The beaches and lagoon are highly praised as examples of tropical beauty.
The "98 Rock" is a memorial for the 98 U.S. Prisoners of War who were forced by their Japanese captors to rebuild the airstrip as slave labor, then blind-folded and killed with machine guns on 5 October 1943. An unidentified prisoner escaped, and scratched "98 US PW 5-10-43" on a large coral rock near their mass grave, on Wilkes Island at the edge of the lagoon (near the current fuel tank farm). He was recaptured and beheaded by the Japanese admiral, who was later convicted and sentenced to death for these war crimes. The rock still bears the original inscription and a small plaque identifying it; a bronze plaque naming the victims has been placed at the site.
There are also memorials for the military and civilian personnel who died defending the islands from the Japanese take-over.
The remains of Japanese fortifications during World War II are still visible around the islands.
The "PAAville" hotel and China Clipper dock are in ruins.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Wake Island
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Wake Island - updated May 2024
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Wake Island Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
