Wake Island

Wake Island (Marshallese: Ānen Kio, lit. 'island of the kio flower'), also known as Wake Atoll, is a coral atoll in the Micronesia subregion of the Pacific Ocean. The atoll is composed of three islets and a reef surrounding a lagoon. The nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located 592 miles (953 kilometers) to the southeast. The island may have been found by prehistoric Austronesian mariners before its first recorded discovery by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira in 1568. After this, ships visited the area until it was claimed by the United States in 1899. The island had little development until 1935, when Pan American Airways constructed an airfield and hotel as a waypoint for trans-Pacific flying boats. Japan seized the island at the opening of the Pacific Theatre of World War II in December 1941, and it remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in September 1945. After trans-Pacific layovers by Pan American Airways ceased in 1972 due to their use of Boeing 747s, administration was taken over by the United States Air Force, which used the atoll as a processing location for Vietnamese refugees during Operation New Life in 1975. Wake Island, which is claimed by the Marshall Islands, is governed by the United States as an unorganized and unincorporated territory and comprises part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. It is administered by the United States Air Force under an agreement with the Department of the Interior. The island has no permanent inhabitants, but approximately 100 people live there at any given time. The natural areas of Wake are mix of tropical trees, scrub, and grasses that have adapted to the limited rainfall. Thousands of hermit crabs and rats live on Wake, and in the past there were also feral cats which had been there to help control the rat population, which at one time was estimated at 2 million. The Wake Island rail, a small flightless bird, once lived on the atoll but went extinct during World War II. Many species of seabird also visit Wake, although the thick vegetation has caused most birds to nest on a designated bird sanctuary on Wilkes Island. The submerged and emergent lands at Wake Island comprise a unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.