach the surface of the ocean and coral grows on it, forming an atoll (see also guyot). The island is covered in boulders that average 5–6 feet in diameter (1–2 meters) especially on the southern side of Wake and Wilkes islands.

Wake is located two-thirds of the way from Honolulu to Guam; Honolulu is 2,300 mi (3,700 km) to the east, and Guam 1,510 mi (2,430 km) to the west. Midway Atoll is 1,170 mi (1,880 km) to the northeast. The closest land is the uninhabited Bokak Atoll, 348 mi (560 km) away in the Marshall Islands to the southeast. The atoll is to the west of the International Date Line and in the Wake Island Time Zone (UTC+12), the easternmost time zone of the United States and almost one day ahead of the 50 states.

A shallow channel separates Wake and Peale, while Wilkes is connected to Wake by a causeway. The partially completed submarine channel, which has washed through Wilkes at times, almost splits the island in half.

The atoll has several named capes and points:

Wilkes Island (Split islet on the south and west)

Kuku Point (Western Cape of Wilkes)

Wilkes Channel (a channel to the small port/harbor area on the south side of the island)

Climate

Wake Island lies in the tropical zone but is subject to periodic temperate storms during the winter. Sea surface temperatures are warm all year long, reaching above 80 °F (27 °C) in summer and autumn. Typhoons occasionally pass over the island. Temperatures range between 65 °F (18 °C) and 95 °F (35 °C) and it gets about 40 inches of rain each year, with the rainy season running from July through October. The island lies in the northeast trade winds of the Pacific. The climate of Wake Island is classified as tropical savanna (Köppen Aw/As, Trewartha Asha).

On October 19, 1940, an unnamed typhoon hit Wake Island with 120 knots (220 km/h) winds. This was the first recorded typhoon to hit the island since observations began in 1935.

Super Typhoon Olive impacted Wake on September 16, 1952, with wind speeds reaching 150 knots (280 km/h). Olive caused major flooding, destroyed approximately 85% of its structures, and caused US$1.6 million in damage.

On September 16, 1967, at 10:40 pm local time, the eye of Super Typhoon Sarah passed over the island. Sustained winds in the eyewall were 130 knots (240 km/h), from the north before the eye and the south afterward. All non-reinforced structures were demolished. There were no serious injuries, and most of the civilian population was evacuated after the storm.

On August 28, 2006, the United States Air Force evacuated all 188 residents and suspended all operations as Category 5 Super Typhoon Ioke headed toward Wake. By August 31 the southwestern eyewall of the storm passed over the island, with winds well over 185 miles per hour (298 km/h), driving a 20 ft (6 m) storm surge and waves directly into the lagoon inflicting major damage. A U.S. Air Force assessment and repair team returned to the island in September 2006 and restored limited function to the airfield and facilities leading ultimately to a full return to normal operations.

Ecology

Wake Island is home to the Wake Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and is a unit of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

Native vegetation communities of Wake Island include scrub, grass, and wetlands. Tournefortia argentia (heliotrope tree) dominated scrublands exist in association with Scaevola taccada (beach cabbage), Cordia subcordata (sea trumpet), and Pisonia grandis. Grassland species include Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Tribulus cistoides. Wetlands are dominated by Sesuvium portulacastrum, and Pemphis acidula is found near intertidal lagoons.

The atoll, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International for its sooty tern colony, with some 200,000 individual birds estimated in 1999. 56 bird species have been sighted on the atoll. Wilkes Island is largely designated as a bird refuge and includes a field mowed annually to attract sooty terns and other birds that might otherwise seek to nest on the mowed apron of the airfield runway.

Due to human use, several invasive species have become established on the atoll. Feral cats were introduced in the 1960s as pets and for pest control. Eradication efforts began in earnest in 1996 and were deemed successful in 2008. Two species of rat, Rattus exulans (Polynesian rat) and Rattus tanezumi (Asian house rat), have colonized the island. R. tanezumi populations were successfully eradicated by 2014, however, R. exulans persists. Casuarina equisetifolia (ironwood or coastal she-oak) was allegedly planted on Wake Island by Boy Scouts in the 1960s for use as a windbreak. It formed large mono-cultural forests that choked out native vegetation. Concerted efforts to kill the population began in 2017. Other introduced plant species include Cynodon dactylon (Bermuda grass) and Leucaena leucocephala (miracle tree). Non-native species of ants are also found on the atoll. Overall, the island is a mixture of tropical scrub brush and grass with trees; some of the trees are over 25 feet tall (over 7 meters).

The lagoon, surrounding reef, and the ocean are noted for their diverse collection of marine life. Wake waters have the largest known population of bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum). The coral reef that surrounds the island is home to at least 100 species of coral and over 320 species of fish. In the coral reef, there is a diverse collection of shark species, including grey reef, blacktip, and dusky sharks. The atoll is home to multiple species of land crabs, with Coenobita perlatus being especially abundant.

Demographics

Wake Island has no permanent inhabitants, and access is restricted. However, as of 2017, there are approximately 100 Air Force personnel and American and Thai contractor residents at any given time. As of 2011, the billeting at the airfield supports 198 beds.

The start of habitation was in 1935, the staff of the Pan Am waypoint and hotel on Peale Island.

In 1941, over 500 troops and over 1200 contractors were on the island. At the surrender on December 24, 1,603 (not counting those that had died in the battle) were surrendered to the Japanese. There was also 45 people from Guam that had been employed at the Pan Am airport and hotel that were left there also, of those 10 died on Wake and 35 were sent to POW camps in Asia. During the war all but 98 civilians were taken off the island or died, so the main occupants became the Japanese garrison there. The Japanese garrison during the war was nearly 4000, as described earlier in this article. About 1000 of these were confirmed to have been taken away by hospital ship in June 1945.

There were 45 workers from Guam working to support the Pan Am airbase. During the battle for Wake Island, five were killed, and five more were wounded in the attacks on December 8, 1941. Afterward, the Wake Island commander asked if the workers would help defend the island, and they agreed. During the defense of the island, the five wounded workers were killed when the hospital was bombed. When the island fell to the Japanese forces, the 35 remaining were taken prisoner and sent to a Japanese POW camp in China, where two died and others were tortured. The 33 survivors were sent to Osaka, Japan, where they stayed until the end of the war. In 1988, the Guam workers were given veteran status and POW medals for their participation in the Battle of Wake Island.

In 1975, there were at one point 8,700 Vietnamese refugees on the atoll when it was used as a waypoint in Operation New Life.

In the early 21st century, many of the civilian contractors come from Thailand.

Government

According to an agreement between the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Air Force, on June 24, 1972, the United States Air Force assumed responsibility for the civil administration of Wake Island.

The Secretary of the Air Force has delegated the civil administration authority at Wake Island to the General Counsel of the Air Force under U.S. federal law known as the Wake Island Code. The general counsel provides civil, legal, and judicial authority and can appoint one or more judges to serve on the Wake Island Court and the Wake Island Court of Appeals.

Certain authorities have been re-delegated by the general counsel to the Commander, Wake Island, a position currently held by Commander, Detachment 1, Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center. The commander may issue permits or registrations, appoint peace officers, impose quarantines, issue traffic regulations, commission notaries public, direct evacuations and inspections and carry out other duties, powers, and functions as the agent of the general counsel on Wake.

Since Wake Island is an active Air Force airfield, the commander is also the senior officer in charge of all activities on the island.

The Empire of Japan administered the atoll from December 23, 1941, to September 4, 1945.

The U.S. administered the island from January 17, 1899, when it was both unclaimed and uninhabited.

Transportation

Aviation

Air transportation facilities at Wake are operated by the United States Air Force at Wake Island Airfield in support of trans-Pacific military operations, western Pacific military contingency operations, and missile launch activities. The 9,850-foot-long (3,000-meter) runway on Wake is also available to provide military and commercial in-flight emergency services. Although there is only one flight scheduled every other week to transport passengers and cargo to Wake, approximately 600 aircraft per year use Wake Island Airfield.

In 2020, the runway and support facilities were modernized.

Ports

Although Wake Island is supplied by seagoing barges and ships, the island's only harbor between Wilkes and Wake is too narrow and shallow for seagoing vessels to enter. The Base Operations Support (BOS) contractor maintains three small landing barges for transferring material from ships moored offshore to the dockyard in the harbor. Hydrants also pump gasoline and JP-5 fuels to the storage tanks on Wilkes. The landing barges and recreational offshore sportfishing boats are docked in the marina. A submarine channel was planned for Wilkes Island but was just partially complete at the start of hostilities in World War II.

Roads

Transportation on Wake Island is provided by contractors or government-owned vehicles. The primary road is a two-lane paved road extending the length of Wake Island to the causeway between Wake Island and Wilkes Island. A bridge connecting Wake and Peale Islands burned down in December 2002. The causeway was rehabilitated in 2003 and is capable of supporting heavy equipment. A combination of paved and coral gravel roads serves the marina area. Paved access to Wilkes Island ends at the petroleum tank farm, where a road constructed of crushed coral provides access to the western point of Wilkes Island. Near the unfinished WWII submarine channel, a portion of the road is flooded nearly every year by high seas. The launch sites are accessed from the main paved road on Wake Island by paved and coral roads. Generally, the road network is suitable for low-speed, light-duty use only. Wake Island's paved roadway network has been adequately maintained to move materials, services, and personnel from the airfield on the southern end to the personnel support area on the northern end. Modes of transportation include walking, bicycles, light utility carts, automobiles, vans, and larger trucks and equipment.

The main road that connects Wilkes and most of Wake Island is a crushed coral road about 30 feet (9.1 meters) wide that runs the perimeter. There used to be since World War II a 450-foot-long timber bridge between Wake and Peale. With the bridge gone, traversing between Wake and Peale is usually done by a kayak trip.

Territorial claims

No one has lodged any complaints or counterclaims after 1899, although the US occasionally found Japanese bird hunters on the island and so formally asked the Japanese about this, but they reaffirmed that they were not claiming Wake with a diplomatic note. Japanese Minister Takahira Kogorō said in 1902 that the Japanese Government had "no claim whatever to make on the sovereignty of the island, but that if any subjects are found on the island the Imperial Government expects that they should be properly protected as long as they are engaged in peaceful occupations." (see also Root–Takahira Agreement) The island did not become an issue until World War II, the Japanese occupied the island from December 23, 1941, to September 4, 1945.

For 75 years, there were no claims on Wake until 1973, when a claim was made from the Congress of the Trust Territory of the Pacific. The Marshallese were people living on islands that Germany annexed in the late 19th century, taken in World War I, and under Japanese control until 1944, when the U.S. captured the islands The U.S. was to administer the islands after World War II but the Congress of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which was established in 1964, attempted to make a change. In 1973, Marshallese in the Trust Territory of the Pacific claimed Wake Island, which they call Ānen Kio (new orthography) or Enen-kio (old orthography). In 1973, Marshallese lawmakers meeting in Saipan at the Congress of Micronesia, the legislative body for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, asserted that "Enen-kio is and always has been the property of the people of the Marshall Islands". Their claim was based on oral legends and songs, passed down through generations, describing ancient Marshallese voyages to Wake to gather food and a sacred bird's wing bone used in traditional tattooing ceremonies. In 1990, legislation in the U.S. Congress proposed including Wake Island within the boundaries of the U.S. territory of Guam. In response, Marshallese President Amata Kabua reasserted his nation's claim to Wake, declaring that Enen-kio was a site of great importance to the traditional rituals of the Marshall Islands.

The self-declared Kingdom of EnenKio has also claimed Wake Island as a separate sovereign nation and has issued passports. The Kingdom of EnenKio is not recognized in any international forum as a sovereign state, nor does any internationally recognized state recognize it. The Kingdom of EnenKio is characterized as a scam by anti-fraud website Quatloos!. In 2000, Robert Moore, who claimed to be the head of state, was prevented by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from fraudulently issuing bonds for the non-existent nation. On April 23, 1998, the Marshall Islands government notified all countries with which it has diplomatic ties that the claims of the Kingdom of EnenKio are fraudulent.

U.S. National Historic Landmark and NRHP

In the early 1980s, the National Park Service evaluated Wake Island to determine if the World War II (WWII) cultural resources remaining on Wake, Wilkes, and Peale were of national historical significance. As a result of this survey, Wake Island was designated as a National Historic Landmark on September 16, 1985, helping preserve sites and artifacts on the atoll associated with World War II in the Pacific and the transpacific aviation era before the war. As a National Historic Landmark, Wake Island was also included in the National Register of Historic Places.

Historic items at the island include:

Several old shipwrecks, including at least six vessels from World War II and the remains of several sailing vessels

Bunkers and items from World War II US and Japanese military bases, such as pill boxes, bunkers, and gun emplacements

Additional cultural items from prisoners of war, memorials, and other structures

World War II aircraft underwater in the reefs

There is also danger of unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the atolls and submerged in reefs. The island was surveyed in 2010 for historical items and structures, and during that time, various UXOs were encountered and destroyed. One issue with many of the structures was that the salty sea air caused corrosion on the reinforced concrete buildings and gun emplacements.

In 2011, anthropological work discovered several more human remains on the island, at the site of the POW execution. The island was the initial burial site for American and Japanese dead from World War II. One of the issues with the human remains from the 1943 massacre was that they were buried, then dug up and reburied, then dug up again and reburied at Peacock Point in August 1945 in mass graves; those were exhumed yet again after the war and moved to the United States National Cemetery of the Pacific. At the national cemetery, both those who died during the battle for Wake or as POWs were interred and honored with a ceremony in 1953 in Hawaii.

Shipwrecks

Shipwrecks on or very near Wake Atoll:

1866 Libelle

August 31, 1870, the British tea clipper Dashing Wave

December 8, 1941

Nisqually scow sunk in air attack

December 11, 1941

Hayate, sunk by shore battery

Kisaragi sunk during attack by aircraft bomb

Japanese submarine sunk by aircraft near Wake

December 23, 1941

Patrol Boat No. 32 (see No.31-class patrol boat)

Patrol Boat No. 33 (see No.31-class patrol boat)

February 1942, three Japanese patrol boats were sunk, and a 4-engine patrol aircraft was shot down 5 miles east of Wake.

Amaske Maru (sunk December 24, 1942)

Suwa Maru (In March 1943, it was struck by a torpedo and grounded on the island, later destroyed)

SS RC Stoner oil tanker, September 5, 1967 (ran aground)

In addition to shipwrecks, there are at least 21 World War II aircraft lost around Wake.

Another example of an air wreck is a USN Lockheed EC-130Q Hercules (156176) that crashed into the water 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from Wake on June 21, 1977, during its takeoff climb.