I recently attended a thought-provoking lecture by Terry Hunt titled “Rethinking Easter Island’s Mysterious Past.” Dr. Hunt, formerly of the University of Hawaii and currently dean of the Clark Honors College and professor of anthropology at University of Oregon (my alma mater), has done extensive research in the archeology and environmental history of the Pacific Islands. For a dozen years Hunt has directed archeological research on Easter...

Anyone connected to the Wake Island civilian contractors’ story either has or wants to have a copy of the “Blue Book,” officially titled A Report to Returned CPNAB Prisoner of War Heroes and their Dependents. The slim volume recounts measures taken to extend wartime relief to dependents and the passage of several public laws during the war to ensure compensation for the captured employees from Wake, Guam, and Cavite, and their families. The...

One of the earliest clues to the story of my father’s wartime past came in the mailbox every month or so when I was growing up: an envelope bearing the return address of the “Survivors of Wake, Guam, and Cavite.” As the years went by I connected a few dots, but Dad never told his story. He had some mysterious scars and debilitating, recurring illnesses relating to the war, but he didn’t talk about it and we knew better than to ask. My father...

Knowing my interest in WWII aircraft, some friends recently forwarded a video about the restoration of a PBY 5A Catalina, a real workhorse of prewar and wartime Pacific air power. Many PBYs landed on Wake Island’s turquoise lagoon in 1941 and the contractors were building the naval air station as a base for this type of plane. The U. S. Navy used the versatile PBYs for patrols, scouting, and when war was underway, for search and rescue...

Every semester in my early World Civilizations class I teach a unit on the migrations that populated the Americas and Oceania. In the last decade advanced DNA research has thrown traditional migration theories into question. My recent involvement with the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) on the Wake Island mission has raised my interest in genetic research and the corresponding...

On October 21, 1953, a memorial ceremony was held at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl in Honolulu to mark the mass burial of 178 Americans killed on Wake Island in World War II. Fourteen marine survivors attended, as well as some family members of the deceased and officials and dignitaries. An actual recording of the Wake mass grave dedication ceremony has recently become available at the AFRTS Archive website. See end...