Being there . . . . for the birth, growth, and development of the Midway Island atoll as a major
20 th Century Pacific Ocean American naval base. Then, devote a few heart-throbbing hours
reading about the Battle of Midway, June 4 – 7, 1942, the turning point for our fledgling,
occasionally naïve, campaign failures at the start of World War II. That fierce first year of heroic
fighting not only stemmed the Japanese tide in the central and south Pacific but reversed it.
Located 1300 miles WNW of Honolulu, the Midway Island atoll contains two islets, Sand and
Eastern, having belonged to America since July of 1898, when we needed an enroute source of
fuel and supply on the way to join the fight in the Philippines. The Japanese enjoyed bombing
and strafing the permanent tiny force twice, once in December 1941, and again in early
January. For being no more than bare specks in the Pacific, they carried a whopping huge
history, especially Wake Island.
Today, a new, long wished for, meticulously researched Casemate Publishers book originally
published in 2012 has been revised, republished, and reintroduced describing the story of the
thousand-plus Depression-era civilian contractors who arrived on Wake Island in late 1941 to
design and construct, almost overnight, an air station for our Navy almost guaranteed, sooner
or later, to battle the Japanese naval tide headed throughout the Pacific. This highly emotional
narrative written by history teacher Bonita Gilbert at North Idaho College focuses upon how our
contractors rushed to lay the much-needed runways for the U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 Flying
Fortresses while the Japanese air force was, literally, reverberating up the engines of their new
high-class Kate bombers. Incidentally, who better to write this mini-classic than the daughter
and granddaughter of civilians who served and worked on Wake Island of the coral island group
consisting of a reef surrounding a lagoon. If Japan was to gain control of a quarter of the earth,
it needed Midway as much as the north central Hawaiian chain.
DID “TORA! TORA! TORA!” AND THE AERIAL DESTRUCTION OF MUCH OF OUR PACIFIC FLEET ON
THE SUNDAY MORNING OF 7 DECEMBER 1941 DOOM OUR NAVAL BASES ON GUAM, WAKE,
AND MIDWAY? IN LESS THAN THREE HOURS, THE JAPANESE DESTROYED MORE THAN 500 OUT
OF 1,000 U.S. AND BRITISH AIRCRAFT WHILE SINKING AND BADLY DAMAGING ALL EIGHT OF
OUR BATTLESHIPS IN PEARL HARBOR. OUR NEW ENEMY, WITHOUT A DECLARATION OF WAR,
CONTROLLED THE SKIES AND SEAS FROM INDIA TO HAWAII, FROM ALASKA TO AUSTRALIA.
WHAT MADE THE WAKE ISLANDERS, WITH REVENGE ON THEIR MINDS, BELIEVE THEY COULD
RECOVER QUICKLY AND FIGHT BACK WITH OUTDATED MACHINE GUNS, RIFLES, AND ORDINARY
.45 PISTOLS?
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“BUILDING FOR WAR – – The Epic Saga of the Civilian Contractors and Marines of Wake Island in
World War II”, by Bonita Gilbert. CASEMATE PUBLISHERS, Pennsylvania; first published in 2012,
republished in the United Kingdom in 2024, distributed by CASEMATE, Havertown, PA 19083;
364 pages, 6”x 9”, softcover, fully illustrated, many photos private and unpublished, $24.95.
Visit www.casematepublishers.com, or e-mail, casemate@casematepublishing.com.
One of the most impressive World War II movies a little boy could watch seated for a
Saturday Matinee within the old Stockton, California, Rialto Theatre on Main Street, was “Wake
Island”, produced by Paramount Pictures and released on August 11, 1942. For this boy, barely
six, actors Spencer Chan and William Bendix brought the Second World War home like no other
means, with the exemption, of course, of the unavailability of bubble gum. Packed movie-house
audiences saw it, too, resulting in it being nominated for several Academy Awards. Who cared if
the storyline wasn’t all that true or accurate? The faces and acting of the combine small Marine
detachment and civilian constructors brought the evil, hated Japanese into the Main Streets of
our nation’s cinema houses. This little boy, only after his bag of popcorn, wanted to go to war
manning an aircraft anti-aircraft gun and other defense equipment, but only after the lights
were on and it was time to go home and have mom’s supper.
Within hours of the last Japanese swarm of “Kate” torpedo bombers making their final run
over Ford Island’s Battleship Row, then departing over raging fires, a different swarm struck
Wake. The defenders, an undermanned Marine Corps garrison, bolstered by the recently hired
civilian-contractor volunteers, fought back again and again over a two-week period, finally
socking it to a massive landing invasion. The unfortunate men hopefully believed the U.S. Navy
would soon appear on the horizon, thus saving their lives. The Japanese amphibious forces
were overwhelming, thus capturing the surviving Americans as prisoners. Most wound up in
Japan for the duration, some were retained as slave-labor help on occupied Wake, and 98 were
murdered on the spot. The civilian contractors who had signed up for the high-paying jobs a
long way from home had paid dearly.
The literature of World War II in the Pacific is vast, and its rate of growth still undiminished
by the passage of time. Somehow, the overwhelming abundance of WWII material forgot, or
was indifferent to, the epiclike heroism of the civilian contractors who did their duty, first
constructing, then fighting to the bitter end the crazed enemy. To know the tragic fates of the
others, thanks to Bonita Gilbert and the Casemate editors, has gratefully endeared them to the
countless reading military buffs, this reviewer, and others with similar values, forever. Really,
reader-friend, this is a must-have book to add to your personal library because there is no other
like Bonita’s.
