evidence: The United States took possession of Wake Island at the commencement of its flirtation with imperialism in 1898. Devoid of human inhabitants or potable water, the place hardly seemed worth the trouble. From the sky, the atoll resembled a broken wishbone, with its three misshapen islets named Wake, Wilkes, and Peale. As Japanese American relations simmered with increasing heat four decades later, however, Wake Island’s low-lying, two-and-a-half square miles of coral sand and rock acquired strategic value. A report filed by the US Navy’s Hepburn Board in late 1938 recommended the atoll’s conversion into a base for landplanes, seaplanes, and submarines as part of the Hawaiian Naval Coastal Frontier, which would screen Pearl Harbor from Japanese attacks emanating from the southwest. [...] "Wake Island began the war magnificently for the Marine Corps, and America found that the old soldierly virtues are still embodied in its fighting men. . . . Out of such actions as this a people’s strength and ultimate victory must come. America remembers Wake Island and is proud. The enemy remembers Wake Island and is uneasy."