Aleutian island occupation
The Aleutian Islands, acquired by the United States in 1867 with the purchase of Alaska from Russia, played a significant role during World War II. In the lead-up to the war, American military presence in the Aleutians grew, particularly after Japan withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty in 1934. By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, approximately 22,000 military personnel were stationed in Alaska, with a small contingent in the Aleutians. In 1942, the Japanese military occupied Attu and Kiska islands, launching attacks aimed at diverting Allied forces.
The recapture of these islands proved costly for the U.S. military, especially during the battle for Attu, which resulted in high casualties. The operation to retake Kiska was complicated by the discovery that the Japanese had already evacuated. The Aleutian Islands were critical in the broader context of the Pacific Theater, representing the last significant threat to U.S. territory during the war. Additionally, the conflict had profound implications for the native Aleut population, as many were forcibly relocated from their homes during this turbulent period.
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Aleutian island occupation
The Event Japanese attacks on, and occupation of, the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska during World War II
Date June 3, 1942-August 15, 1943
Place Aleutian Island chain, North Pacific Ocean
The recapture of Attu and Kiska was the first American theater-wide success in World War II and meant the end of Japanese occupation of American soil.
The Aleutian Islands became United States possessions with the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. American military opinion was divided on whether to garrison the territory’s Aleutian Island chain until December of 1934, when Japan repudiated the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. That treaty regulated the tonnage and numbers of ships in its five signatories’ navies as well as regulating naval bases and fortifications. By the late 1930’s, seaplane stations were established at Sitka and Kodiak, and the U.S. Army had small installations at Anchorage, Unalaska, and Dutch Harbor.
By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the total Alaska garrison numbered about 22,000 people, under the command of Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. The U.S. Navy, under Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald’s command, had four surface vessels, two submarines, and half a dozen aircraft. Theobald also commanded the Army’s Eleventh Air Force, with bases at Anchorage, Cold Bay, and Umnak Island.
During the early summer of 1942, about 850 native Aleutians were removed from their homes in the Pribilof Islands north of the Aleutian chain and interned in southeastern Alaska for the duration of the war. By June, 1942, the War Department had 45,000 troops in Alaska, but only about 2,300 in the Aleutians, at a naval base on Unalaska Island at Dutch Harbor, and a newly constructed Army facility, Fort Glenn on Umnak Island. Peak Allied strength in Alaska, in August, 1943, was about 144,000 troops.
On June 3, 1942, a small Japanese fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya attacked Dutch Harbor as part of a plan to draw Allied forces north to defend the Aleutians, while the Japanese main fleet attacked Midway. American casualties were 43 killed and 64 wounded; 10 Japanese aircraft were brought down by Allied fire and weather conditions. While returning south two days later to rejoin Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s diminished main fleet, now headed home for Japan, the Northern Area Fleet was directed to return to the Aleutians. Hosogaya took Attu and Kiska islands on June 6.
When Allied forces retook Attu in May, 1943, they were hampered by inadequate intelligence, harsh terrain and climate, inappropriate field clothing and gear, and weather that made effective reconnaissance nearly impossible. Japanese resistance was both tragic and heroic: 2,350 Japanese were killed and 29 taken prisoner. American casualties were 529 killed, 1,148 wounded, and about 2,100 victims of frostbite, hypothermia, and trench foot.
The recapture of Kiska, however, was thoroughly planned and conducted with appropriate gear. After four weeks of bombarding the island from both the sea and the air, the Allied invasion force landed on August 15. After several days, it was discovered that the more than 5,000 Japanese who had occupied it two months previously had departed in late July. A harbor mine, friendly fire, and other accidents resulted in 91 Allied dead on Kiska and 168 sick or wounded.
Impact
The recapture of Attu was one of the most costly U.S. victories in World War II in terms of U.S. casualties relative to the number of opponents, with seventy-one American casualties for every one hundred Japanese encountered on the island. The island also was the last significant threat to American home territory in World War II.
Bibliography
Chandonnet, Fern. Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered. Anchorage: Alaska at War Committee, 1995.
Conn, Stetson, Rose C. Engelman, and Byron Fairchild. Guarding the United States and Its Outposts. Washington, D.C.: Army Office of the Chief of Military History, 1964.
Perras, Galen Roger. Stepping Stones to Nowhere: The Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and American Military Strategy, 1867-1945. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003.