|
myOtaku.com
• Join Today!
My Pages
• Home
• Portfolio
• Guestbook
• Quiz Results
Contact Me
E-mail
• Click Here
OtakuBoards
• SomeGuy
Vitals
Birthday
• 1983-08-05
Gender
•
Male
Location
• Vancouver, BC
Member Since
• 2003-08-02
Occupation
• Writer; Part-Time Hero
Real Name
• James
Personal
Achievements
• Visiting eight different myO friends in person thus far
Anime Fan Since
• Winter 2001
Favorite Anime
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, .hack//SIGN, Naruto, Bleach, Beck, Peacemaker Kurogane, Ranma 1/2 (the guilty pleasure)
Goals
• Visit the myO friends I've missed thus far; complete a cosplay from 300
Hobbies
• Writing, Gaming, Kung Fu, Movies, Acting somewhat strange in general
Talents
• Can recognise most quotes from almost any movie/show on first listen; Can recite the entire 12 days of Christmas by memory
|
|
|
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Battle of the Aleutian Islands, June 1942 - August 1943
For North America, the Pacific War started when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Then they captured Wake Island. Then they attacked Midway and later lost a naval battle there. Right around that same time, they invaded and occupied parts of Alaska.
Oh, you didn't know that Japan controlled United States territory in World War II? Yeah, that bit tends to get overshadowed by the other bigger battles around that time . . . . .
Some people called it a diversionary attack to take attention away from the Battle of Midway, though others disagree. In any case, the fact stands that on June 3rd, 1942, the Japanese military bombed Dutch Harbor, though bad weather meant only about half the bombs hit their targets. Three days later they landed ground troops on the Aleutian Island of Kiska, and the next day on Attu. There was minimal resistance being that the only defenders of these tiny, tiny islands were the resident Aleuts who could were unable to evacuate to the mainland - 42 Aleuts were captured as prisoners and sent to Japan, where 16 later died.
Again, let me stress some points. These are two of the Aleutian Islands furthest away from continental Alaska; they are tiny specs in the Bering Sea; they are in the middle of nowhere. Save for blocking a possible pathway for America to approach Japan, the islands realistically serve very little strategic value.
But you know what? They were still United States territories, and no one had attacked those since 1812 . . . even if the Japanese never built an airbase or started launching heavy bombers from those islands, there was still a very real pride base to eject the 8500 Japanese soldiers occupying those two islands . . .
In August of that year, The United States built an airbase on Adak Island (another Aleutian Island halfway between Kiska and the continent) and began bombing the heck out of Kiska for pretty much the rest of the year.
In March of 1943, the US navy managed to cut down supplies to the Japanese positions, who from that point on could only rely on submarines for resupply.
On May 11th, the US started its plan to recapture Attu (the island further out), which they believed to be more lightly defended that Kiska (perhaps about 500 defenders, though it later turned out to be more like 3000 or more). So with 11,000 men from the US 7th Division, they stormed the beaches of Attu. And they didn't have enough landing craft to land everyone at once. And the beaches were not kind to those landing. And equipment didn't work in the harsh climate. And there was not nearly enough winter gear to pass around to all the soldiers (they figured they'd have the island recaptured in three days or so, so even without enough winter coats it'd be okay). Oh yeah, and the Japanese held the high ground in prepared positions . . . . .
For 18 days, the US army fought a vicious, violent uphill battle against both the opposing army and the elements. Frostbite and disease claimed more American lives than the actual fighting, and equipment had to be dragged by hand since vehicles refused to work in the harsh tundra. Nevertheless, The 7th pushed on and began taking back the island . . .
. . . in the middle of the night, on the 28th, the Japanese launched one of the largest Banzai charges of the war - for those of you who don't know, a banzai charge is essentially a suicide charge. A thousand or more screaming soldiers, led by the commanding officer himself, charging through the night to bayonet-point took the American positions completely by surprise, leading to a long, bloody, and extremely costly melee until the Japanese were almost dead to the last man.
On Attu alone, from a strength of about 11,000 men, the US forces suffered 529 men killed in action, 1148 more wounded, 1200 had frostbite, 614 died of disease, and 318 more died to booby traps or friendly fire. In contrast, there were 2,351 confirmed Japanese dead after the fighting was over.
The plan to retake Kiska was give more gravity; if that's what Attu cost, what could Kiska cost? 34,000 odd troops including 5,300 Canadians stormed Kiska on August 7th after a week of air strikes on the Japanese positions . . . . . and they learned that the Japanese had all evacuated over a week prior - they decided it was time to give up their pointless position. Oh, despite there being no Japanese on the island, the Allies still suffered 313 assorted casualties, again from booby traps, friendly fire, or the elements.
So here we have a clear victory over the Axis. It took over a year, took over ten times the manpower of the opposing force (144,000 Allied men versus 8,500 Japanese), and still wreaked some pretty brutal casualty numbers. But then of course no one remembers it because it happened the same time that the US Marines were fighting at Guadalcanal.
The Japanese invaded and captured parts of North America and held it - they held it very well, in fact. And we had to pay very dearly to get those two little islands back. I think that's somewhat noteworthy . . . how about you?
(US soldiers hauling equipment by hand through the snow at Attu)
Comments
(6)
« Home |
|
