Death of last surviving Alaskan taken by Japan during WWII rekindles memories of forgotten battle

[JacksinPA]

Death of last surviving Alaskan taken by Japan during WWII rekindles memories of forgotten battle

Gregory Golodoff, the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured the remote Alaska island of Attu during World War II, has died.

apnews.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gregory Golodoff spent most of his years on a quiet Alaska island, living an ordinary life, managing a co-op store, fishing for crab and serving as the village council president. But Golodoff’s recent death at the age of 84 has reopened a chapter of American history and stirred up memories of a long-forgotten Japanese invasion that prompted the only World War II battle on North American soil.

Golodoff was the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured remote Attu Island during World War II. He was 3 when the island was taken. He died Nov. 17 in Anchorage, his family said. His sister, Elizabeth “Liz” Golodoff Kudrin, the second-to-last surviving Attuan, died in February at 82. Three of their siblings died in captivity.

“The eldest generation has passed away to the other side,” said Helena Schmitz, the great-granddaughter of the last Attu chief, who died in Japan along with his son.

Attu is a desolate, mountainous slab of tundra, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) wide by 35 miles (56 kilometers) long, and sits between the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea on the volcanic Ring of Fire. It’s the most westerly island in the Aleutian chain — closer to Russia than mainland Alaska — and was one of just a few U.S. territories, along with Guam, the Philippines and the nearby island of Kiska, taken by enemy forces during the war.
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Remember Pearl Harbor.

 

[Rumpelstil]

who knows that island.?

 

[weaver2]

Death of last surviving Alaskan taken by Japan during WWII rekindles memories of forgotten battle

Gregory Golodoff, the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured the remote Alaska island of Attu during World War II, has died.

apnews.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gregory spent most of his years on a quiet Alaska island, living an ordinary life, managing a co-op store, fishing for crab and serving as the village council president. But Golodoff’s recent death at the age of 84 has reopened a chapter of American history and stirred up memories of a long-forgotten Japanese invasion that prompted the only World War II battle on North American soil.

Golodoff was the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured remote Attu Island during World War II. He was 3 when the island was taken. He died Nov. 17 in Anchorage, his family said. His sister, Elizabeth “Liz” Golodoff Kudrin, the second-to-last surviving Attuan, died in February at 82. Three of their siblings died in captivity.

“The eldest generation has passed away to the other side,” said Helena Schmitz, the great-granddaughter of the last Attu chief, who died in Japan along with his son.

Attu is a desolate, mountainous slab of tundra, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) wide by 35 miles (56 kilometers) long, and sits between the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea on the volcanic Ring of Fire. It’s the most westerly island in the Aleutian chain — closer to Russia than mainland Alaska — and was one of just a few U.S. territories, along with Guam, the Philippines and the nearby island of Kiska, taken by enemy forces during the war.
================
Remember Pearl Harbor.

The Anchorage Museum has a very large collection of artifacts, pictures, memorabilia, personal effects, personal letters and official communications from the Japanese occupation of the Aleutian Islands. Both Americans and Japanese had never experienced the extremes of terrain or weather and were completely unprepared. For both groups the weather was the enemy.

 

[Fledermaus]

who knows that island.?

It is know to many who studied the war in the Pacific.

 

[Glitch]

who knows that island.?

It is an extremely mountainous and treeless island on the other side of the International Date Line (at 178°E longitude) in the New Zealand Time Zone (GMT +12). It does not get very cold or very hot, but it is constantly swept with gale-force winds. The only animal life on the island, besides birds (of which there are 748 species recorded on the island) are sea otters, fox, and rats.