Attu Island

Attu Island

Location of Attu Station

Attu (Atan in Aleut) is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. It was the site of the only World War II battle on United States soil (the battle of Attu), and its battlefield area is a US National Historic Landmark.

Attu Station, the only inhabited area on the island, is actually located at 52°51' north latitude, 173°11' east longitude, technically making it one of the easternmost points of Alaska (and the United States). (Looked at this way, neighboring Semisopochnoi Island at 179°46'E is the easternmost location in the United States and North America, as it sits only 14 minutes west of 180°, and so is in the Eastern Hemisphere).

It is nearly 1,700 km (1,100 miles) from the Alaskan mainland and 1,200 km (750 miles) northeast of the northernmost of the Kurile Islands of the Russian Federation and 7800 km (>4800 miles) to the capital Washington DC. Attu is about 32 km (20 miles) by 56 km (35 miles) in size with a land area of 892.795 km² (344.71 sq mi), making it the 23rd largest island in the United States. The population as of the 2000 census was 20 persons, all at the Attu Station.

As of 1982, the only trees on the island were those planted by US soldiers at a chapel constructed after the 1943 battle.

History

Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields on Attu
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Built	1942
NRHP reference No.	85002729
Added to NRHP	February 04, 1985

The name Attu is a transliteration of the Aleut name of the island. It was called Saint Theodore by the explorer Aleksei Chirikov in 1742.

World War II

See also: Aleutian Islands Campaign

The Aleuts were the primary inhabitants of the island prior to World War II. But, on June 7, 1942, six months into the war, the 301st Independent Infantry Battalion of the Japanese Northern Army invaded the island, a day after invading nearby Kiska. In response to Japanese aggression in the Aleutians, U.S. authorities conducted a mandatory evacuation of 881 Aleuts from nine Aleutian villages. They were interned in camps in the Alaska Panhandle, where 74 died of various diseases over two years.

However, Attu Village had not yet been evacuated when the Japanese attacked. At the time, Attu’s population consisted of 45 native Aleuts and two Americans, Charles Foster Jones, 60, a schoolteacher, and his wife Etta, both originally of Marion, Ohio. The village consisted of several houses around Chichagof Harbor. The 42 Attu inhabitants who survived the Japanese invasion were taken to a prison camp near Otaru, Hokkaidō. Sixteen of them died while imprisoned.

According to General Hideichiro Higuda, Commander of the Japanese Northern Army, the invasion of Kiska and Attu was part of a threefold objective:

• To break up any offensives against Japan by way of the Aleutians
• To place a barrier between the US and Russia in case Russia decided to join the war against Japan
• To make preparation for airbases for future offensive action

In late September, 1942, the garrison on Attu was transferred to Kiska and the island was essentially left unoccupied, but American forces made no attempt to occupy the island during this time. On October 29, 1942 the Japanese reestablished a base on Attu at Holtz Bay under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hiroshi Yanekawa. Initially the garrison was about 500 strong but through reinforcements it reached about 2,300 by March 10, 1943. No more reinforcements arrived after that time, owing mainly to the efforts of a naval force under Rear Admiral Charles McMorris. He was assigned to interdict the Japanese supply convoys. After the Battle of the Komandorski Islands, Japan abandoned its attempts to resupply its Aleutian garrisons by the surface. From then on, only submarines were used for the resupply runs.

US troops negotiate snow and ice during the battle on Attu in May, 1943.

On May 11, 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather caused great difficulties in projecting any force against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite because essential supplies could not be landed, or having been landed, could not be moved to where they were needed, because vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yamasaki did not contest the landings but rather dug in on high ground away from the shore. This caused bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 580 were killed, 1148 were injured, 1200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire. The Japanese were defeated in Massacre Valley with a backfire led by Sergeant Morgan Sinclair. The death count for the Japanese was 2035. The Americans then built Navy Town near Massacre Bay.

On May 29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them officers. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle.

The Japanese forces, after realizing their position was now vulnerable, evacuated Kiska three months later.

The U.S. built a larger airfield, and used that on July 10, 1943 as the base for an air attack on Japan's Kurile Islands, the first air attack on Japan since the 1942 Doolittle Raid. Other attacks followed.

Postwar

The WWII peace memorial on Attu Island

After the war, the survivors of the Otaru prison camp were repatriated to other Aleutian islands or to the mainland of Alaska, and the United States government decided to construct a LORAN station on the southern tip of Attu, at Theodore Point. This installation is currently manned by the United States Coast Guard. The equipment to build the station came out of Holtz Bay and was ferried on barges and landing craft to Baxter Cove, about one mile east of the station. Bulldozers were used to cut a road from Baxter Cove to Theodore Point.

In 1960, the station was moved to Casco Cove, near the former Navy Base at Massacre Bay. Later it was moved to Massacre Bay.

The battlefield area and subsequent military sites were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985.

In 1987, with the approval of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the government of Japan placed a monument on Engineer Hill, site of the hand-to-hand finale of the battle against the Japanese. An inscription, in Japanese and English, reads: "In memory of all those who sacrificed their lives in the islands and seas of the North Pacific during World War II and in dedication to world peace." In February 2008, a group of American veterans led by John E. Jonas TSGT USAF (Ret.) began a petition to have the Japanese memorial removed or relocated from the island and replaced with two U.S. funded markers: one to the Japanese soldiers who died on the island and one to the Americans. Attu veteran Bill Jones and others were upset to find out that the Japanese memorial on Attu was erected on or near the site of a massacre of wounded American soldiers by the Japanese on the battle's final day.

Jones, along with fellow Attu survivor Andy Petrus, were featured in the 2006 documentary film Red White Black & Blue. It is directed by Tom Putnam, and debuted at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland on August 4, 2006.

There is currently a search being conducted to find the remains of Japanese soldiers.

Weather

The weather on Attu is typical Aleutian weather: cloudy, rainy, and foggy. High winds occur occasionally. Five or six days a week are likely to be rainy, and there are only about eight or ten clear days a year. The rest of the time, even if rain is not falling, fog of varying density is the rule rather than the exception. There are 1000-1250 mm (forty to fifty inches) of annual rainfall, with the heaviest rains in autumn and early winter. Attu is in the maritime climate zone.

See also

• Battle of the Aleutian Islands
• Kiska

References

• Attu Island: Blocks 1150 thru 1153 and 1155 thru 1170, Census Tract 1, Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska United States Census Bureau.

External links

• Attu Homepage
• Red White Black & Blue - feature documentary about The Battle of Attu
• Soldiers of the 184th Infantry, 7th ID in the Pacific, 1943-1945
• Suicidal Banzai charge in Attu : The 1st Gyokusai ordered Template:Ja icon Suicide for the Emperor?
• Japanese Army doctor's diary
• ”Attu: North American Battleground of World War II”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
• Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary