Attu Island

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Attu

Native name: Atan
Attu Island
Geography
Coordinates	52°54′09″N 172°54′34″E / 52.90250°N 172.90944°E / 52.90250; 172.90944Coordinates: 52°54′09″N 172°54′34″E / 52.90250°N 172.90944°E / 52.90250; 172.90944
Archipelago	Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands
Area	344.7 sq mi (893 km2)
Length	35 mi (56 km)
Width	20 mi (30 km)
Highest elevation	2,946 ft (897.9 m)
Highest point	Attu Mountain
Administration
United States
State	Alaska
Census Area	Aleutians West Census Area
Demographics
Population	0 (2010)

Attu (Aleut: Atan^[1], Russian: Атту) is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska. The island became uninhabited in 2010.^[2]

The island was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on American soil in general and in the continental United States (the Battle of Attu), and its battlefield area is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

Attu Station, a former Coast Guard LORAN station, is located at 52°51′N 173°11′E / 52.850°N 173.183°E / 52.850; 173.183, making it one of the westernmost points of the United States relative to the rest of the country. However, since it is in the Eastern Hemisphere, being on the opposite side of the 180° longitude line as the contiguous 48 states, it can also be considered one of the easternmost points of the country (a second Aleutian Island, Semisopochnoi Island at 179°46′E, is the easternmost location in the United States by this definition).

In the chain of the Aleuts, the next island to the west of Attu are the Russian Commander Islands, 208 miles (181 nmi; 335 km) away. Attu is nearly 1,100 miles (960 nmi; 1,800 km) from the Alaskan mainland and 750 miles (650 nmi; 1,210 km) northeast of the northernmost of the Kurile Islands of Russia, as well as being 1,500 miles (1,300 nmi; 2,400 km) from Anchorage, 2,000 miles (1,700 nmi; 3,200 km) from Alaska's capital of Juneau, and 4,845 miles (4,210 nmi; 7,797 km) from New York City. Attu is about 20 by 35 miles (32 by 56 km) in size with a land area of 344.7 square miles (893 km²), making it #23 on the list of largest islands in the United States. The population in the 2010 census was 20 people, all at the Attu Station, though all inhabitants left the island later in the year when the station closed, it is the largest uninhabited island in the United States.

As of 1982^[update], the only significant trees on the island were those planted by American soldiers at a chapel constructed after the 1943 battle when the Japanese occupation was over.^[3]

Although Attu Island is the westernmost body of land east of the International Date Line, its time zone is the same as other western Aleutian Islands, UTC−10, which means that locations to the south-southeast (such as the uninhabited Baker Island and Howland Island in UTC −12 and Niue, Midway Atoll and American Samoa in UTC −11) have earlier clocks.

History[edit]

The name Attu is the Unangan language (Aleut) name for the island. Archaeological research of the large number of archaeological sites on the island suggests an estimated precontact population ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 Unangan (Aleut).^[4]

Attu, being the nearest to Kamchatka, was the first of the Aleutian Islands exploited by Russian traders. Russian explorer Aleksei Chirikov called the island Saint Theodore in 1742.^[5] Russians stayed on the island several years at stretch to hunt sea otters; the Russians often clashed with the local Unangan population. After the initial wave of traders, European ships largely overlooked Attu.

World War II[edit]

Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields on Attu
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location	Eastern part of Attu Island
Coordinates	52°53′26″N 173°04′29″E / 52.89056°N 173.07472°E / 52.89056; 173.07472
Area	7,000 acres (2,800 ha)
Built	1942
NRHP reference #	85002729[6]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	February 4, 1985
Designated NHL	February 4, 1985[7]

Attu village in June 1937

The Aleuts were the primary inhabitants of the island prior to World War II. But, on June 7, 1942, six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the 301st Independent Infantry Battalion of the Japanese Northern Army landed on the island without opposition, one day after landing on nearby Kiska, which made Attu the second of the only two invasion sites in the U.S. during the war. Earlier, American territorial authorities had evacuated about 880 Aleuts from villages elsewhere in the Aleutian Islands to civilian camps in the Alaska Panhandle, where about 75 of them died of various infectious diseases over two years.

However, Attu Village had not yet been evacuated when the Japanese invaded. At the time, Attu's population consisted of 45 native Aleuts and two white Americans, Charles Foster Jones (1879–1942), a radio technician, originally from St. Paris, Ohio, and his wife Etta (1879–1965), a schoolteacher, originally from Vineland, New Jersey.^[8] 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 they were imprisoned. Mr. Jones, 63, was killed by the Japanese forces almost immediately after the invasion. Mrs. Jones, 63, was subsequently taken to the Bund Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, which also housed Australian prisoners of war from the 1942 Battle of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. Later, Mrs. Jones and the Australian prisoners were held at the Yokohama Yacht Club from 1942 to 1944, and then at the Totsuka prisoner of war camp until their release in August 1945. Mrs. Jones died in December 1965 at age 86 in Bradenton, Florida.^[8]

Before the Attu villagers were returned to the U.S., the American government stated publicly that it was not aware of their status.^[9]

According to Gen. Kiichiro Higuchi, the Commander of the Japanese Northern Army, the invasion of Kiska and Attu was part of a threefold objective:^[10]

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

In late September 1942, the Japanese garrison on Attu was transferred to Kiska, and then Attu was essentially left unoccupied, but American forces made no attempt to occupy Attu during this time. On October 29, 1942, the Japanese reestablished a base on Attu at Holtz Bay under the command of Lt. Col. Hiroshi Yanekawa. Initially the garrison was about 500 troops, but through reinforcements, that number reached about 2,300 by March 10, 1943. No more reinforcements arrived after that time, owing mainly to the efforts of the U.S. naval force under Rear Admiral Charles "Soc" McMorris, and U.S. Navy submarines. McMorris had been assigned to interdict the Japanese supply and reinforcement convoys. After the sizable naval Battle of the Komandorski Islands, the Japanese abandoned their attempts to resupply its Aleutian garrisons by surface ships. From then on, only submarines were used for the resupply runs.^[10]

U.S. troops negotiate snow and ice during the battle on Attu in May 1943.

On May 11, 1943, the American 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. Army vehicles would not work on the tundra; the Japanese defenders under Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but rather they dug in on high ground away from the shore. This resulted in bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to infectious diseases, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes – largely from Japanese booby traps and from friendly fire. The Japanese were defeated in Massacre Valley; the death count for the Japanese was 2,035. 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 naval, air, and artillery bombardments over the course of the battle.

The other Japanese forces in the Aleutians, after realizing that their position was now vulnerable, evacuated Kiska three months later.

The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) built a larger airfield, the Alexai Point Army Airfield, and then used it on July 10, 1943 as the base for an air attack on the Japanese-held Kurile Islands, now a part of Russia; this was the first air attack on the Japanese "homelands" since the famous Doolittle Raid in 1942. Other attacks followed.^[3]

On April 11, 1945, in a period of only two hours, at least nine Japanese incendiary balloons sent to start forest fires in the United States West Coast were intercepted and shot down near Attu by USAAF P-38 Lightning aircraft.^[11]

Postwar[edit]

The Second World War peace memorial on Attu Island

After the war, the survivors of the Otaru prison camp were shipped to other Aleutian islands or to the mainland of Alaska, as there were not enough survivors to sustain their old village at Attu; the United States government decided to construct a LORAN station on the southern tip of Attu, at Theodore Point. This installation was manned by a crew of about twenty members of 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 1954, the station was moved to Casco Cove, near the former Navy Base at Massacre Bay. In 1960, it was moved to Massacre Bay.

The island previously had scheduled airline service to and from Anchorage (ANC) flown by Reeve Aleutian Airways (RAA) which in 1976 was operating two direct flights a week between ANC and Attu with Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop aircraft via an en route stop either at Adak Airport or Shemya in the Aleutian Islands.^[12] At the time, the airport on Attu was the westernmost airfield located in the U.S. to have scheduled passenger airline service.

The battlefield area and subsequent military sites were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985.^[3][7]

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 July 2007, the boots and foot bones of a Japanese soldier were found on the island, and on May 23, 2008, the remains of two more Japanese soldiers were discovered by U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard Brahm, a public affairs specialist who was a documentarian for the remains recovery team.^[13] More remains were located at the burial site, but were left untouched with plans to return at a later time and have them exhumed properly.^[14][15][16]

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.

Veteran Bill 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.

On August 1, 2010, the United States Coast Guard LORAN station on Attu permanently ceased operation. On August 27, 2010, the station was decommissioned and the Coast Guard personnel left, leaving the island with no resident population.^[2]

On June 7, 2012, the 70th anniversary of the Japanese invasion, Senator Lisa Murkowski and United States Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo dedicated a memorial to Attu Village, its residents who died in Japanese captivity, and the survivors who were unable to return.^[17]

In 2015, Attu Island was visited by pilot and world circumnavigator, Michael Smith; the island was a crucial refueling stop for Michael as he made his way from Adak island in the Aleutian Islands to Japan. As the island is uninhabited, he had to first fly containers of fuel there and then return as part of the journey from Adak to Japan,^[18] he was advised against staying overnight as there are large rats on the island.^[19]

Demographics[edit]

Attu first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as the unincorporated Aleut village of "Attoo",^[22] which at the time consisted of the village on western Chichagof Harbor, it had 107 residents, consisting of 74 Aleuts, 32 "Creoles" (mixed Russian and Native) and 1 White resident.^[23] In 1890, it appeared as Attu, it did not return as Attu again until 1930. It also appeared on the 1940 census, a few years before the Japanese invasion of the village and island, it did not return again until 1980, when it consisted of the naval station residents at Massacre Bay, and was made a census-designated place (CDP). It did not return on the 1990 census; the name was changed to Attu Naval Station and redesignated a CDP in 2000. It appeared lastly on the 2010 census, just before the closure of the station in August that year and the departure of its remaining residents.

Climate[edit]

The weather on Attu is typically 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 39–49 inches (990–1,240 mm) of annual rainfall and other precipitation, with the heaviest rains in the autumn and early winter. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Attu has an ocean-moderated subarctic climate (Dfc) closely bordering on a tundra climate (ETf) For its latitude the climate is exceptionally chilly, with daytime maximum temperatures averaging mid-50's in summer.

Birding[edit]

Attu was an important location in the world of competitive birding, whose goal is to see or hear the largest possible number of bird species within a specific geographic area during a specific time period; because it is so physically remote from other parts of North America, there are a number of bird species likely to be found on Attu that are not seen anywhere else on the continent. John Fitchen called the island, "the Holy Grail of North American birding".^[25]

During his record-setting big year of 1998, in which he identified a record 745 species (later revised to 748), Sandy Komito spent 29 days (May 10 – June 7) on the island.^[26] Since the closure of Attu Station by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2010, access to the island by birders has been greatly restricted. In a 2010 interview on the subject, Al Levantin (one of Komito's competitors during the 1998 season) singled out inaccessibility of Attu as the factor that would make it nearly impossible to break Komito's record.^[27] However, Neil Hayward did break the record, by one species, in 2013 without visiting Attu.^[28]

Education[edit]

In the pre-World War II period, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) operated the sole school on the island. At the time of Attu's capture, the school had a single teacher who was a White American woman;^[29] as of 2017^[update], the uninhabited island is physically within the Aleutian Region School District.^[30]

In popular culture[edit]

• Attu Island is the location for the 2006 PBS documentary film Red White Black & Blue, which features two American war veterans returning to the island 60 years after surviving the 1943 Battle of Attu during World War II between American and Canadian forces and the Japanese Empire.
• Attu is the setting for part of the 2011 movie The Big Year, which stars Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson as avid birdwatchers who take a trip to the island for exclusive birdwatching.
• Attu Island was visited in 2013 by the co-hosts and crew of Chinese web-documentary On The Road, where they searched the island in an attempt to find fuel for their sailboat.

See also[edit]

• Aleutian Islands Campaign
• Kiska
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Alaska
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska
• Peaceful River (Alaska)

Web references[edit]

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

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Attu Island.

• 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 (in Japanese) Suicide for the Emperor?
• ”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