World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska
St. Paul residents gaze at their homes in 1942 as the US Delarof pulls away from the dock, taking them to internment camps in southeast AK.
National Archives
After the Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor and occupied Attu and Kiska in the summer of 1942, the military decided that the Unangax residents of the Aleutian Islands--at that time known as Aleuts--needed to be evacuated and relocated. Unangax villagers were told to pack a few clothes and possessions and leave their homes behind. They were boarded on boats and taken to Southeast Alaska. After a brief stay for many of the Unangax on the grounds of the Wrangell Institute, they were separated by village into five different relocation camps: Funter Bay Cannery, Funter Bay Mine, Killisnoo , Burnett Inlett, and Ward Lake. The mainly remote sites included dilapitated canneries, a former mine, and a Civilian Conservation Corps camp.
World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska by Charles M. Mobley provides historical context, physical descriptions and photographs, and maps of each of the Aleut relocation sites in Southeast Alaska. It also includes a larger map of WWII Aleut Relocation and Resettlement, showing the routes of different ships between the Aleutians and Southeast Alaska with the number of passengers on each ship.
The project began as an evaluation of the sites' significance as National Historic Landmarks. While they were not determined to be eligible for the National Register, the study provides valuable documentation of this little-known and shameful episode of U.S. history.
