Dutch Harbor Bombing, June 1942

The bombing of Dutch Harbor was a critical event in the Aleutian campaign.

US Navy Photo

 

 

A Strategic Attack

Three years after World War II began, Japan tried to expand its presence in the Pacific in order to reach and attack US forces. By occupying the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese could then use them as stepping stones to attack the US mainland. By targeting the Aleutians, Japanese war strategists were hoping to lure American forces from the Hawaiian Islands to Alaska. If their plan worked, this would reduce American presence near Pearl Harbor and Midway Island, leaving these key strategic areas open to a Japanese strike.

 

Among the wreckage, the Bureau of Indian Affairs hospital in Dutch Harbor had been reduced to rubble.

Museum of the Aleutians Photo

The Bombing of Dutch Harbor

On June 3, 1942, Japanese aircraft descended upon Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The Japanese carried out two separate bombing attacks on the same day, the first at 5:45 a.m. and the second at 7:34 p.m. The initial attack was carried out by two Japanese reconnaissance planes, which were swiftly followed by a second wave of bombers. The second wave was made up of 12 Japanese planes, which bombarded the naval base and nearby town.

Japanese planes dropped approximately 70 bombs, causing damage to several buildings, ships, and military equipment. They hit the 3,000-ton S.S. Northwestern, a beached vessel near Dutch Harbor dock that served as housing for civilian workers: the vessel caught fire and was destroyed. Four new steel fuel tanks and 22,000 barrels of oil, a month's supply for Dutch Harbor, were also destroyed.

At the time of its bombing, the Dutch Harbor naval base was adjacent to Unalaska, a primarily Unangax̂ community. As a result of the strike, 43 US lives were lost and 50 were wounded. The damage to buildings and military property in Dutch Harbor was extensive and the BIA hospital on the Unalaska side was destroyed. The Japanese attack also succeeded in raising the level of fear among American citizens and highlighting the vulnerability of the US mainland.

 

The ripple effects of the raid on Dutch Harbor were extensive: many Unangax̂ people were forced to leave their homes, either as an evacuee or as a Japanese prisoner.

National Archives 80 - G206194

The Effects of War in the Aleutians

The bombing of Dutch Harbor created enormous consequences for Indigenous residents of the Aleutian Islands. The U.S. government, assuming responsibility for the care and management of Alaska Natives, decided to evacuate all Unangax people from the Aleutians following the bombing. While this decision was ostensibly made for Unangax̂ peoples’ safety, the reality of their experience was shaped by prejudice and mistreatment. Evacuees were sent to makeshift evacuation camps in dilapidated canneries, a camp built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and even an abandoned gold mine in southeastern Alaska. There, Unangax̂ evacuees struggled with disease, shelter, food, and access to their traditional ways of life while being completely neglected by the government. An estimated 10% of Unangax̂ evacuees died under the government’s care during this time.

After bombing Dutch Harbor, Japanese forces would go on to occupy Kiska (June 6) and Attu (June 7). The occupation of their island had irreversible effects on the Unangax̂ people living on Attu, who would be taken to Japan as prisoners and held there in squalid conditions for three years until the end of World War II. Almost half of the Attuans would die in captivity. Many of the survivors would never return home; after the war, the U.S. government decided that it would be too costly to repopulate Attu, which the Americans had destroyed after the Japanese left with the Attuan prisoners. The few Attuan survivors who returned to the Aleutians were resettled in Atka, some 500 miles away from their home village.