In the early days of the Pacific War, the Japanese empire seized Wake Island from the United States. It was an epic battle, despite the inevitable outcome. An outnumbered and unsupported Marine garrison held out far longer than anyone imagined that they would. Upon seizing the island, the Japanese removed the Marines, but kept ninety-eight civilian workers, who were forced into slave labor to build defensive infrastructure on the island.
In October of 1943, a air attack from the USS Lexington, in which future US President George HW Bush got his first combat experience, convinced the local Japanese commander than an invasion was immanent.
It wasn’t. But he still made a decision that reverberates today…