File:Hand-drawn lettering marks a coral head near the shoreline of the Wake Island lagoon in the mid-Pacific.jpg

English: Hand-drawn lettering marks a coral head near the shoreline of the Wake Island lagoon in the mid-Pacific. American forces on the island, led by the U.S. Marine Corps 1st Marine Defense Battalion and aircraft from Marine Attack Squadron 211, held out against Japanese assaults for 15 days. Nearly 1200 civilian workers, racing to develop the island’s airfield in the closing months of 1941, were on the island and participated in the battle. The Americans surrendered on December 23, 1941 and 98 of the civilian workers of Wake were kept on the island to aid the Japanese with heavy equipment operation. The “98” were executed by the Japanese on October 5, 1943, but an unknown worker escaped and inscribed the event in rock before he was recaptured. The final member of the 98 was personally executed by Japanese Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, who was later convicted of and hanged for war crimes in a 1947 tribunal. Wake Island, "Where America's Day Really Begins," is an American possession in the middle Pacific within the Micronesia subregion, 2300 miles west of Hawaii and 2000 miles southeast of Tokyo. The coral atoll comprises three islands and roughly 2.8 square miles of dry land. In recognition of its importance during WWII in the Pacific and to thousands of species of sea birds, fish, and other oceanic flaura and fauna today, Wake Island is designated as both a National Historic Landmark and part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.