Aleutian Islands Campaign The Aleutian Islands Campaign was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands , part of the Alaska Territory , in the Pacific campaign of World War II starting on 3 June 1942 . A small Japan ese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska , but the remoteness of the islands and the difficulties of weather and terrain meant that it took nearly a year for a far larger U . S . / Canadian force to eject them . The islands ' strategic value was their ability to control Pacific Great Circle routes . This control of the Pacific transportation routes is why U . S . General Billy Mitchell stated to the U . S . Congress in 1935 , " I believe that in the future , whoever holds Alaska will hold the world . I think it is the most important strategic place in the world . " The Japanese reasoned that control of the Aleutians would prevent a possible U . S . attack across the Northern Pacific . Similarly , the U . S . feared that the islands would be used as bases from which to launch aerial assaults against the West Coast . The battle is known as the " Forgotten Battle " , due to being overshadowed by the simultaneous Guadalcanal Campaign . In the past , many western military historians believed it was a diversionary or feint attack during the Battle of Midway meant to draw out the U . S . Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor , and was in fact launched simultaneously under the same overall commander , Isoroku Yamamoto . However , historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully have made an argument against this interpretation , stating that the Japanese invaded the Aleutians to protect the northern flank of their empire and did not intend it as a diversion . Japanese attack . Before Japan entered World War II , its navy had gathered extensive information about the Aleutians , but it had no up - to - date information regarding military developments on the islands . Admiral Yamamoto provided the Japanese Northern Area Fleet , commanded by Vice - Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya , with a force of two small aircraft carriers , five cruisers , twelve destroyers , six submarines , and four troop transports , along with supporting auxiliary ships . With that force , Hosogaya was first to launch an air attack against Dutch Harbor , then follow with an amphibious attack upon the island of Adak , 480 miles to the west . Hosogaya was instructed to destroy whatever American forces and facilities were found on Adak — the Japanese did not know the island was undefended . Hosogaya ' s troops were to return to their ships and become a reserve for two additional landings : the first on Kiska , 240 miles west of Adak , the other on the Aleutian ' s westernmost island , Attu , 180 miles west from Kiska . Because United States Naval intelligence had broken the Japanese naval codes , Admiral Nimitz had learned by May 21 of Yamamoto ' s plans , including the Aleutian diversion , the strength of both Yamamoto ' s and Hosogaya ' s fleets , and that Hosogaya would open the fight on 1 June or shortly thereafter . As of June 1 , 1942 , United States military strength in Alaska stood at 45 , 000 men , with about 13 , 000 at Cold Bay ( Fort Randall ) on the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula and at two Aleutian bases : the naval facility at Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island , 200 miles west of Cold Bay , and the recently built Fort Glenn Army Airfield 70 miles west of the naval station on Umnak Island . Army strength , less air force personnel , at those three bases totaled no more than 2 , 300 , composed mainly of infantry , field and antiaircraft artillery troops , and a large construction engineer contingent , which was used in the construction of bases . The Army Air Force ' s Eleventh Air Force consisted of 10 B - 17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers and 34 B - 18 Bolo medium bombers at Elmendorf Airfield , and 95 P - 40 Warhawk fighters divided between Fort Randall AAF at Cold Bay and Fort Glenn AAF on Umnak . The naval commander was Rear Admiral Robert A . Theobald , commanding Task Force 8 afloat , who as Commander North Pacific Force ( ComNorPac ) reported to Admiral Nimitz in Hawaii . Task Force 8 consisted of five cruiser s , thirteen destroyer s , three tankers , six submarine s , as well as naval aviation elements of Fleet Air Wing Four . When the first signs of a possible Japanese attack on the Aleutians were known , the Eleventh Air Force was ordered to send out reconnaissance aircraft to locate the Japanese fleet reported heading toward Dutch Harbor and attack it with bombers , concentrating on sinking Hosogaya ' s 2 aircraft carriers . Once the enemy planes were removed , Naval Task Force 8 would engage the enemy fleet and destroy it . On the afternoon of 2 June , a naval patrol plane spotted the approaching Japanese fleet , reporting its location as 800 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor . Eleventh Air Force was placed on full alert . Shortly thereafter bad weather set in , and no further sightings of the fleet were made that day . Attack on Dutch Harbor . According to Japanese intelligence , the nearest field for land - based American aircraft was at Fort Morrow AAF on Kodiak , more than 600 miles away , and Dutch Harbor was a sitting duck for the strong Japanese fleet , carrying out a coordinated operation with a fleet that was to capture Midway Island . Making use of weather cover , the Japanese first raided the Naval Base at Dutch Harbor on June 3 , 1942 . The striking force was composed of Nakajima B5N 2 " Kate " torpedo bomber s from the carriers and . However , only half of the striking force reached their objective . The rest either became lost in the fog and darkness and crashed into the sea or returned to their carriers . Seventeen Japanese planes found the naval base , the first arriving at 05 : 45 . As the Japanese pilots looked for targets to engage , they came under intense antiaircraft fire and soon found themselves confronted by Eleventh Air Force fighters sent from Fort Glenn Army Air Field on Umnak . Startled by the American response , the Japanese quickly released their bombs , made a cursory strafing run , and left to return to their carriers . As a result , they did little damage to the base . On June 4 the Japanese returned to Dutch Harbor . This time the pilots were better organized and better prepared . When the attack finally ended that afternoon , the oil storage tanks were left burning , the hospital was partly demolished , and a beached barracks ship was damaged . Although American pilots finally located the Japanese carriers , attempts to sink them proved fruitless . Bad weather again set in , and all contact with the enemy fleet was lost . Foul weather forced the cancellation of Japanese plans to invade Adak with 1200 men . The Japanese invasions of Kiska on June 6 , and Attu on June 7 initially met little resistance from the local Aleut s . Much of the native population of the islands had been forcibly evacuated by the US military before the invasion and interned in camps in the Alaska Panhandle . Allied response . In August 1942 , the U . S . Army established an air base on Adak Island and began bombing Japanese positions on Kiska . U . S . Navy submarine s and surface ships also began patrolling the area . Kiska Harbor was the main base for Japanese ships in the campaign and several were sunk there , some by warships but mostly in air raids . On 5 July , Lieutenant Commander Howard Gilmore — commanding the submarine — attacked three Japanese destroyer s off Kiska . He sank one and heavily damaged the others , killing or wounding 200 Japanese sailors . Ten days later , the was attacked by three Japanese submarine chaser s in Kiska Harbor , with two of the patrol craft sunk and one other damaged . On 12 May 1943 , the Japanese submarine was sunk in a surface action with the destroyer northeast of Chichagof Harbor . Komandorski Islands . A cruiser and destroyer force under Rear Admiral Charles " Soc " McMorris was assigned to eliminate the Japanese supply convoys . They met the Japanese fleet in the naval Battle of the Komandorski Islands in March 1943 . One American cruiser and two destroyers were damaged , with seven U . S . sailors killed . Two Japanese cruisers were damaged , with 14 men killed and 26 wounded . Japan thereafter abandoned all attempts to resupply the Aleutian garrisons by surface vessels , and only submarines would be used . Attu Island . On 11 May 1943 , the operation to recapture Attu began . Included with the invasion force were scouts recruited from Alaska , nicknamed Castner ' s Cutthroats . A shortage of landing craft , unsuitable beaches , and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather made it difficult to bring any force against the Japanese . Soldiers suffered from frostbite because essential supplies could not be landed , or could not be moved to where needed because vehicles would not work on the tundra . Led by Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki , the Japanese defenders did not contest the landings , instead digging in on high ground far from the shore . This resulted in fierce combat , with a total of 3 , 929 U . S . casualties ; 580 men were killed , 1 , 148 were wounded , and another 1 , 200 had severe cold injuries . In addition , 614 died of disease , and 318 from miscellaneous causes , mainly Japanese booby trap s or friendly fire . On 29 May , the last of the Japanese forces attacked without warning near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charge s of the Pacific campaign . Led by Colonel Yamasaki , the attack penetrated U . S . lines so deeply that it encountered rear - echelon units of the American force . After furious , brutal , often hand - to - hand combat , the Japanese force was virtually exterminated . Only 28 had been willing to be taken prisoner , none of them officers . American burial teams counted 2 , 351 Japanese dead , but it was thought that hundreds more bodies had been buried by bombardments during the battle . Kiska Island . On 15 August 1943 , an invasion force of 34 , 426 Canadian and American troops landed on Kiska . Castner ' s Cutthroats were part of the force , but the invasion consisted mainly of units from the U . S . 7th Infantry Division . The force also included about 5 , 300 Canadians , mostly from the 13th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 6th Canadian Infantry Division , but included the Canadian component of the 1st Special Service Force , later known as the " Devil ' s Brigade " . Royal Canadian Air Force No . 111 and No . 14 Squadrons saw active service in the Aleutian skies and scored at least one aerial kill on a Japanese aircraft . Additionally , three Canadian armed merchant cruisers and two corvettes served in the Aleutian campaign but did not encounter enemy forces . The invaders landed to find the island abandoned . Under the cover of fog , the Japanese had successfully removed their troops on 28 July . The Army Air Force had bombed abandoned positions for almost three weeks without suspecting the Japanese were no longer there . The day before the withdrawal , the U . S . Navy fought an inconclusive and possibly meaningless Battle of the Pips to the west . The Japanese may have been gone , but Allied casualties on Kiska nevertheless numbered 313 . All were the result of friendly fire , booby traps , disease , or frostbite . As with Attu , Kiska offered an extremely hostile environment . Aftermath . Although plans were drawn up for attacking northern Japan , they were not executed . Over 1 , 500 sorties were flown against the Kuriles before the end of the war , including the Japanese base of Paramushiro , diverting 500 Japanese planes and 41 , 000 ground troops . The battle also marked the first time Canadian conscripts were sent to a combat zone in World War II . The government had pledged not to send draftees " overseas " , which it defined as being outside North America . The Aleutians were considered to be North American soil , thus enabling the Canadian government to deploy conscripts without breaking its pledge . There were cases of desertion before the brigade sailed for the Aleutians . In late 1944 , the government changed its policy on draftees and sent 16 , 000 conscripts to Europe to take part in the fighting . The battle also marked the first combat deployment of the 1st Special Service Force , though they also did not see any action . In the summer of 1942 , the Americans recovered the Akutan Zero , an almost intact Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter . This enabled the Americans to test fly the Zero and contributed to improved fighter tactics later in the war . Killed in action . During the campaign , two cemeteries were established on Attu to bury those killed in action : Little Falls Cemetery , located at the foot of Gilbert Ridge , and Holtz Bay Cemetery , which held the graves of Northern Landing Forces . After the war , the frozen tundra began to take back the cemeteries , so in 1946 all American remains were relocated as directed by the soldier ' s family or to Fort Richardson near Anchorage , Alaska . On May 30 , 1946 , a Memorial Day address was given by Captain Adair with a Firing Squad Salute and the playing of " Taps " . The Decoration of Graves was performed by Chaplains Meaney and Insko . Veterans . 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 Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno , Switzerland on August 4 , 2006 .