I still don’t like it… but I can see the merit of others’ perspectives on the memorial and on the battle it commemorates.

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.

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.

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.

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.