USFWS Photo / Lisa Hupp 
University of Alaska Fairbanks Photo Attu IslandAttu Island is the westernmost island within the Aleutian Island chain. Archeologists estimate that Attu served as a home to Unangax̂ people starting around 4,000 years ago. On Attu, Unangax̂ had access to all of their traditional ways of life: subsisting off of the land, sharing resources among communities, practicing their spirituality, and more. Attuan artists are known for a unique and particularly fine style of basket weaving. The Aleutian Islands form a chain of lands that extend through the Pacific Ocean toward Asia. This position, which bridges the space between the United States and Japan, means that the Aleutians were among the first places in Alaska to be explored by Russians. As the westernmost point within the Aleutians, Attu was explored by Russian sailors in 1742. With their arrival, Russians brought disease, war, and forced labor to the Unangax̂. By the end of the Russian era in 1867, the Unangax̂ population and villages had both been greatly reduced. 
Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association Photo Attuans' World War II ExperienceThe unique position of the Aleutian Islands – bridging North America with Asia – would again bring misfortune to Attuans with the arrival of World War II. Japanese forces recognized Attu and nearby Kiska Island as important territories for launching potential attacks on the United States or possibly for redirecting American forces away from other key conflicts in the Pacific. In 1942, the Japanese military invaded Attu and forcibly relocated residents to Japan. Forty-two Attuan villagers were taken and held as prisoners in Otaru, on Hokkaido, for more than three years. Almost half of the Attuans died, many from malnutrition and starvation. Records of Attuans’ imprisonment in Japan are limited: none kept diaries or wrote letters and few survivors wanted to talk about this traumatic experience after returning to the Aleutian Islands. Despite the pain associated with these memories, Nick Golodoff and other Attuans courageously recounted their experiences as Japanese prisoners in Attu Boy, a memoir telling the story of Golodoff’s relocation to Japan in 1942 as a six year-old boy. Read Attu Boy online or browse the excerpts below to get a sense of individual Attuans’ experiences. Japanese Imprisonment as Described by AttuansNote: These quotes are unedited from their appearance in Attu Boy and some include derogatory language.Traveling to Japan “We were taken aboard a ship and we were on our way. My house was opened and burned. We were taken out to the ship when it was getting dark. After spending the night on board the ship with much whistling and running about going on, and because of our ignorance of exactly what was happening, we were very anxious. [...] All during the voyage, we were kept in a hold which was very unpleasant smelling, and it was also dark. We never once saw daylight until we reached Japan.” - Olean Prokopeuff (Golodoff)
“One day, 14 Sept, 1942 a coal carrier came and they told us to get ready we gone to Japan. We take our stuff to vessel. We got aboard at late pass midnight. They put us down in hole where the coal had been. Everything all black and dirty. Some of the little kids didn’t want to leave Attu they cry but Japs soldiers pick them up throw them down in hole too. There are 42 of us Attu people and Mrs. Jones. Some old peoples very bad scared. The vessel start off for Kiska and one of our peoples died on the boat it was Alfred Prokopioffs mother and Capt told us to throw her overboard. So we let her go overboard in between Kiska and Attu Pass.” - Mike Lokanin
Lodging Conditions in Japan “The next thing I knew we were in a house and we weren’t allowed to leave. In Japan, they put us all in one building for over three years with one Japanese police officer guarding us. The building we were kept in was made out of wood; there were two levels, and I stayed on the second floor. There were two planks under a building for a bathroom. Coal was piled under the house. There wasn’t a sink. I remember my mom used to wipe my hands with a wet cloth. The house must have had a stove to provide heat, but I don’t remember it.” - Nick Golodoff
“All of us are kept in one house. There are forty-two of us in one five-room house. We put our mattresses and blankets on the floor to sleep on. It was getting winter and we did not have enough blankets to keep warm. We had only one stove we brought with us from Attu. The women cooked for all of us on it. The Japs did give us little heaters but we did not have enough coal to keep us warm. They give us only one bucket of coal for all day.” - Alex Prossof
Access to Food “When we first got there we used to eat only rice, oats and fish, but later as the war was still going on there was hardly any food. Even the Japanese did not have much food.” - Nick Golodoff
“As things were, our men were put to work. Shortly after that, they started admitting our people to the hospital. The people were getting sick one after the other until I was almost the only one left at home to cook. While I was doing that, they took my husband to the hospital. After they took my husband, my children were starving. So when I went to fetch some water, I would pick orange peelings off the ground. Then I would cook them on the top of the heater. Then I fed them to my children, and only then would they stop crying for a while.” - Olean Prokopeuff (Golodoff)
“We were hungry, too. At first we did all right because we ate the flour and sugar and fish we brought from Attu. The Japs gave us only two cups of rice for about ten people a day. When our food was gone we could not buy any more from Japs. Then we began to get very hungry.” - Alex Prossof
Communicating with Japanese Officials “They ask us all kinds of questions about America. They asked me if Americans are good people; if we have any military outposts on our island; if we know where there were outposts in the Aleutians Islands; how often the Coast Guard and American warships came into Attu Harbor. One of our head men told us not to tell the truth to them so we did not tell them the right things. They asked us how many white people lived with us and we told them just two, the teacher and the radio man. I told them the Japs killed the man. They asked us which army we liked best, Japs or Americans. Mike and I are only ones who talk to them. I tell them I can understand American language and that they are very kind to us. As long as Americans are fight for my country I’ll be on their side. I told them Japs destroy our homes, make us prisoners and put us on a land where we cannot talk his language. So I cannot say Japs are good people.” - Alex Prossof
“We had to learn to talk Japanese, even the little children. Japs said they would kill us if we didn’t. Sometimes we were beaten and our women whipped. Julia Golodoff once went three days without food to eat or water to drink. This was her punishment for talking back to the Japs and blaming them when her little girl died. She said it was Japs fault. They made her shovel snow when she was barefoot, too. She did not die.” - Alex Prossof
Illness and Death “I was seven or eight when [my dad] died. […] I had an older sister too, Helen. I don’t know what happened to her – maybe she died in Japan. I didn’t know about any of my siblings. I thought I was alone. Many of the Attu people were sick. Many of the Attu people were dying. About half of them died. I am not sure exactly what happened but they were dying one by one.” - Nick Golodoff
“We lost twenty-one people in Japan. My step-mother gets sick first. She got TB and Japs take her to kind of hospital. But there is no heat and very little food so she died. Some died of beri-beri. Our chief, Mike Hodikoff and his son, George, eat from garbage can and get poison food. Lots of children and babies die because they hungry and nothing but rice.” - Alex Prossof
“One of the hardest things was we could not bury our dead. There are no burials in Japan. All are burned. When our people died they were burned, too, and the Japs gave us little boxes to put the bones in. This was hard to have to pick up the bones of our loved ones. We kept all our boxes carefully because we wanted to take them home to be buried some day.” - Alex Prossof
NPS Photo Returning to AttuThe United States government assumed responsibility for returning the Unangax to the Aleutian Islands after World War II; however, the government deemed some of the more remote and smaller villages too costly to travel to. When Attuan survivors returned from Japan, they were not allowed to go back to Attu, but were instead taken to the village of Atka in the Aleutian Islands. Attu would never be permanently repopulated. In 2004, the National Park Service began to compile oral histories of Unangax WWII experiences. Over the course of collecting oral histories, descendants of the lost villages suggested that it would be a valuable experience to return to their ancestral villages. And thus began the Lost Villages Project: a cooperative effort to make return trips to lost villages for survivors and descendants. The project included a 2017 trip to the extremely remote island of Attu. All of the trips were made by boat, on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s research vessel Tiğlax. 
USFWS Photo / Lisa Hupp Attu Island TodayToday, Attu Island is managed as a part of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s Alaska Maritime Refuge, including the Aleutian Islands World War II National Monument. The refuge was established by ANILCA with the primary purpose of conserving fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity. The refuge is home to several marine mammal species (including the endangered Stellar’s Sea Lion) and more seabirds than anywhere else in North America. Learn more about land management in the Aleutians. Attu Island is also home to a National Historic Landmark: the Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields on Attu preserves the military history of the only WWII land battle fought on American soil. Another National Historic Landmark, Japanese Occupation Site NHL, is preserved on the nearby Kiska Island. If you are interested in visiting federally managed lands in the Western Aleutian Islands, know that these locations are extremely remote and require a great deal of advanced planning. Learn More About Attu
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Last updated: August 5, 2024