The Monument on Attu
In 1943, during World War II, foreign troops took control of US soil for the first and only time since the war of 1812. Japanese troops occupied the remote Alaskan islands of Attu and Kiska – map below.
The Battle of Attu in May of 1943, was by all accounts bloody and gruesome. The Anchorage Daily News reports:
On May 29, 1943, Col. Yasuyo Yamasaki led a desperate middle-of-the-night attack on the Americans at Engineer Hill. [Survivor Bill] Jones lay with multiple wounds in a medical tent while Japanese soldiers shot, bayonetted and even burned alive nearly everyone around him. The only reason he survived, he says, is that a body at the door of his tent gave the impression all were dead inside.
When the banzai attack failed, and Yamasaki lay dead, some 500 men, what was left of nearly 3,000 Japanese invaders, bowed to the bushido code of “death before dishonor:” They held hand grenades to their chests and pulled the pins.
In in 1987, with the approval of the US Department of the Interior, the Japanese government placed a World War II memorial there to fallen troops. It’s one of many the Japanese placed at major battle sites around the Pacific theater. (Photo by Kurt Fredrickson of the USCG)
The memorial’s inscription reads:
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.
While the memorial is ostensibly there to honor the dead from both sides of the conflict, many American soldiers feel the Japanese monument on American soil is a betrayal of what they fought for and want it removed.
The controversy over this war memorial remains low-key, as the island of Attu is so remote that the monument is very rarely seen. Attu is uninhabited except for a tiny Coast Guard Loran station.
The debate over the memorial received some national exposure when Los Angeles filmmaker Tom Putnam released his 2006 documentary, “Red White Black & Blue,” documenting this little-known battle. The monument is pictured at in the film, as well as details on Jones’ efforts to have it removed, generating some publicity and support for his cause.
Survivors of the battle are also upset by the lack of any substantial American monument on the island. Jones and a few other veterans personally commissioned a bronze plaque, which was mounted on a granite block near the Coast Guard airstrip. The inscription, written by him, reads:
This plaque is inscribed and placed here by those who fought by our side or served in the defense of this island during World War II to honor the boys — men who prematurely gave their lives during the Battle of Attu and in remembrance of the mothers, fathers, wives, children, and sweethearts whose lives were forever changed due to their loss.
Should the US permit this monument on American soil, site of Japanese occupation and a gruesome and brutal battle? I’m not a military veteran, so my perspective isn’t as keenly focused as that of a soldier.
For what my opinion is worth, I think a monument to peace – and solely to peace – might be appropriate, no matter which government commissioned it. A monument to the war dead placed by our attackers is a mockery and a travesty. It should not have been permitted, and should be removed.
March 19th, 2008
There are American monuments on foreign soil where our soldiers have fallen, and they stand, why should there not be a monument where theirs fell here? It seems only appropriate.
March 19th, 2008
I think my perspective is because they attacked us. It seems somehow hypocritical for the Japanese to mourn the lost when they are the ones who who decided to fight in the first place.
I’m not saying the US is perfect… far from it on the military aggression front… but if the Japanese had kept their pants zipped, so to speak, there would have been no need for a memorial.
March 19th, 2008
In 1996 I helped to establish the US Navy facility on Shemya Island, part of the Aleutian Near Island Group, of Attu, Agattu, Shemya, Nizki, and Alaid. I was there on and off for three years. Shemya is tiny rock about 25 miles from Attu, bleak and remote does not even begin to describe the place, the nearest next island is over 400 miles away, and the mainland nearly a thousand. Later, in 2003 I returned to Alaska as Executive Officer and returned again to Shemya and Attu.
Shemya, though often oddly missing from the annuals of the Aleutian Campaign, was the forward American Strike Base during the desperate battle for Attu and the island is littered with the debris of that time. Few, remember or understand the incredible and often ultimate sacrifices that both the Japanese and the America troops endured in that desolate place.
Here’s the thing – those Japanese who died on Attu, Kiska, and throughout the Aleutians were honorable men, who gave their lives in the name of a code and an Emperor that we, as Americans, can hardly fathom. Speaking as someone who has seen both the current face of war, and the battlefields of the Aleutians, I will say that while the Japanese were clearly the invaders and the instigators of the war in the Pacific, and that they at times (and increasingly so as their situation became more desperate) were brutal – they were an honorable enemy. The war is long over, but those men, both the Americans and the Japanese, are remembered by those who held them dear. And I will say this, over the years I have seen pilgrimages by aging Japanese who have come to Attu in order to honor their fallen and the ultimate sacrifice those men made – I have rarely, if ever, seen American families do the same, though old soldier come upon occasion.
I have visited the Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor, and stood amongst somber and respectful Japanese, while Americans talked on cell phones, and laughed and joked. I’ve stood before the memorial on Attu, alone in the cold wind, wondering at the ribbons left by Japanese who came before me to pay their respects.
Those Japanese who come seeking some understanding of that long ago time, they have my respect. I say leave the memorial as it stands – as a tribute to the sacrifice of both sides and as a reminder of the stupidity and horror of war. How we remember those we fought against is at least as important as how we remember ourselves. The monument does nothing to diminish the sacrifice of the Americans who died on Engineer Hill or fought to retake Attu from enemy hands. In every way it honors those men and those they fought against – and reminds us all of what happens when we forget history.
March 19th, 2008
I remember a few years ago there was a controversy because one of the key companies involved in building the National WWII Memorial in D.C. turned out to be a German company. A lot of people were infuriated that Germans would be involved in any fashion.
You know what? I see it quite the opposite way. The fact that Germany and Japan are two of America’s best friends in the world just goes to show how successfully America fought WWII and managed the post war years in Germany and Japan. I think its absolutely wonderful that a German comapny proudly participated in building that memorial.
The memorial you mention doesn’t single out either side. Its dedicated to “all those who sacrificed their lives”. I really don’t have a problem with that.
March 20th, 2008
Leave it be. A warrior is a warrior – their sides were determined by accident of birth, nothing more.
March 20th, 2008
Let me add one more thing:
The fact that the Japanese built and maintain the memorial on Attu does matter. And it should matter to the Americans who fought there – but it should not be seen as an insult, rather a compliment and a mark of respect.
Here’s why: The Japanese who died on Attu are remembered, revered for their ultimate sacrifice and adherence to the Bushido warrior’s code. This means nothing to us, but to their descendants it means everything. If the Japanese did NOT honor their fallen on Attu, if that sacrifice means nothing to the modern Japanese, if they forget that battle – then it directly follows that those their ancestors fought against mean nothing to the Japanese either. The very fact that they honor their own fallen soldiers, honors ours as well. It means that they, and we, remember both.
And yes, I know only too well that for some of those Americans the war will never be over. They can never forgive the Japanese for Pearl Harbor and the brutality of the POW camps and the occupations and the war itself. They see that monument as an insult and always will. But, here’s the thing – go to Gettysburg, Bullrun, Antietam, Lighthouse Point, or any of a dozen other American Civil War battlefields and look at the memorials to fallen Confederate soldiers and ask yourself why we suffer those memorials to exist.
Ask yourself why there is a memorial to the USS Maine in the middle of Havana Harbor, Cuba, and another at the top of San Juan and Kettle Hills. The Cubans are our enemies today, yet they still maintain the memorials and honor the Americans who fought on their soil.
The memorial on Attu was raised by a defeated enemy. And it exists for the same exact reason that the Confederate one at Lighthouse Point, MD exists – so that we don’t forget all of the soldiers who died there.
March 20th, 2008
I’m sorry, but I don’t see the Japanese of WWII as an honorable enemy. However strong our friendship is today, the fact is that if the Japanese could have wiped out our forces and subjugated America to their will, they would have done so. One need only study the history of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the atrocities of the Manchurian occupation, and the suicide attacks undertaken and order by the commanders and politicians of that time to see the lack of honor exhibited by the Empire of Japan at that time. While such actions may have fit within the Code of Bushido (and I claim no real knowledge of that code beyond learning of its result), that doesn’t make those acts honorable. Some of those sorts of acts happend on Attu, and a memorial to those who participated in those acts should not be tolerated.
March 20th, 2008
Very interesting perspectives. Although I usually pride myself on being able to see the complexity of a situation, and be tolerant of different perspectives, I think I’m guilty of black-and-white thinking on this one.
I still don’t like it… but I can see the merit of others’ perspectives on the memorial and on the battle it commemorates.
March 22nd, 2008
Wow! I never knew about this. Everyone seems so focused on the Japanese attacking pearl habor during WWII. I guess it’s hard for people to fathom that America was ever occupied or that such a bloody battle took place on its soil. I knew this one kid (yes he was a football player) who was amazed to learn that we lost Vietnam and that they’re still communists!