In Remembrance of POWs
This is a copy of a post card sent to to John B. Cooke, Jr. from the workers captured by the Japanese when they took Wake Island in December of 1941. John was the Airport/Station Manager for Pan American World Airways (PAA) on Wake Island at the time. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, they recalled the Pan Am Flying Clipper (which was just a few minutes into its flight) and evacuated as many American civilians as they could. The rest of the Pan Am staff were natives of either Guam or the Philippines and unfortunately were left behind with the small military contingent on the island. The Pan Am flight left for Midway and Hawaii under gunfire of the Japanese invasion force.
The original of this postcard and my grandfather’s written account of leaving Wake were donated by Bleecker (the our Beacher referenced in the postcard above) to the Andersonville National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, GA.