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

Chet Cunningham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2003

This gritty oral chronicle records with poignant and often disturbing immediacy both the bloody sixteen-day Battle of Wake Island and the forty-four months of hell that followed it. One of the first military engagements in World War II, the battle for this tiny, strategically located atoll in the Pacific began on December 8, 1941, just five hours after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. It ended on December 23, when the marines—despite diminished forces, incapacitated fighter planes, and no communications—strove to stem an overwhelming Japanese invasion until their commanding officers ordered them to surrender. No sooner had the surviving marines—the author’s eighteen-year-old brother among them—laid down their arms than they were stripped and bound. For two days they sat naked in the hot sun; at night they shivered in the cold. For the next three weeks they slogged in the ruins of their bombed-out camp. They were then jammed into the hold of the ship that would take them to prison camps in China and Japan, where they would endure the cruelest indignities and grimmest tortures until their liberation in August 1945. Hell Wouldn’t Stop tells their often horrific, frequently heroic, and unforgettable if long-forgotten World War II story.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A stirring account of bravery and fortitude... adroitly combining the testimony of 68 men who defended Wake Island and were held as POW's for almost four years."

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786712252
• ISBN-13: 978-0786712250
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,618,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Viewing the total experience, February 3, 2003

By 

Roger Mansell (Los Altos CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell Wouldn't Stop: An Oral History of the Battle of Wake Island (Hardcover)

The Battle for Wake Island inspired a nation after the horrendous loss at Pearl Harbor. This is a remarkable compilation of first hand experiences, both by the author and the men of all ranks who fought alongside. The smoke and haze of battle prohibits any one person from experiencing the whole. Cunningham cleverly weaves the stories and memoirs of his fellow Wake Island defenders into tapestry that gives a remarkable vision of this heroic defense.

Taken as prisoners, the men were enslaved in the highly profitable Japanese War machinery, enriching companies like Mitsui and Hitachi. The savagery and endless brutality of the Japanese against the POWS became an a living hell. Truly, Cunningham has written the personal answers of so many to the question: "What really happened to these gallant men?"

Regrettably, little is said of the gallantry of the civilian construction company employees, many of whom were equally gallant defenders.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hell Wouldn't Stop Is Well Worth Reading, February 21, 2006

By 

David Richard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell Wouldn't Stop: An Oral History of the Battle of Wake Island (Paperback)

Hell Wouldn't Stop is probably the most complete resource available concerning the invasion of Wake Island and the POW experiences of the survivors. The personal accounts are quite gripping. However, since this book is an oral history, given by survivors, and transcribed verbatim, most events are repeated very often but from the unique perspective of each survivor.

The repitition gets tiresome occasionally but the author allows each man to tell his complete story, long or short, so these accounts do not appear edited.

The survivors of the Wake invasion became the first POWs of the Pacific Theater. Their accounts are important since they spent the longest time in the brutal Japanese prisoner of war system.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important accounts of the Wake Island Defenders., December 28, 2006

By 

Ryan Fisher (Santa Maria, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell Wouldn't Stop: An Oral History of the Battle of Wake Island (Hardcover)

Hell Wouldn't Stop is perhaps one of the better research resources I have yet read regarding the battle of Wake Island. Having read several more books on Wake Island since writing my first review I must make some editing.
I do however, commend Chet Cunningham's work to compile these lesser known tales of Wake's enlisted men and officers alike. Such firsthand accounts, while repetitive provide valuable insight into the battle and subsequent imprisonment of the survivors.
Cunningham, NO RELATION TO THE GARRISON COMMANDER, has given a voice to the many enlisted servicemen whose stories would have otherwise gone untold.
Most Wake island stories are either officer's accounts or historical perspectives that rely on officer's accounts.
Cunningham, whose brother survived the battle and was the source for much of the book's material, was a Marine Private; his experiences reveal the unfortunate class differences between officers and enlisted men throughout the entire ordeal.
It is a shame that these enlisted men were forced to endure considerable hardships in Japanese captivity with such little advocacy or support from the commanders who surrendered them.
One man tells of the often lauded Marine Maj. Devereaux jotting down minor infractions like not saluting in his "little book" for later punishment, while his men endured 14 hour days of labor and frightful treatment by the Japanese.
This book is almost entirely first hand anecdotal material with little editing around mis-remembered facts.
If you can mentally overlap the stories as you read this book is fascinating, if not it is easy to get lost in its non-linear format. THINK TARANTINO IN BOOK FORM.
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, AUTHORS DESERVE YOUR OPINIONS!