Not only was this a blow to American morale, but by occupying Kiska and Attu, the Japanese now posed a legitimate threat to Alaska and Western Canada.
It would be nearly a year before American ground forces finally moved against the Japanese in the Western Aleutians. The time had come to remove the Japanese threat to the Aleutian Islands. Star Shirley Temple had a special relationship with the Hawaiian Islands.
In the prewar years, she made several tours of Hawaii, delighting local and military audiences. World War II shaped conversations on the future of service including universal military training and conscription.
Jazz in the late s moved away from big band jazz and morphed into a new expressive form that reflected social developments and post-war realities. During World War II, 4-H members contributed to the war effort in many ways—through military service, as well as efforts on the home front.
Robert Riskin, head of the Bureau of Motion Pictures, was responsible for creating Projections of America , a documentary film series that became one of the most important propaganda initiatives of World War II. While the war provided opportunities for soldiers to foster their sense of manhood, the postwar years and peacetime preferred the husband and father ideal while also finding ways to deal with injured or psychologically traumatized veterans.
The Opening Round of the War in the Aleutians. Home Front. Article Type. Scientists became political activists in the debate over control of atomic energy. The private buildings that made up the village of Dutch Harbor were bought and construction began in the summer of Six months later, the Naval Section base was commissioned, with an air station completed by September When the war began for the United States in December of that year, the base at Dutch Harbor was ill defended.
Only a major artillery position on Ballyhoo Mountain was completed. In May , a Japanese naval force of two aircraft carriers and several smaller ships steamed miles southwest of Unalaska Island.
Their mission was to neutralize the air base at Dutch Harbor and destroy its ability to attack Japan. In a strange compromise, due to the lack of flat ground, American airfields had been built miles east, at Cold Bay, and 80 miles west, on Umnak Island, Cape Field. On June 3rd, at a. The Americans, having broken the enemy code, were prepared. Finding no airfield, the planes dropped their bombs on the Army barracks of Ft.
This tightly packed cluster of white buildings housed most of the 9, men on the island. More bombs fell on radio stations and anti-aircraft positions. No Japanese planes were shot down. Strangely, communication with the American airfields failed during the attacks. No planes came to the defense of Dutch Harbor. Over the next 24 hours, American aircraft searched for the Japanese.
A few unsuccessful attacks were made against the small fleet. On June 4th, Dutch Harbor was attacked again by eleven Zeros, nine Kates and an additional punch of eleven Val dive-bombers. Having photographed the base the previous day, the Japanese dropped bombs that destroyed fuel tanks, and a ship used for power generation the Northwestern , as well as smaller random targets. Once again, communication with the American airfields failed. In total, less than fifty men were killed in action.
The others were killed in ones and twos. The seeds were sown in April, when 16 B bombers, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and commanded by Jimmy Doolittle, bombed Tokyo. The raid did little real damage but shook the Japanese high command. Planning was begun to enlarge the empire eastward, in an arc knifing across the Pacific from Fiji, Western Samoa and Midway Island to the Aleutians--a thousand-mile chain that bends like a longbow from Alaska toward Japan.
Attu, the westernmost island, is only miles from the Russian coast. The Japanese intended to bomb Dutch Harbor a day before an attack on Midway to draw what remained of the U.
Pacific Fleet out of position. But all this strategy was known to American military leaders, thanks to radio intercepts. The Battle of Midway would rage June , and end with the first major defeat of the Japanese war machine. Dutch Harbor would be a very different story. Lowell Thorsness was a year-old Caterpillar driver there a half a century ago. He was a civilian helping the military blaze new roads and level spongy ground for barracks and warehouses.
Retired Adm. James S. Russell, 89, of Tacoma, Wash. He can explain some of the foul-ups. At Dutch Harbor, heroism mixed with slapstick. In the middle of the bombing, here he sits, talking to his rifle. Ord Calif.
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