My Aleutian Days

The Aleut story: resilience and revival

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Our guide was a young Aleut woman named Margaret Kauffman. But in between stories of seals and seabirds, she shared the survival tale of St. Margaret explained that Aleuts were forcibly hauled to the Pribilofs in the s to work as seal harvesters for their Russian captors, then added that not much changed after the U.

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For nearly a century, the Aleuts remained wards of the state, subject to strict rules, travel restrictions, and the constant threat of punishment. With little forewarning, nearly Aleuts were evacuated from their Pribilof and Aleutian Islands homes and relocated to Southeast Alaska internment camps, 1, miles away.

They were crowded into filthy buildings that once served as cannery dormitories. One survivor later recalled an uncle having to beg for meat bones to make soup. About ten percent died. After stopping at a seal haulout, Margaret told us about Oct. Not that things got easier. The end of federal subsidies meant that prices and unemployment sky-rocketed. Making things worse, the government abruptly terminated St. Despair and violence followed. Some of that recovery has been tied to an economic revival brought by commercial fishing and tourists like us.

The Aleuts have been strengthened as stories from their past are retold and new local programs celebrate their cultural heritage. Some historians believe Japan seized Attu and Kiska mainly to divert the U. Americans were shocked that Japanese troops had taken over any U.

Travelling in Alaska - Aleutian Islands Forum - TripAdvisor

Despite nationwide anger, American war planners at first paid relatively little attention to the Japanese garrisons at Attu and Kiska, as they were still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the process of building up forces in the South Pacific and preparing for war in Europe. In fact, in the initial months after Japan occupied the islands, the U. In the meantime, during the months following their occupation, Japanese soldiers learned to acclimate to the extreme conditions on Attu and Kiska, and the Japanese navy kept the soldiers well-supplied.

But by January , U. Army forces in the Alaska Command had grown to 94, soldiers, with several bases recently constructed on other Aleutian Islands.

By March , U. Navy Rear Admiral Thomas C.

Kinkaid — had set up a blockade of Attu and Kiska that restricted the flow of supplies to the Japanese occupiers. On March 26, , Japanese ships in the Bering Sea attempted to deliver supplies and reinforcements to Attu; however, they were spotted by U.

The Japanese fleet outnumbered the U. In addition to running low on fuel and ammunition, the Japanese reportedly feared the arrival of U. Following the battle, the Japanese soldiers on Attu and Kiska, now virtually isolated, were reduced to meager supplies sporadically delivered by submarine. Taking advantage of these conditions, the Americans prepared to land troops for ground combat against the Japanese garrisons. American ships and planes bombed Attu and Kiska for several weeks before the U. The Americans expected the operation to take no more than several days, but harsh weather and rugged, muddy terrain extended the combat for more than two weeks.

The Japanese troops, greatly outnumbered, had withdrawn to high ground rather than contest the initial landings.

Japan Seizes American Soil

Food shortages added to their misery as they crisscrossed the barren island, fighting mostly small but fierce engagements while scouring the rocks and slopes for booby traps, snipers and dug-in enemy troops. But the fate of the Japanese had been sealed when the Americans established air and naval supremacy over the island, cutting Japanese supply lines and making it unlikely that reinforcements would arrive. By late May, the last remaining Japanese troops were starving and had insufficient ammunition when U.

The Japanese commander, Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki , decided to make a last-ditch frontal charge.

Travelling in Alaska - Aleutian Islands Forum

Shortly before daybreak on May 29, he and his soldiers began one of the largest banzai charges of the war in the Pacific. But the gambit ultimately failed.

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After a final attack on May 30, U. The Americans lost some 1, men in the retaking of Attu.

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