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Appendix III: United States and Japanese Casualties

United States casualties during the defense of Wake were sustained by Marine, Navy, and civilian personnel as follows:

U.S. Marine Corps: Officers Enlisted Total
(Total Personnel) 449
Killed in action 5 41 46
Wounded/killed in action 0 1 1
Missing in action, presumed dead 0 2 2
Wounded in action 6 26 32
------------------------------- ----- ----- -----
Total 11 70 81
U.S. Navy:
(Total Personnel) 68
Killed in action 0 3 3
Wounded in action 0 5 5
------------------------------- ----- ----- -----
Total 0 8 8
U.S. Army:
(Total Personnel) 5
Civilians:
(Total Personnel) 1,146
Killed 70
Wounded 12
------------------------------- -----
Total 82
------------------------------- ===
Grand Total 171

368 Marine, 60 Navy, 5 Army, and 1,104 civilian personnel were taken prisoner after the surrender of Wake. 3-4% (~17) of the military prisoners died during their captivity, including 2 Marines and 3 sailors whose heads were chopped off and bodies mutilated and thrown overboard from the Nitta Maru, en route from Yokohama to the POW camp near Shanghai. 16% (~180) of the civilian prisoners died during their captivity, including 98 murdered on Wake in October of 1943.

A percentile break-down of casualties sustained by United States personnel during the defense of Wake gives the following results:

U.S. Marine Corps: 18.1
U.S. Navy: 11.5
U.S. Army: 0.0
Civilians: 6.8

For reasons which should be readily apparent, it will never be possible to obtain other than exceedingly approximate Japanese casualty data for the Wake operation. Fragmentary information of varying reliability is to be found in various sources, however, and, from these and from a reconstruction of probably casualties incident to know surface and aircraft losses, the following estimated enemy losses are tabulated:

Incident to aircraft shot down: Killed Wounded
4 carrier planes 4 0
1 four-engine patrol plane 6 0
16 two-engine bombers 80 0
Incident to aircraft damaged:
51 aircraft damaged by flak 13 13
Incident to surface action of 11 December:
2 destroyers sunk without survivors 500 0
8 ships appreciably damaged by shells or bombs 80 160
Incident to final assault, 23 December:
Estimated casualties in ground combat 125 125
Casualties aboard Patrol Craft 33 7 25
Destroyer hit by Battery B's fire 5 10
------------------------------------------------------ ----- -----
Total estimated Japanese losses: 820 333
=== ===
Grand Total: 1,153

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Last updated: January 1, 2001

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