Remember Wake

December, 1941-While the world focuses on the carnage at Pearl Harbor, tiny Wake Island 2,300 miles west is also under attack. On it are 1,200 civilians and a small detachment of Marines. This frightened, under-equipped band of Americans will hold the mighty Japanese navy at bay for sixteen days before succumbing to the sweeping invasion. "Remember Wake" becomes a battle cry for a nation marching to war. Now prisoners of the Emperor, Colin Finnely and the others are crowded aboard a notorious Japanese hell-ship bound for Asia, where they will suffer four long years as slave laborers in disease-infested camps. They will die by the hundreds. With only one reason to live-his love for his fiancée, Maggie Braun-Colin struggles to survive torture and inhuman conditions. And on the home front, Maggie, unsure if Colin is even alive, faces agonizing decisions that may alter both their lives.

Teresa R. Funke's writing has appeared in numerous national publications, and two of her essays were honered as Notable Essays by Best American Essays. She is also the author of Dancing in Combat Boots, an award-winning collection of women's stories from WWII and the Home-Front Heroes Collection, a series of middle-grade novels about children in wartime America. Teresa is a popular speaker, presenter and author's coach. Visit her website at teresafunke.com.