Wake Island is a coral atoll located in the North Pacific Ocean, just north of the Marshall Islands. The island is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States with no permanent residents, just members of the U.S. military and civilian contractors who manage the facility.

During the second World War, the island held a great strategic importance. The island was under the occupation of the United States Navy before it was wrestled out of the Americans by the Japanese with an attack that happened just few hours after the infamous Pearl Harbor attack on December 8, 1941. After the Japanese lay siege on Wake island, they sent most of the captured civilians and military personnel to POW camps in Asia, but retained some of the civilian laborers and tasked them to reinforcing the island’s defences.

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