As the child of history teachers and the family genealogist, I have always enjoyed history and believe it is an important part of defining our culture and who we are as a people. This diary is mostly a history diary, but I’m dedicating it to a distant family member who I only discovered a few years ago in my genealogy research and who played a part in the events I will describe.
Today is Memorial Day, the day we remember those who died while serving the armed forces of our country. Observed on the last Monday of May, this year the holiday falls on May 29th. This day is also the day my 2nd cousin, three times removed David L. Gowans was killed in action in a World War II battle most people have never heard of: the Battle of Attu.
Attu Island is a 345 square mile island at the very end of the Aleutian Islands chain, the westernmost point of land in the 50 states relative to the U.S. mainland, so far west it lies just over 7 degrees beyond the anti-meridian, technically making it "east." It also holds some other distinctions as a consequence of the aforementioned battle:
- The only land battle of WWII fought in a state or organized territory of the United States
- Second only to Iwo Jima as the bloodiest battle of WWII in terms of causalities relative to total number of combatants
- The last battle of any war to be fought on American soil
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 brought America into World War II against the Empire of Japan. The attack was just one of several the Japanese carried out in December of 1941 as an initial offensive against American positions in the Pacific. Japan followed up this offensive in June of 1942, landing unopposed on the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu. Five of the 45 Aleuts and 2 Anglos inhabiting the island were killed in the attack with the remaining 42 taken to a prisoner camp in Japan. Only 26 of them survived the war. The Japanese had three objectives for the offensive: to prevent the Aleutian Islands from being used as a staging ground for an attack against Japan, providing a barrier between the United States and the USSR should the Soviets enter the war against Japan and finally, establish air bases to use in an air campaign against the west coast of the United States. The Americans immediately saw the grave threat posed by the Japanese occupation of the Aleutians and immediately began formulating an attack to retake them. The threat wasn't just a military threat, but a psychological one as well. A foreign enemy was on American soil…for the first since the War of 1812.
The campaign to retake the islands was launched 11 months later on 11 May 1943 with the naval bombardment of Japanese positions followed by the landings of 12,500 Americans on two fronts at four beachheads. The Americans expected taking the beaches to be the difficult part of the invasion with a quick victory over the forces they expected to defend against the landings followed by mop up of the small number of remaining forces. They also mistakenly believed the Japanese forces to number about 500. But they were wrong. The Japanese garrison actually numbered over 2,500 and they had had nearly a year to prepare for the counterassault. The Japanese did not contest the landings but instead utilized the tunnels and foxholes they had dug from which they employ small unit tactics to harass, impeded and counter the American advance on the Japanese positions. Snipers and small teams armed with mortars were effectively deployed against the Americans by the Japanese. The Alaskan spring was also starting to turn the tundra into a soft, soggy, muddy mess and shifting weather that including freezing nights and 120 mph wind gusts made maneuvering difficult. There was no wood to burn for fires to keep warm, not that that would be a strategically smart move, revealing the American positions to the Japanese. Moreover, the American soldiers were ill prepared equipment wise for the conditions. Members of the 7th Infantry Division had been trained for action in North Africa, but were retasked to the Attu invasion without swapping out their light desert gear. Poor quality socks and boots designed for dry sand conditions hampered American efforts. The prolonged fighting taxed food supplies and fog often prevented the resupply airdrops. Disease and frostbite were common, ultimately accounting for over 1,800 of the American casualties. The Japanese were likewise cut off from their supply lines by the naval blockade of the island. Many of the Japanese soldiers began to starve.
On the evening of May 28th, the American forces had won their way to high ground on a ridge of hills overlooking the Japanese garrison. They would now be within range and sight to begin artillery bombardment the following morning. The commanding officer of the Japanese forces, Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki, realized he was defeated. Less than a thousand of his force remained. The only option he saw remaining to him was to die fighting, not holed up in a garrison waiting to be shelled. Surrender would be dishonorable. Being taken prisoner would be dishonorable. The wounded, if able, committed suicide with the help of the abled bodied. Those unable to to do so where administered morphine. The few hundred Japanese that remained after the ritual suicides advanced under the cover of fog and darkness during the night of May 28-29 towards the American artillery positions that overlooked their now abandoned garrison. An order, likely from a Japanese infiltrator, came for the members of Company B of the 32nd Infantry to march to headquarters for a hot breakfast, leaving the positions they were guarding relatively defenseless. Three sentry posts at the base of a hill now known as Engineer Hill were quickly overwhelmed. The Japanese banzai attack then moved to a field hospital at the hill's base, slaughtering American wounded with their bayonets where they lay in their cots. They then began making the half-mile trek up to the top of Engineer Hill occupied by the 50th Engineers, made up of mostly mechanics, medics, cooks and drivers unaccustomed to direct combat. Many did not have any arms other than a sidearm, but they managed to form a line to hold off the nearly 1000 charging Japanese soldiers who were depleted of bullets, left to fight only with their bayonets, swords and knives. The hand-to-hand combat was fierce, but the Engineers eventually turned back the charge. Col. Yamasaki regrouped his men at the base of the hill and lead another charge up the hill. On this second charge, he was shot waving his sword urging his men forward. Many of the remaining Japanese soldiers were killed in the futile charge up the hill or committed suicide by putting a grenade to their chest and pulling the pin.
By the time the battle was over, the official U.S. count of Japanese dead in the battle stood at 2,351, but hundreds more are believed to have died and been buried during the initial bombardment of the island. Remains of Japanese who died in the battle have been discovered as recently as the last decade. Only 28 were captured alive, a death rate in excess of 98%. American loses were also heavy. Some 549 Americans were killed and 1,148 wounded. Combined with the 1,814 injuries from disease and cold, the total American casualties numbered over 3,500. My aforementioned distant cousin, David Gowans was among the members of Company A of the 50th Engineers killed that day.
Many of the Americans were initially buried on the island in two cemeteries at Holtz Bay and at Little Falls at the base of Gilbert Ridge. Two mass graves for the Japanese were dug below Engineer Hill. After the war, the Americans' remains were moved to Fort Richardson outside Anchorage or to other cemeteries designated by relatives of the dead. The tundra has reclaimed the site of the Little Falls Cemetery where my cousin was initially buried. Today he rests in a cemetery in Jackson County, Arkansas near where he grew up.
After the war was over, the surviving Attuan POWs were repatriated to the United States, but they were not allowed to return to Attu Island to reestablish their village. They were resettled elsewhere in Alaska. The war had left a scar on Attu that nature still hasn't healed. Unexploded ordinance, leaking fuel tanks and barrels of oil, diesel, lubricants and other materials are strewn across the landscape. The battlefield area and other sites on the island were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. Two years later, with the permission of the U.S. Government, the Japanese government placed a titanium starburst sculpture on Engineer Hill bearing the inscription "In memory of all those who sacrificed their lives in the islands and seas of the North Pacific during World War II and in dedication to world peace." The U.S. closed the LORAN Coast Guard Station in 2010, ending human inhabitation of the island. The Island is now owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and managed as part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
I only discovered David Gowans a few years ago as I researched to find all the descendants of our common ancestors, my 4G grandparents. Before that I had never heard of this World War II battle. Finding his military record and that he was KIA lead me to read more about this piece of American history and the significance it has. While the family name on my line is spelled a little different than David’s, we are still cousins, and on this Memorial Day, the 74th anniversary of his death, I wish to thank David and the 548 other Americans who perished in the Battle of Attu for their service to this country and salute the ultimate sacrifice they made.