THE ALEUTIAN FRONT
Stretching more than twelve hundred miles across the northern Pacific, from Alaska to Siberia, the Aleutian archipelago seemed an unlikely setting for conflict due to both its isolation and its terrible weather. It was a decision by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese combined fleet, that brought war to that inhospitable island chain. Yamamoto's decision to attack the Aleutians in June 1942 seems now to have been more of a diversionary tactic to draw the American fleet out of Pearl Harbor, and away from Midway, rather than to secure a staging area for a mainland assault on American land. Whatever his intent, the diversion failed. U.S. Navy intelligence had broken the Japanese war codes and knew of the movement of their fleet. The attack at Midway became a disaster for the Japanese Navy, and a turning point in the war.
At that point Yamamoto, in an apparent effort to save face, ordered his northern fleet to continue its operations in the Aleutians. His fleet had launched an air attack against Dutch Harbor, Alaska on June 3, 1942, just before the Battle of Midway. They then turned their attention to Attu and Kiska islands at the western end of the archipelago. Encountering no opposition, Japanese landing forces controlled both islands by June 7. Originally Yamamoto planned to occupy those tiny islands during the short summer months only, but instead he decided to establish permanent airfields and naval facilities to harass American forces building up in that Theater of Operations.
Those Japanese installations were militarily insignificant, but they stirred considerable concern on the American home front, fanned by media speculation that an attack on the United States from the north was likely. To allay those fears it was deemed necessary to clear the enemy from the Aleutians. However, Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., Alaska Defense Commander, in defining Alaska's being hopelessly unready for war, said, "We're not even the second team up here - we're a sandlot club."
Not until the spring of 1943 was the U.S. able to collect needed forces and supplies to assault the islands Japan had occupied. The 7th Infantry Division from Fort Ord, California was assigned to retake Attu Island, the first objective. There were thought to be only five hundred enemy troops on Attu, but it was later learned three thousand were garrisoned there.
After several days of the inevitable weather delays, the 7th landed unopposed on cold and foggy Attu on May 11. Enemy fire began to rain down from the island's jagged hills. After more than two weeks of hard fighting in harsh weather, the battle ended when eight hundred Japanese troops launched a last ditch charge against the American lines. The battle began the night of May 29 and by morning the enemy had been completely defeated and the U.S. Army had taken possession of Attu. The battle left only twenty-eight Japanese to surrender, while the Americans lost five hundred dead and one thousand one hundred wounded, plus the poor weather sidelined two thousand one hundred American troops with non-combatant injuries sustained because they had come unprepared for extended combat in extreme cold conditions.
Three months later the U.S. Army committed troops to Kiska against approximately five thousand Japanese, subjecting them to continual bombing raids and heavy naval bombardment. The enemy decided not to fight, but, aided by an almost continuous fog, managed to evacuate their entire garrison in less than a day on July 28, without the invading Americans being aware of that move. When U.S. forces landed on the island August 15 they assumed the Japanese had moved inland. It was not until August 22 that they realized the island was deserted.
Despite its limited impact on the overall war, the Aleutian campaign furnished several important lessons in amphibious and poor weather operations that proved valuable in later campaigns in the European and Pacific Theaters, as well as providing combat experience to unseasoned American troops. For the American public the Aleutian victory secured the nation's northern flank and eased fears the island would be a launching pad for an invasion against the mainland.