Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Wake, War And Waiting…
    Wake, War And Waiting…
    Wake, War And Waiting…
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    Wake, War And Waiting…

    By Rodney Kephart

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Before the thunderous bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the outpost of Wake Island was a backwater dotted in the Pacific Ocean with only a handful of military personnel and construction workers on the roster. Among the construction workers was Rodney Kephart of Iowa, signed up with Morrison-Knudsen company of Iowa, and about to be attacked by the might of Imperial Japanese Navy. The heroic but unsuccessful defence of Wake led Kephart and his fellow workers into Japanese captivity for how long they could not guess.

    Captivity for the prisoners was a war in and of itself; and Kephart’s short narrative gives a vivid account of the daily struggles against starvation, against the petty viciousness or outright brutality of the captives, against dirt, time and terror.

    Yet, despite his photographic realism, Mr. Kephart’s saga is not essentially one of pessimism or despair. Out of the darkness of slavery flash those small victories or omens that men could cherish and hold against the ultimate hope of freedom—the Christmas celebration, the miracle of a Red Cross package, the sight of the first American bomber. And then, with the surrender of the Japanese, came that unforgettable moment. They were free men again! For the reader who has lived through the disappointments and triumphs of the book, that long- awaited moment will be no less thrilling.

    Rodney Kephart was born in Spencer, Iowa, in 1917. After attending school in South Dakota, he went to Bethel Junior College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Until his capture on Wake, he was at various times a farmer, a carpenter, and an unofficial Protestant minister. Since his return from the Pacific he has been studying business administration, first at the Boise Junior College and later at the University of Minnesota.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVerdun Press
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786251305
    Wake, War And Waiting…
    Author

    Rodney Kephart

    See Book Description

    Related to Wake, War And Waiting…

    Related ebooks

    European History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Consummate coral Coast

      Feb 2, 2022

      Consummate coral Coast
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sailing To The Shiant Isles

      Sep 14, 2023

      Sailing To The Shiant Isles
      8 min read

    • Article

      Bermuda

      Jan 9, 2019

      Bermuda
      2 min read

    • Article

      Enchanting Woody

      Jan 6, 2021

      Enchanting Woody
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mollusc Magic

      Oct 4, 2019

      Mollusc Magic
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Place To Be

      Mar 23, 2022

      The Place To Be
      8 min read

    • Article

      Identifying Seabirds

      Jun 10, 2021

      Identifying Seabirds
      9 min read

    • Article

      Close-Hauled to Hawaii

      Aug 10, 2021

      Close-Hauled to Hawaii
      9 min read

    • Article

      Workhorse In The Wilderness

      Feb 22, 2016

      Workhorse In The Wilderness
      11 min read

    • Article

      In The Steps Of Shackleton

      Apr 16, 2020

      In The Steps Of Shackleton
      8 min read

    • Article

      Tropical Australia Voyage

      Jul 11, 2019

      Tropical Australia Voyage
      8 min read

    • Article

      Courage Of Youth

      Dec 8, 2022

      In the summer of 1983, a group of very young Norwegians set out on a round trip to the Caribbean in Jeanette VI, a 35ft Vindø yacht they chartered from a sympathetic ‘grown-up’. Morten Stødle and his peers were schoolboys not yet at university, but c

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Community That Is Second To None

      Nov 23, 2022

      A Community That Is Second To None
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Outer Banks

      Oct 13, 2022

      The Outer Banks
      3 min read

    • Article

      Summer On Ice

      Sep 10, 2020

      Summer On Ice
      9 min read

    • Article

      Treasure Of The Bering Sea

      Jun 4, 2022

      Treasure Of The Bering Sea
      9 min read

    • Article

      Scotland’s Secret Sport

      May 11, 2023

      Scotland’s Secret Sport
      6 min read

    • Article

      Loop The Loop

      Dec 16, 2019

      Loop The Loop
      13 min read

    • Article

      Island Escape

      Nov 8, 2023

      Island Escape
      8 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      May 14, 2020

      Letters
      2 min read

    • Article

      Whale Of A Time

      Aug 9, 2019

      Whale Of A Time
      4 min read

    • Article

      Death of Endurance

      Mar 31, 2022

      Death of Endurance
      5 min read

    • Article

      Shipwreck Islands

      Dec 5, 2019

      Shipwreck Islands
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Wake, War And Waiting…

    5/5

    1 rating1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Very interesting first hand account of the trials and tribulations of an American PW in Japan.

    Book preview

    Wake, War And Waiting… - Rodney Kephart

    This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

    To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

    Or on Facebook

    Text originally published in 1950 under the same title.

    © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

    Publisher’s Note

    Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

    We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

    Wake, War and Waiting…

    By

    Rodney Kephart

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

    DEDICATION 5

    INTRODUCTION 6

    Chapter One. . . 7

    Chapter Two. . . 10

    Chapter Three. . . 14

    Chapter Four. . . 18

    Chapter Five. . . 21

    Chapter Six. . . 24

    Chapter Seven. . . 27

    Chapter Eight. . . 31

    Chapter Nine. . . 35

    Chapter Ten. . . 38

    Chapter Eleven. . . 41

    Chapter Twelve. . . 44

    Chapter Thirteen. . . 49

    Chapter Fourteen. . . 53

    Chapter Fifteen. . . 55

    Chapter Sixteen. . . 59

    Chapter Seventeen. . . 63

    Chapter Eighteen. . . 66

    Chapter Nineteen. . . 69

    REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 72

    DEDICATION

    DEDICATED

    TO

    MY GODLY MOTHER,

    who in faith awaited the return of her missing son and never once doubted that day would come.

    INTRODUCTION

    Because wars break into the rage of battle very suddenly after the brooding of the war-clouds, and after a long siege of battle the combat ceases almost as abruptly as it began, I have tried to paint a word picture that will not let the reader forget this war as rapidly as it began or ended.

    The blood-strewn battle front; the cruel pain of a body broken by war; the long anxiety of the days spent in waiting for the dawn of peace; the suffering of life without liberty; the agony of existing on an impossible fare all add up to this broken body that is calling together in his feeble way a resume of the days of Wake, War, and Waiting.

    These pages that follow are the things which I am able to collect through a memory which is not good after this lengthy experience. Whether first hand or hearsay (the which I am not able to separate at this time), the information is intended only to give a picture of the aftermath and is not intended for authentic or statistical use.

    I hope that this work will give the reader a better understanding of the totality of war and help the reader to influence others in the effort to establish peace for the sake of all.

    Rodney Kephart

    WAKE, WAR AND WAITING

    Chapter One. . .

    WOOMP—BOOM! TAT-tat-tat! Bomber overhead! Look, it’s the Japs! There goes the Airport! Pan American! Oh, God, we’re trapped! We’re trapped!...Rats in a trap!...Men gathered at the mess-hall! Trucks zooming to the hospital, from the hospital! Dead....Wounded....Fires....Officers frantic! Men mad with excitement!...WAKE ISLAND HAS BEEN BOMBED!

    Wake Island—what is it? Where is it? Most people knew very little about Wake when the war broke out, back in December of ‘41. Wake is a small coral reef that has developed around the top of a submerged and inactive volcano. It is an approximate horseshoe in shape, open to the west, and coming to a point to the southeast. The south side of the island is almost a straight line, the southeast corner being an acute angle; maybe that is why it is called Peacock Point. The eastern shoreline of the island extends almost due north, thus the southern shoreline runs slightly north of due west. The short north wing of Wake extends to the southwest. Peale Island lies to the west of the west point of the north wing of Wake, in a northwest-southeast direction. Flipper Point is a thumb-like projection on the lagoon side of Peale. To the west of Wake’s south wing, is a rectangular island, called Wilkes Island. The three islands are surrounded by a coral reef, which extends about a half a mile to the north of the islands. It closes the lagoon at the west end, and makes an abrupt drop-off on the south side of the island. From Peacock Point northward the reef widens to meet the extended reef off Heel Point, on the northeast.

    The maximum elevation on the three islands is seventeen feet above the sea. The total area is about two and one half square miles. Wake has a prevailing northeasterly current; this explains the long extended reef to the north and east of the island. The breakers keep the island washed back from the reef. The island is well sea-rounded. It is possible to throw a stone (rather, a piece of coral, as there are no stones on the island) to three thousand feet of water from any point on the reef, or from the island at Peacock Point.

    The climate on Wake would be classified as subtropical. Wake is located about nineteen degrees north latitude and one hundred sixty-five degrees east longitude, about eleven hundred miles west and south of Midway and about fourteen hundred miles east and north of Guam. The rainfall is very heavy, running up into feet. The average temperature is about eighty degrees, varying a few degrees in a year’s time. The shade, what little there is, is always cool due to the perpetual breeze. There are no fresh water collection basins; therefore, no mosquito breeding places and no tropical fever.

    There is a variety of natural vegetation. Along the lagoon and lower parts of the islands of Wake and Wilkes is found a considerable amount of ironwood, which grows to a maximum height of about fifteen feet. Around the higher parts of the islands is found a soft, pulpy, white wood. To the north of the lagoon on Wake there is lots of so-called cocoa-wood; it is also plentiful on parts of Wilkes. Numerous small plants and vines make the brush impregnable in most places.

    The parts of the island that are not covered with a growth of vegetation, are white patches of coral or coral sand—white as the drifted arctic snow.

    Habitation on the island prior to the arrival of man was very limited. The first noticeable life on Wake is the albatross churning the air like corn husks in a whirlwind, screaming like the infernal Japs. There is also the Gooney bird, a large bird—larger than the wild goose—lazy and inquisitive, which is always in your way and to walk around it is usually easier than moving the big lummox. There were several other types of wild fowl and bird life but I am not acquainted with most of them. Wake is the nesting ground for the Arctic tern, a small grey tern, very noisy and stubborn when approached near its nesting grounds. It lays its eggs on the sand (the ground will be blue with eggs) and flies low over the ground near the eggs. One can see millions of these birds hovering in one place during the nesting season.

    The phenomenon of the bird life on Wake was the bosun bird. A white bird, a little larger than a large dove, it has two long red tail feathers from one and a half to two feet long. The interesting thing about this particular species of bird life is its ability to fly backwards. It gets its body in a perpendicular position and then drives itself backwards with its wings.

    In the early history of the island, a ship was wrecked off Heel Point (northeast point of the island). Rats from the ship were able to reach the shore, and through years of propagation, the island is now overrun with tiny inbred rats.

    The Pan American Airways introduced the salamander as a flycatcher, and it has since become a part of Wake Island animal life.

    Hermit crabs are a peculiar species of the crustaceans. They are of a red-orange color, having a hard shell over the forepart of their bodies and their claws. They take refuge in any shell of the snail type that fits their particular body size. The crab backs its tail into the shell and takes it wherever it goes and when that shell wears out from being dragged around, the crab picks up a new one. When the shell is touched or picked up, the inhabitant retracts into the shell with its hard-shelled claws forming a shield which blocks the opening in the shell.

    Wake is a fisherman’s paradise. The lagoon affords sponge fishing and coral of many shapes and colors plus cowries and other shell-covered sea animals. The outer reef offers the best of shell fishing and lobster fishing. Lobster fishing is a dangerous but exciting sport. The lobsters loiter in the caves and crevices of the reef where Moray eels, octopuses, and sea turtles are also commonly found.

    In the shallow water of the lagoon and on the surrounding reef are found many varieties of tropical fish, of every shape,

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1