Hell Wouldn't Stop: An Oral History of the Battle of Wake Island

by Chet Cunningham

In this gritty, poignant, often disturbing oral chronicle of one of the first and most tragic military engagements in World War II, Chet Cunningham gives the gallant U.S. defenders of Wake Island—among them his older brother, Kenneth, then a private in the Marines—their long-overlooked due. For Kenneth Cunningham, a serviceman in the defense battalion stationed on Wake Island, World War II began on December 8, 1941, just five hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It ended on December 23. That day the Marines on Wake Island—their twelve Wildcat fighter planes lost, their forces diminished—faced an overwhelming enemy invasion, with the Japanese arriving in so many ships that, as one eyewitness put it, they could have walked from one to the other on the open sea. Private Cunningham and his fellow Marines fought intrepidly, until their commanding officers ordered them to surrender. Their term in hell, though, had just begun. When the Marines laid down their arms they were stripped naked. With their hands bound, they sat naked in the hot sun all day; at night they shivered in the cold. They suffered endless days at sea jammed in the holds of ships that took them to prison camps in China and Japan. Forty-four months later, liberated at last, they would return home unheralded and largely forgotten. Their often horrific, frequently heroic story now stands recorded, for the most part in the words of the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and civilian personnel who were there, as well as of their wives and widows, in startling, unforgettable detail. Eight pages of black-and-white photographs add to this gripping reconstruction of the sixteen-day battle for Wake Island and its aftermath.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II, War, Military Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

aka Jess Cody, Cathy Cunningham, Lionel Derrick (with Mark Roberts 2), Keith Douglass (with William H Keith), J.D. Bondie, Chad Calhoun, G.A. Carrington, Kit Dalton, Dirk Fletcher, Don Pendleton

Since his first novel was published in 1968 Chet Cunningham has written and had published nearly 300 works of fiction and 15 non fiction books. He is equally adept on horseback, in the techno-thriller arena, or recounting military history. His output includes 125 westerns and 50 men's action/adventure novels.

Reviews

[David Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of the battle of Wake Island and the 44 months the survivors spent in POW camps as told by the marines and sailors and airmen. The little "connective tissue" in the book is provided by Chet Cunningham, who embarked on the project to learn what happened to his brother. Each entry is from a few sentences to a few pages. Some of the stories are as simple as "I don't like to think about it". Many of the contributors have multiple stories. Most are from correspondence between Cunningham and the survivors and some was written in the months after the events. All stories are in the first person.

Because it is a collection of stories from many people, there is necessarily a lot of repetition for the combat. Everybody went through the same events - the bombing, the first invasion attempt, the surrender. But each tells the common events from a slightly different perspective.

I would have liked to have "heard" from some of the civilians who were there. I'm sure their stories were no less interesting. The only significant mention of the civilians, other than a few who manned gun crews, was the murder of the 98. Obviously none of them could tell their stories, but there were a thousand others.

Recommended.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book HAD to be written. Want to know what a POW from Wake Island went through? They fought a brave fight on Wake then surrendered - then became a POW. This book was basically written by the POW's and a sad one at that.
A must read for those that want or need to know about the POW's that were under the control by the Japanese during WW11.

[Cary Kostka · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hell Wouldn’t Stop” is the most unique book I have read on the subject of WWII POW’s in the Pacific Theater. It places the reader right into the events of the Wake Island invasion by the Japanese by its interview based format. Although much of what each man said was repetitive, the ability to see how each veteran’s personality and overall outlook affected their feelings and remembrances was fantastic. Overall, the interview structure and timelines were well thought out.

I do wish that some of the civilian contractors had been interviewed. I would be greatly interested in seeing the invasion and POW experience from the perspective of non-military personnel.

This is a book that anyone learning about aspects of military history should read. The hardships these men had to endure without any end is sight puts a person’s day to day problems in perspective, and sheds light on the importance of supporting our veterans regardless of status...these men (and now many women) deserve more support. This book outlines just why that is.

[Mell Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely different look at what the POWs went through in WWII

[Steve Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unsparing collection of accounts from the survivors of the battle for Wake Island. This stands alongside other books I've read outlining the savage brutality of the Japanese military in World War Two.

Dr. Guy Klenhofer, PhD included a piece near the end of the book that is extremely powerful.