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INTRODUCTION
The closure of the U.S. Coast Guard LORAN C station on Attu in 2010 left the island uninhabited for the first time since around 500BC. Today, Atturemains isolated, difficult to visit. The remnants ofWorld War II and the Cold War are still there, as aretraces of the former Aleut village. Largely forgottenis the May 1943 battle to retake the island from theJapanese who occupied Attu June 1942 as part oftheir Midway-Aleutian operations.

While the Battle of Midway is one of the most studied and documented battles of World War II in the Pacific, the Battle of Attu and the Aleutian Campaign are treated as a side show with paltry and often factually flawed accounts.
Attu stands out as the scene of the only land battle fought on North American soil during World War II and the second most costly assault in the Pacific following Iwo Jima in terms of number of troops engaged. The Americans suffered 71 killed or wounded retaking Attu for every 100 Japanese who defended the island.

Most people are unaware that the United States launched its first offensive operations in the Pacific with the Aleutian Campaign, June 1942-August 1943. It preceded landing on Guadalcanal by two months. It involved joint Army-Navy air, ground and sea combat operations for the first time. The recapture of Attu in May 1943 was the first time enemy-occupied American territory was retaken during the war. Also lost to general knowledge is the fact that Attu was also the first joint service amphibious assault of the war in the Pacific, and the first Army island amphibious operation of the war.

Other notable war firsts were the first sustained air campaign in American history, the first employment of aircraft carrier-based aircraft in close air support of ground forces, the first land-based bombing of the Japanese Homeland, the first and last Japanese land and aircraft carrier based air attacks against North America and the last classic daylight naval surface battle in history and the longest one of World War II.

Marine Corps General and amphibious expert, Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith, who trained five of the 28 Army divisions qualified in amphibious operations, including the 7th Infantry Division employed on Attu, remembered: “I have always considered the landing of the Seventh in the fog of Attu, on May 11, 1943, an amphibious landing without parallel in our military history.”1

Attu provided the first encounter with an all-out, last ditch Banzai charge by the Japanese in which they chose death over the dishonor of surrender. The concept of self-sacrifice “Gyokusai,” a glorious end, was part of the psychological makeup of the Japanese soldier. It left a deep impression on General Smith, who was on Adak Island, and flew over the battlefield. “That mad charge through the fog made a profound impression and alerted me to the ever-present danger of just such a final desperate attack during my operations in the Central Pacific. Before I left the Aleutians, I decided to amplify our training to include countermeasures against such an eventuality.”

Finally, overlooked by most and known toonly a few, the Aleutians and the Pribilof Islands to the north were the scene of a U.S. military forced evacuation and relocation of the entire Aleut population, now also referred to as Unangax (Seasiders or Coastal People). It also saw the loss of four Aleut villages (Attu, Biorka, Kashega and Makushin) and the only imprisonment of a North American community in Japan when the Attu villageresidents were taken to Hokkaido Island in 1942.

The Aleutian Campaign served as the progenitor of what later became standard practice in the Pacific Theater, the bypassing of stronger held islands for weaker held ones and the turning of them into advance air and naval bases. It set the pattern. The campaign also established tactical concepts such as forward air control and low-level bomber attacks that would be used elsewhere in the Pacific.

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administers Attu as part of the Alaska National Maritime Wildlife Refuge and for its historic significance as part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. The National Park Service provides historic preservation technical assistance through its partnership with the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area and Attu’s National Historic Landmark status. The two federal agencies collaborate in preserving and protecting the place.