Wake Island

One of the prisoners escaped the massacre, carving the message 98 US PW 5-10-43 on a large coral rock near where the victims had been hastily buried in a mass grave. In a brief ceremony, the handover of Wake was officially conducted.
Postwar
On October 14, 1950, the island served as a one-day meeting site between General Douglas MacArthur and President Harry S.

Truman, meeting to discuss strategy for the Korean War hostilities that had broken out four months earlier.
Since 1974, the island's airstrip, Wake Island Airfield, has been used by the U.S. military and some commercial cargo planes, as well as for emergency landings.

Some World War II facilities and wreckage remain on the islands.
Subsequently the island was used for strategic defense and operations during the Cold War. It was administered by the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (formerly known as the United States Army Space and Strategic Defense Command).

Since 1974, Wake Island has served as a launch platform for military rockets involved in testing anti-missile systems and atmospheric re-entry trials.