ErikStenger
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On this day in 1945, 2,200 Japanese soldiers finally lay down their arms-days after their government had already formally surrendered.
Just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island was bombed as part of the Japanese Empire's opening salvo against the United States. In December of 1941, the Japanese invaded in force, taking the island from American hands, losing 820 men, while the United States lost 120. The United States came to a decision not to retake the island but to cut off the Japanese occupiers from reinforcement, which would mean they would eventually starve. Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese forces there, ordered the Allied prisoners of war who had been left behind shot dead on trumped-up charges of trying to signal American forces by radio. The Japanese defense force sat on Wake Island for two years, suffering the occasional U.S. bombing raid, but no land invasion. In that time 1,300 Japanese soldiers died from starvation and 600 from the American air attacks. Two days after the formal Japanese surrender onboard the USS Missouri, Sakaibara capitulated to American forces, which finally landed on Wake Island. Sakaibara was later tried for war crimes and executed in 1947.
More info: HyperWar: A Magnificent Fight: Marines in the Battle for Wake Island
Just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island was bombed as part of the Japanese Empire's opening salvo against the United States. In December of 1941, the Japanese invaded in force, taking the island from American hands, losing 820 men, while the United States lost 120. The United States came to a decision not to retake the island but to cut off the Japanese occupiers from reinforcement, which would mean they would eventually starve. Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese forces there, ordered the Allied prisoners of war who had been left behind shot dead on trumped-up charges of trying to signal American forces by radio. The Japanese defense force sat on Wake Island for two years, suffering the occasional U.S. bombing raid, but no land invasion. In that time 1,300 Japanese soldiers died from starvation and 600 from the American air attacks. Two days after the formal Japanese surrender onboard the USS Missouri, Sakaibara capitulated to American forces, which finally landed on Wake Island. Sakaibara was later tried for war crimes and executed in 1947.
More info: HyperWar: A Magnificent Fight: Marines in the Battle for Wake Island