National Register Listing

Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields on Attu

Attu Island, Aleutian Islands, AK

The Japanese occupation of Attu and the American recapture of the island are significant in the history of World War II in several ways. The Japanese occupation, coordinated with the June 1942 attack on Midway, marked the peak of Japan's military expansion in the Pacific. The occupation of this remote part of the North American Continent created great alarm among Americans, however briefly, that it was the beginning of an invasion of the United States through Alaska. The invasion also posed a serious threat to United States-Siberian communications (lend-lease to Russia). Significant, too, was the fact that tens of thousands of American military had now to be diverted to the Alaskan Theater who could have been deployed elsewhere in the Pacific. The capture of Attu and neighboring Kiska was important to Japan in that it was the only positive result to come out of the defeat of the Imperial Fleet at the Battle of Midway. Further, the occupation brought about the end of the centuries-old history of Aleuts on Attu when the inhabitants were taken to Japan as prisoners.

The recapture of Attu by Americans in 1943 was significant because of its importance to the morale of the American people, who had little to cheer about at that time. The battle was significant in that it illustrated the worthiness of the American soldier against his enemy and it illustrated the loyalty of the Japanese soldier to his cause when only 29 out of 2,500 survived the battle. Mistakes made and lessons learned in amphibious landings, tactics, and logistical planning made significant contributions to future U.S. Pacific operations. Post-battle bombing raids on Japanese territory from Attu tied up significant numbers of Japanese defense forces and demonstrated that the Home Islands were not safe from air attack and, perhaps, invasion from the north. A military historian has written, "in terms of numbers engaged, Attu ranks as one of the most costly assaults in the Pacific. In terms of Japanese destruction, the cost of taking Attu was second only to Iwo Jima: for every hundred of the enemy on the island, about seventy-one Americans were killed or wounded.

Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1985.