During the course of the siege, they shot down 21 enemy aircraft, with three more "possibles," and damaged 51 others.
They sank four warships and damaged eight others.
Not counting the lost submarine, the Japanese suffered more than 850 killed or missing.
Japanese CDR Mistake Kumara later wrote: "Considering the power accumulated for the invasion and the meager forces of the defenders, it was the most humiliating defeat the Japanese Navy ever suffered."
Although minor in scale, the Battle of Wake upset the timetable for the Japanese campaign of conquest in the Pacific. It also allowed forces on Midway Island to prepare for an assault and achieve victory.
By providing a small victory, the garrison on Wake bolstered the morale of the nation and the resolve of the American people.
According to Wake Island survivor Lt Arthur A. Poindexter, the action on Wake achieved a number of World War II "firsts":
First enemy surface ships sunk by American forces.
First enemy vessel sunk by American aircraft.
First Japanese fleet submarine destroyed by American forces.
First and only amphibious operation in the Pacific to be stopped by coastal guns
First Medal of Honor awarded to a Marine aviator: Capt Elrod was posthumously cited for gallantry as a fighter pilot and for ground combat, when he was killed on 23 Dec. 1941.
First Presidential Unit Citation awarded by the personal direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was also the only one ever signed by him.
There were 46 Marines, three sailors and 34 civilians killed in action in the defense of Wake.
Eight members of lst Defense Bn, two members of VMF-211, three sailors and 100 civilians were killed or died while in captivity. The two VMF-211 Marines and three sailors were beheaded by the Japanese while they were embarked in Nitta Maru.
Wake Island was regained on 4 Sept. 1945. It was discovered that on 7 Oct. 1943, the Japanese lined up nearly 100 civilian prisoners and machine-gunned them on the beach at Wake. For this atrocity the island commander, RADM Shigematsu Sakaibara, was hanged as a war criminal.
Civilian contractors captured by Japanese
Defenders of Wake still alive as of this writing are 98 members of lst Defense Bn, seven men from VMF-211, 16 sailors and two soldiers. The number of surviving civilians is unknown. The Wake Island Survivors Association has not heard from approximately 50 of the defenders since the war ended.
Wake Island now houses a number of Thai’s, a few American Army soldiers, and a few American civilians, whose job it is to keep the trans-Pacific flights going for the military.
On a moonlit night, if you were to stand on the shore, the pounding surf takes on the sounds of incoming Japanese bombs. And if you look hard enough, the ghosts of those brave souls can be seen, fighting for something more than a piece of coral and sand in the Pacific. They are fighting for freedom.
