Sometimes called the “Forgotten Front1” or the “Forgotten War2” the battle for the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska was one of the bloodiest of WWII. With the Battle for Attu still fresh in their minds, on August 14th, 1943 the US military sent over 100 ships and 30,000 men to land on the island of Kiska to attack a Japanese force estimated at 10,000 men. What they found on the island wound up shocking the Allied Forces.
HISTORY
In December of 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, pulling the US into WWII. The Japanese commander in charge of the Navy, Admiral Yamamoto, was looking for an opportunity to pull the US Navy into a battle in which he could decisively engage and destroy its carriers. He decided that the best target available would be Midway. However, as a distraction, in June of 1942, Yamamoto opened up a second front by attacking the Aleutian Islands.
Unbeknownst to Admiral Yamamoto, US code breakers had deciphered the Japanese radio transmissions and the Americans knew exactly what he was doing. With this knowledge, Admiral Nimitz, commander of the US Naval forces in the Pacific, decided to send a contingent of 21 ships to Alaska and retained the rest of his fleet in the defense of Midway. The Japanese fleet was able to elude the Americans and attack the base at Dutch Harbor on the 3rd and 4th of June. Afterwards they were able to evade a naval confrontation again, and landed on the islands of Kiska and Attu on the 7th of June, quickly subduing the military and civilian inhabitants.
During the rest of the summer the US and Japanese traded blows, with the US Air Force regularly bombarding the forces on Kiska. To the frustration of the Americans they were not able to dislodge them. Continuing t...
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The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious events that happened in U.S. history. On December 7, 1941, Japan made a surprise aerial attack on the United States naval base and airfields at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than two thousand Americans died and a thousand two hundred were wounded. Eighteen ships were badly damaged, including five battleships. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt with the support of the Congress, declared war on Japan. It led United States’ official involvement in World War II. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of a deteriorating relationship with the U. S. The “New World Order”, expansion and resources, and economic sanctions were factors that conducted to another disaster on the Second World War.
“Now It’s the Japanese Who Will ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’.” Daily Boston Globe 7 June 1942: D1 ProQuest. Web. 13 March 2014.
Initially, Japanese strategists assumed that the tiny island would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours. However, they underestimated the fighting spirit of the military personnel and civilians stationed on the island. For sixteen days these brave men fought against overwhelming odds, but demonstrated both to the Japanese and to their fellow Americans back at home that the Americans could and would put up a courageous fight.
Japan bombed the Dutch harbor in Alaska on the days of June 3rd and 4th. Japan landed there instead of on the islands of Attu and Kiska, in fear the United States might be there. The attacks failed when the plan to get the American fleet from Midway to aid the freshly bombed Dutch harbor. At 0900 hours, an American patrol boat spotted the Japanese fleet seven hundred miles from Midway. At that point, admiral Soroku Yamamoto’s plans for a sneak attack were over.
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The book begins right in the midst of the clean up effort in Pearl Harbor; Admiral Chester Nimitz was sent immediately after the bombs fell to take command of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz would obtain control of the Pacific fleet for the entirety of the novel. He contributed many key decisions that would lead to an American victory. On the opposing side Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku would lead his feared task force against the American fleet. A large advantage dealing with the way the tasks forces operated is revealed early in the book and would prove vital in the battle. Throughout the book it was made obvious that air craft carriers where essential for victory. When attaching an American Fleet or land based asset the Japanese combined all their carriers in a task force called The Kido Butai. While this task force h...
On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
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However, they didn’t know where or how the attack would occur. The surprise attack turned out to be a launch on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This angered Americans to the extent that the US declared war on Japan the next day. Even though the US favored neutrality, the United States was forced to enter war. The progressive violent actions of the Japanese government against the US economic interests are what ultimately triggered the United States’s declaration to enter the war.
The History of the Metis The Metis were partly french and partly indian. Their leader was called Louis riel. Following the Union of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company in 1821, trading had been reorganized in order to reduce expenses. Since there was no longer competition in the fur trade, it was unnecessary to have two or more posts serving a single trading district.
The Battle of Midway came about when the Japanese wished to extend their Pacific control, broaching the idea to initiate a battle against the U.S. Navy. After the Japanese success at Pearl Harbor and their success coming to a standstill at Coral Sea one month earlier, Japanese commander, Admiral Yamamoto, had belief that it was necessary to hold a full battle at Midway as a deciding engagement. He thought that the Japanese had an increased chance of success, being that the U.S. had a certain disadvantage, only having two carriers since they had sunk U.S.S. Yorktown at Coral Sea, compared to the Japanese's 6 carriers, but the ship had been repaired. He also wanted to get revenge for the Doolittle Raid, an air attack on Tokyo performed by U.S. forces. To receive the Pacific gain Yamamoto so desired, he wanted to first attract a large portion of the U.S. fleet away from Midway, where they would attack, bringing the American Navy a fatal surprise. Yamamoto attempted to pull this idea through by launching an attack on the Alaskan Coast to drag the Americans North, then proceeding to attack on Midway. The Alaskan trap was just a waste of resources, the submarines sent to attack the U.S. were too late, the U.S. already knew of their plans. To the Japanese's surprise, U.S. forces were awaiting the Japanese arrival on June 4, 1942. Yamamoto had to con...
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