Attu Island

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Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. Attu Station, the only inhabited area on the island, is actually located at 52°51' north latitude, 173°11' east longitude, technically making it the westernmost point of Alaska (and the United States) in the eastern hemisphere.

It is nearly 1,700 km (1,100 miles) from the Alaskan mainland and 1200 km (750 miles) northeast of the northernmost of the Kurile Islands of Japan. Attu is about 32 km (20 miles) by 56 km (35 miles) in size. Its land area is 892.795 km² (344.71 sq mi). The population as of the 2000 census was 20 persons, all at the Attu Station.

1 History
2 Weather
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The name Attu is a transliteration of the Aleut name of the island. It was called Saint Theodore by the explorer Aleksei Chirikov in 1742.

Aleuts lived on Attu before World War II. But, on June 7, 1942, well into the war, the Japanese invaded the island, a day after invading nearby Kiska. Much of the native population of the islands had been forcibly evacuated before the invasion and interned in camps in the Alaska Panhandle, where many died of chronic disease. The 42 inhabitants who remained on Attu were taken to a prison camp near Otaru, Hokkaido. There, sixteen of them died.

This was not part of a greater offensive against the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, as some had believed. Intercepts of Japanese signals had forewarned the US authorities that the Japanese action was intended as a diversion from the main Japanese attack at Midway. During the winter of 1942, the Japanese reinforced and fortified Attu and Kiska.

A naval force under Rear Admiral Charles McMorris was assigned to interdict the Japanese supply convoys. After the Battle of the Komandorski Islands, Japan abandoned its attempts to resupply its Aleutian garrisons by the surface. From then on, only submarines were used for the resupply runs.

On May 11, 1943, the 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, because vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yamasaki did not contest the landings but rather dug in on high ground away from the shore. This battle produced some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theatre, similar to the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. There were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1148 were injured, 1200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire.

Image:AttuSnow.jpg

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 an officer. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle.

The Japanese forces, after realizing their position was now vulnerable, evacuated Kiska three months later.

Map of the Near Islands, of which Attu is the largest. It should be possible to replace this fair use image with a freely licensed one. If you can, please do so as soon as is practical.

After the war, the survivors of the Otaru prison camp were repatriated to other Aleutian islands or to the mainland of Alaska, and the United States government decided to construct a LORAN station on the southern tip of Attu, at Theodore Point. This installation is currently manned by 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 1960, the station was moved to Casco Cove, near the former Navy Base at Massacre Bay. Later it was moved to Massacre Bay.

The 2006 documentary film Red White Black & Blue features two veterans of the Attu Island campaign, Bill Jones and Andy Petrus. It is directed by Tom Putnam, and debuted at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland on August 4th, 2006.

[edit] Weather

The weather on Attu is typical Aleutian weather: 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 1000-1250 mm (forty to fifty inches) of annual rainfall, with the heaviest rains in autumn and early winter.