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Timeline / Citizenship, Services, and Sovereignty / 1942: Unangan evacuated, interned during WWII

1942: Unangan evacuated, interned during WWII

After Japan bombs Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands, the U.S. Army evacuates more than 800 Unangan (Aleut) to southeast Alaska, which is 1,500 miles from their home. Nine villages on six islands are relocated to an abandoned cannery and a rundown gold mine camp, where the Unangan face food shortages, hang blankets as makeshift partitions for privacy, and suffer from pneumonia and tuberculosis. One in ten die.

“It was something—patriotism I guess—shining through. It was something they had to do, give up for their country.” —Harriet Hope of Unalaska on the Aleutian Islands

Theme
Epidemics, Federal-Tribal Relations
Region
Arctic, Northwest Coast

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Photograph of Atka Aleuts taken at Killianoo, Alaska Enlarge

Atka Aleuts, Killisnoo, Alaska

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

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Photograph of Atka Aleuts taken at Killianoo, Alaska Enlarge

Atka Unangans at Killisnoo, Alaska: after the Japanese invasion of Attu Island and Kiska in 1942, the United States forcibly evacuated more than 800 Unangans to camps in Southeast Alaska, where many died.

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

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Atka Aleuts Departing from Killisnoo to Return to their Home Enlarge

Atka Unangans leaving Killisnoo in southeast Alaska to return to villages they were forced to evacuate during World War II

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

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Photograph of Atka Aleuts Taken at Killianoo Alaska, Moving back to Their Village Enlarge

Atka Unangans leaving Killisnoo in southeast Alaska to return to villages they were forced to evacuate during World War II

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

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Black and white photograph of a few Unangan children packing a boat docked on the water with supplies. Enlarge

Unangans preparing to depart for southeast Alaska, 1942

Courtesy Alaska State Library, Butler/Dale Photograph Collection

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Black and white photograph of eight Unangan children sitting on two benches. Enlarge

Aleut (Unangan) children at a relocation camp in southeast Alaska, 1942

Courtesy Alaska State Library, Butler/Dale Photograph Collection

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Unangan description of Japanese invasion Enlarge

Description of the Japanese invasion of Attu Island by Mike Lokanin, an Unangan

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

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Unangan description of Japanese invasion Enlarge

Description of the Japanese invasion of Attu Island by Mike Lokanin, an Unangan

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

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Unangan description of Japanese invasion Enlarge

Description of the Japanese invasion of Attu Island by Mike Lokanin, an Unangan

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration