Just how close was the war coming to the West coast of continental USA?
these are captured Japanese Midget submarines that were being assembled on the Aluetian Islands...these islands are a chain that stretches across the North of the Pacific and you can almost island hop between Alaska and Russia.....
mortar pit- US ground forces counter battery firing against Japanese.
remenants of the final battle- these are all Japanese solders mown down after a BANZAI charge!!!
With thanks to wkipedia
During
World War II, small parts of the Aleutian islands were occupied by
Japanese forces, when
Attu and
Kiska were invaded in order to divert American forces away from the main Japanese attack at
Midway Atoll. The U.S. Navy, having broken the
Japanese naval codes, knew that this was just a diversion, and it did not expend large amounts of effort in defending the islands. More than 90 Americans were taken to Japan as prisoners of war. Most of the civilian population (over 800) of the Aleutians and Pribilovians were interned by the United States in camps in the
Alaska Panhandle. During the
Aleutian Islands Campaign, American and Canadian forces invaded Japanese-held Attu and defeated the Japanese, and subsequently regained control of all the islands. The islands were also a stopping point for hundreds of aircraft sent from California to Russia as part of the war effort.
[dubious – discuss]
Monday, June 3, 2002 was celebrated as Dutch Harbor Remembrance Day. The governor of Alaska ordered state flags lowered to half-staff to honor the 78 soldiers who died during the two-day Japanese air attack in 1942. The
Aleutian World War II National Historic Area Visitors Center opened in June 2002.
