Military history of the Aleutian Islands
By the early 20th century, a number of war strategies examined the possibility of conflict breaking out between the Empire of Japan and the United States.
During the recapture of Kiska by the United States, 92 men died as a result of friendly fire and a mine, despite no Japanese soldiers being present on the island.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) executed a number of nuclear tests on the island of Amchitka in the face of vehement opposition from environmental and local indigenous groups.
In 1911, the Naval War Board considered three options through which Japan could mount an invasion of the United States, one of which involved an attack on the Aleutian Islands.
Article XIX of the Treaty required Japan, Britain and the United States to maintain the status quo in terms of military fortifications in their respective Pacific Rim territories.
In 1923, two scouting ships investigated the possibility of establishing anchorages off the Islands, and attempted to claim the United States Army's bases on the Aleutians for the purposes of national security.
United States President Herbert Hoover did not concentrate his government's resources on developing the nation's military due to the economic challenge posed by the Great Depression.
In 1930, one of Hoover's aides claimed that North America's coastal islands would play little part in a potential war between the United States and Japan unless the Navy was rendered ineffective and Canada turned against its southern neighbor.
Although the ship was purportedly only carrying farming and forestry specialists, John Troy, then the Governor of Alaska, believed that the Aleutian Islands was a possible target for enemy navies and lobbied the federal government for military support.
"[12] In May 1934, following reports of a Japanese spy operating out of Dutch Harbor, the United States Navy dispatched Edwin T. Layton to the Aleutians to investigate the allegations.
[13] During the 1930s, a number of United States governmental committees, boards and reports concluded that air bases in the Aleutians would be for the most part impractical due to the region's inclement weather.
[14] On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy executed a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into a war against Japan, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
With the Aleutians located just 650 miles (1,050 km) east of the Kuril Islands, the former served as an ideal physical bridge between the two nations of Japan and the United States.
Although dismal climate conditions on the Aleutians made an approach by Japan unlikely, neither of the two countries could afford to not cover their bases with respect to these islands.
On April 18, 1942, sixteen United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft bombed Tokyo in what has become known as the Doolittle Raid.
[16] An early strategic plan by Isoroku Yamamoto involved the occupation of the western Aleutians and Midway Island as a 'decoy' to lure the United States Pacific Fleet away from Pearl Harbor so as to effect the complete destruction of the Hawaiian base before reconstruction efforts could take hold.
The Imperial Japanese Navy's plan was to attack and hold Attu and Kiska for future use, while inflicting damage on Dutch Harbor and Adak.
Once the United States Navy learned of the plan, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz sent a third of his Pacific Fleet to the Aleutian Islands, under orders to hold Dutch Harbor at all costs.
On June 3, Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Boshirō Hosogaya ordered some of his aircraft to attack Dutch Harbor, despite rough conditions in the air and on the ground.
On June 4, the aircraft returned, and attacked the town's oil storage tanks, a barracks ship and part of the military base's hospital.
The American public feared that the Japanese forces might stage aerial attacks on mainland United States West Coast cities from the recently occupied islands and it was the desire of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to recapture them as quickly as possible.
In two weeks, the United States Army Corps of Engineers had constructed an airfield on the island, and on September 14, a number of Consolidated B-24 Liberators took off from Adak to attack Kiska.
However, as there were not enough ships to transport such a large division to the Aleutians, Kinkaid suggested that the Americans' objective change from Kiska, which was defended by about 9,000 men, to Attu, which was home to only 500 Japanese.
With the recapturing operation scheduled to begin on August 15, the Eleventh Air Force dropped 424 tons of bombs on Kiska during the month of July.
[16] The Japanese had completely deserted their buildings on the island, leaving behind them scrawled messages on the walls for the Allied troops to read – most attacked President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill; for example, one of the messages read, in a mixture of English and German, "You are dancing by foolische order of Rousebelt [sic].
Forceful objections were raised against the testing by a number of organisations and groups, most notably the Aleut people, who, although they vacated the island in the 19th century after Russian fur traders reduced sea otter numbers in the area, are resident on nearby islands, and were concerned about radiation leaks as well as potential physical damage resulting from the nuclear tests.
On November 6, 1971, the Cannikin bomb was detonated, creating a 60 feet (18 m) deep crater in the island, killing 1,000 sea otters and thousands of birds.
