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
Atka Aleuts, Killisnoo, Alaska
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration
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
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
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
Unangans preparing to depart for southeast Alaska, 1942
Courtesy Alaska State Library, Butler/Dale Photograph Collection
Aleut (Unangan) children at a relocation camp in southeast Alaska, 1942
Courtesy Alaska State Library, Butler/Dale Photograph Collection
Description of the Japanese invasion of Attu Island by Mike Lokanin, an Unangan
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration
Description of the Japanese invasion of Attu Island by Mike Lokanin, an Unangan
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration
Description of the Japanese invasion of Attu Island by Mike Lokanin, an Unangan
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration