American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project

After several decades, guano resources became depleted, leading to the diminishing presence of American companies on the islands; they were thus vulnerable to development and claim by other nations, especially the regional rival, Imperial Japan.

In 1935, the Department of Commerce developed a clandestine colonization plan with the objective of placing U.S. citizens on the remote islands in order for the U.S. to lay claim to them.

On December 8, 1941, Howland Island was attacked by a fleet of Japanese twin-engine bombers, which killed Hawaiian colonists Joseph Keliʻihananui and Richard Whaley.

[5] In July 1943, a military base was established on Baker Island and played a substantial role in the Tarawa-Makin operation, a significant U.S. offensive against the Japanese fleet in the Pacific theater.

[4] After World War II, the participants of the colonization project established an organization to preserve the fellowship of their group, naming it "Hui Panalāʻau" in 1956.