The total number of casualties on Wake Island from the onset of the fighting was 81 marines, eight sailors and 82 civilian workers who had been either killed or wounded. The Japanese, however, paid a heavier price for their victory; it cost them two destroyers, one submarine, seven ships were damaged, 21 aircraft were shot down, and almost 1,000 of their men were killed.
The Japanese were angry and they took it out on their prisoners of war, both military and civilian. Fearing a counter-attack on the island, the Japanese started to build defences on Wake. The US prisoners were forced to build a series of bunkers and other fortifications. During this initial period, one civilian was beheaded to set an example to the others and one civilian died. Two others had set out in a stolen boat, however, they perished at sea.
Early in the morning on 23 December, 1,603 captives, including 1,150 civilian contractors, were taken to the northern end of the island and ordered to strip naked. Most of them had their hands tied behind their backs with wire, with an additional wire looped tightly around their necks, so that if they lowered their arms they would strangle themselves. They were then blindfolded and jammed into two claustrophobic concrete ammunition bunkers. Later that day they were all herded out onto the airstrip and made to sit, naked, in the blistering heat of the midday sun. The prisoners watched the Japanese set up machine guns close by, expecting to be shot at any minute. However, their ordeal was not over as the heat of the sun was replaced by the bone-chilling winds of night. They remained sitting on the airstrip for two days without food, water or any medical supplies.
The original plan was to murder each one, but through the intervention of Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka, their lives were spared. They were given food and water, despite the fact that it had been contaminated by the heat and the unclean gasoline drums. Their clothes were returned to them and Kajioka read out a proclamation that said, ‘The Emperor has gracefully presented you with your lives.’ They were marched back to their barracks and for the first time the Japanese treated their captives with due consideration.
This was not to be the case for 98 contract workers, because fearing an imminent invasion, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara ordered their execution. They were all blindfolded and gunned down before being buried in a mass grave. One of the captives managed to escape and carved an inscription on a large coral rock near the site of the grave. It said, ‘98 US PW 5-10-43’. This inscription is still visible today on Wake Island and has become a famous landmark. This unknown American was captured again within a few weeks and personally beheaded by Sakaibara.
The Japanese finally surrendered to US marines on 4 September, 1945, and all the officers were taken into custody. While some of them committed hara-kiri, others told of the massacre. Sakaibara and his immediate subordinate were convicted of war crimes, and Sakaibara was hanged on Guam while his subordinate had his sentence commuted to life. Until the end, Sakaibara maintained, ‘I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure.’
Port Blair
The Andaman Islands are located 960 km (596 miles) off the east coast of India, and they make up a group of more than 200 islands. The islands, which share history and traditions with each other, are inhabited by ancient tribes that today remain some of the most traditional in the world. Today Port Blair, the main town for the islands, is a prime tourist spot, offering luxurious hotels along with fascinating rainforests and unspoilt beaches.
During World War II, Port Blair was the main military objective on Andaman, consisting of 300 Sikh militia and 23 British officers, boosted in 1942 by a Gurkha detachment. After Rangoon fell to the Japanese on 8 March, the British became aware that Port Blair was becoming impossible to safeguard. When the Gurkhas withdrew to the Arakan peninsula on 10 March, the garrison at Port Blair were even more exposed. With only the one British company to maintain law and order, the islands did not have any elaborate defence structures and, with no hope of defending the island, the British evacuated, leaving a skeleton staff.
Wishing to secure their sea defences, the Japanese sent a sizeable force to seize the islands on 23 March. They met no resistance from the British or the local population, and within hours the Sikh militia were disarmed and placed under captivity without the firing of one single bullet. The British militia were sent to Singapore as prisoners of war, while the officers were held on the island in Port Blair’s prison, the Cellular Jail. The prison is named after the shape of its construction, which was started in 1896 and completed in 1906. It was built with seven wings with a central tower and turret. Connected to this were seven wings, each three storeys high, with 698 isolated cells.
The Japanese soon started to assume their control of the islands, with the army commander taking the position of governor of the civilian population. At first, the Japanese were welcomed by the islanders, many finding new and higher positions that had been vacated by the British officers. In return, the Japanese treated them with respect and paid fair prices for goods purchased in their shops.
After one year in occupation, the Japanese established the ‘Andaman Miniseibu’, with the prime objective of:
To protect the local population and also to promote their welfare, maintenance of public peace and order, development of industries, repairing of roads and prevention of epidemics in the islands but its main work to increase the production of food stuff, by establishing a self-sufficient system, on the other hand recognizing their religious freedom much attention was given to education and also attempts were made to make the local people happy by encouraging whole sale amusement…
A Japanese school was opened as well as the Government High School, which was originally run by the British. Roads were constructed across the island, and the previously unfinished airstrip was finished within three months. However, underneath their seemingly friendly facade, there is evidence that the Japanese committed many atrocities during their term of occupation.
Although some of the evidence is a little vague, due to the fact that the Japanese destroyed all their records when they left the Andaman Islands, there are reliable stories of people who witnessed the atrocities. The first victim came after just four days of Japanese occupation. A young man, by the name of Zulfiqar Ali, became enraged when some Japanese soldiers chased some of his chickens into his house. After Ali fired an airgun at the soldiers, he was taken captive and marched in front of the Browning Club, where his arms were twisted until they broke and then he was shot.
Over the next few months the situation for the locals deteriorated as the Japanese soldiers started holding unthinkable orgies in the towns and villages, with young girls being forcibly raped and young boys sodomized. In Port Blair, eight high-ranking Indian officials were tortured and then buried up to their chests in pits, which they had been forced to dig themselves. Each time a Japanese soldier walked past the men, they prodded their heads and eyes with bayonets, and after a few hours the helpless victims were pumped full of bullets.