The Forgotten War

The Aleutian Campaign of 1942 has been called “The Forgotten War.” The truth of that descriptor came home to me today when one of our shipmates complained in her travel blog that there was nothing to see in the little run-down town of Dutch Harbor. Viking even had to rely on volunteers driving school buses to take us into town. She and her husband just decided to stay onboard the ship. In her words, “There’s nothing here. Dutch Harbor is just one more small, shabby town in Alaska.”

She doesn’t get it.

This was the high point of the cruise for me. Touring Dutch Harbor was the main reason I decided to take this Viking voyage to Alaska and the Far East. In addition to being the home harbor for the fishing fleet appearing in the television series, “The Deadliest Catch,” Dutch Harbor figures prominently in American history.

In June of 1942 Dutch Harbor was the first American town bombed by the Imperial Japanese forces after Pearl Harbor. Nearby Attu and Kiska Islands were the only parts of the continental United States to be invaded by Japanese troops. Forty-two U. S. citizens were captured by the Japanese and taken to a POW camp in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Ostensibly to prevent further captives by the Japanese, a total of 880 Unagan (Russian settlers here called them “Aleut”) natives were forcibly relocated by the United States government to southeastern Alaska into buildings formerly used as canneries or mines. Conditions were deplorable, far worse than those of the POW camps in Alaska housing German prisoners of war. One out of every ten Unagan natives died from hypothermia or disease.

How unfortunate that my shipmate did not remember. The Aleutian Campaign has become the forgotten war. When the United States forces attempted to recapture Attu Island, casualties were heavy on both sides. Of the Japanese force of 2,500 only 29 survived. Of the 15,000 American troops, 550 died, 1500 were wounded, and another 1200 were injured by the cold climate. The soldiers on both sides faced more than bullets and bombs. There was an even greater danger--Alaska. The terrain and the weather caused as many casualties as hostile action. Corporal Dashiell Hammett, who later wrote “The Maltese Falcon,” wrote about this place, “Modern armies had never before fought on any field that was like the Aleutians. We could borrow no knowledge from the past. We would have to learn as we went along, how to live and fight and win in this new land, the least known part of our America.”

Many of World War II buildings in Dutch Harbor are still in use. They have been given fresh coats of paint, and have been repaired or enlarged over the years, but they are still recognizable as barracks, mess halls, control towers. One building is now an orphanage, another is an office. The airfield the Army Air Corps built here in nine days with Marston mats now serves as the airport at Dutch Harbor. The old control tower is now the Aleutian Campaign Museum. Concrete ruins of anti-aircraft batteries and gun emplacements are still scattered around town. Shabby? Classic? Historic? I guess it’s a matter of opinion.

Glenda and I took one of the school buses into town enjoying the commentary of an extremely informative guide, a volunteer local resident. As we stepped off the bus, the first resident to greet us was a stately bald eagle sitting on top of a street light pole. We wandered through town, enjoying two museums and stopping by Alaska Ship Supply Co. to buy a pair of shoelaces. The World War II Museum in the refurbished control tower lies adjacent to the airport. Another bus ride took us to Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Church. Lunch on the ship was followed by a hike up Ballyhoo Mountain to the site of an old U. S. Army observation post.

This small, shabby town should hold an honored place in American history. It is the site of the only foreign invasion of American soil since the War of 1812, and its name should be mentioned with those of other pieces of hallowed ground such as Saratoga, Chancellorsville, and Iwo Jima. No matter what one’s views of the combatants of World War II may be, we must not forget the young women and men who struggled here to oppose Japanese hegemony in the mid-twentieth century. Every one was afraid, but they gritted their teeth, did their duty, and some performed deeds considered heroic.

The past is past. This is a different century. Almost all of the Americans, Japanese and Germans who fought in that war are gone now, and we cannot blame people alive today for what their grandparents did. As individuals and as nations we must forgive what is past.

But we cannot forget.

Fore more information, check out:
https://www.nps.gov/aleu/learn/historyculture/i…Læs mere