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Attu is the Westernmost Island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska , making it the westernmost point of land in Alaska and the United States . Attu Station is located at 52°51' north latitude, 173°11' east longitude. It is nearly 1,700 km (1,100 miles) from the Alaskan mainland and 1200 km (750 miles) northeast of the northernmost of the Kurile Islands of Japan . Attu is about 32 km (20 miles) by 56 km (35 miles) in size. HISTORY The name ''Attu'' is a transliteration of the Aleut name of the island. It was called ''Saint Theodore'' by the explorer Aleksei Chirikov in 1742 . Aleuts lived on Attu before World War II . But, on June 7 , 1942 , well into the war, the Japanese invaded the island, a day after invading nearby Kiska . The Japanese relocated the forty-two inhabitants of Attu to a prison camp near Otaru on the island of Hokkaido ; there, sixteen died. This was not part of a greater offensive against the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, as some had believed. Intercepts of Japanese Signals had forewarned the US authorities that the Japanese action was intended as a diversion from the main Japanese attack at Midway . During the winter of 1942, the Japanese reinforced and fortified Attu and Kiska. However, after the Battle Of The Komandorski Islands , Japan abandoned its attempts to resupply its Aleutian garrisons by the surface. From then on, only Submarine s were used for the resupply runs. On , the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest Banzai Charge s of the pacific campaign. The charge penetrated American lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, and often Hand-to-hand Combat , the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man. American burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle. The Japanese forces, after realizing their position was now vulnerable, evacuated Kiska three months later. Apparently, Attu and Kiska were of little or no use as a base for attacking the Japanese elsewhere. After the war, the survivors of the Otaru prison camp were repatriated to other Aleutian islands or to the mainland of Alaska, and the United States government decided to construct a LORAN station on the southern tip of Attu, at Theodore Point. This installation, currently manned by the United States Coast Guard, has seen tours of duty by such famous Coastguardsmen as SNSS Johnny Egarton and ET1 Dan Wills. The equipment to build the station came out of Holtz Bay and was ferried on barges and landing craft to Baxter Cove, about one mile east of the station. Bulldozers were used to cut a road from Baxter Cove to Theodore Point. In 1960 , the station was moved to Casco Cove, near the former Navy Base at Massacre Bay. Later it was moved to Massacre Bay. The 2006 documentary film Red White Black & Blue features two veterans of the Attu Island campaign, Bill Jones and Andy Petrus. It is directed by Tom Putnam, and debuted at the 2006 Independent Film Festival of Boston. WEATHER The weather on Attu is typical Aleutian weather: cloudy, rainy, and foggy. High winds occur occasionally. Five or six days a week are likely to be rainy, and there are only about eight or ten clear days a year. The rest of the time, even if rain is not falling, fog of varying density is the rule rather than the exception. There are forty to fifty inches of annual rainfall, with the heaviest rains in Autumn and early Winter . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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