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US Citizens in Alaska Taken Captive by Japanese

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WW II Memorial: Fairbanks, Alaska

The Role of Aleuts During WWII When my husband Paul and I fulfilled a long dream by traveling to Alaska four years ago, we learned so much about this magnificent place. But when we left, we realized that we had barely scratched the surface of the history and story of our 49th state. While in Fairbanks, we visited the WWII Memorial, and read several plaques honoring the military who served in Alaska. However, even there I don’t recall any mention of Native Alaskans from the Aleutian Island, the Aleuts, who suffered at the hands of the Japanese. 42 of these proud people and one white woman were taken prisoner by the Japanese when they invaded the islands to the west of mainland Alaska. (source) I hadn’t realized that the Japanese had actually landed on American soil. And, I had no idea that as a result of the invasion, American citizens were taken to Japan where they lived for three years under harsh conditions. More than half starved or died of diseases. Only a few were returned to Alaska at the end of the war, but they could not return to their home of Attu due to buried explosives left behind by the Japanese. Until a recent news story, I had presumed that the invasion consisted of only a few soldiers easily fended off by US military. However, headlines and articles describing “carnage”, “fierce combat”  “brutal” and “one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign” spoke of the reality. (source) Two different garrisons totaling more than 4,000 soldiers invaded Attu and Kiska in the summer and fall of 1942. They began building an airfield and fortifications and became entrenched to fight off attacks from Americans and Canadians.  (source)   In addition to ground troops, they were bombarded and bombed  by the American Army Air Corps when weather permitted . The US Navy attacked from the Bering Sea and protected harbors and bays with many skirmishes with the enemy. Both sides suffered high percentage of losses from not only combat, but the harsh landscape and weather of the Aleutian Islands. Due mostly to weather, however, it was not until the following spring that intense battles for the Aleutian Islands occurred in earnest.       “The final casualty counts were stunningly high for both sides, especially considering that Attu was an island so remote in the North Pacific. Fighting nearly to the last man, the Japanese suffered 2,351 killed as counted by the Americans.  The actual number could be hundreds higher because some Japanese bodies might have been blown apart and made impossible to count. Also, the Japanese regularly buried their dead in secret locations to hide their casualty numbers. The Americans suffered 3,929 casualties. Of that number, 549 were killed in combat; many more were killed by friendly fire or by booby traps installed by the Japanese.” (source)  Amazing that so many American soldiers were killed to protect our country from invasion from the north during WW II. Few…

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Lt. Elsie Ott—First Flight Nurse of WW2

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Lieutenant Elsie Ott had never flown before being assigned to the first medical evac. flight.On that flight Lieutenant Ott would have the  lives of several soldiers in her hands. Doctors did not even clear the patients for air travel, much less a trip that would take them almost half way around the world.Lieutenant Elsie Ott was a nurse at a military hospital in Karachi, India (now Pakistan) in January 1943. She had never flown and had no training about the effects of high altitude on any type of injuries or illness. However, she was given orders to accompany five soldiers in serious condition to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.She was given no list of supplies needed or directions as to what to expect---just to be ready to leave the next day. Lt. Ott used her nursing intuition to gather basic medicine and equipment she felt might be necessary during the flight that would take an entire week. "Ott was responsible for the medical care of five casualties during the flight. Two patients were paralyzed from the waist down, one had tuberculosis, one had glaucoma and           another patient had manic-depressive psychosis. She collected a bedpan, urinal, aspirin tablets, and other medical supplies during her flight preparations. She also received blankets, pillowcases, sheets, two Army cots and two mattresses. 'A medical department staff sergeant with chronic arthritis, who had recently been a patient himself, accompanied Ott on the flight as her medical attendant'." (Source)  Because the Germans controlled Europe and Northern Africa, the flight had to take a course across the middle of Africa. Along the way 11 more patients were added.A detailed description of the flight with it's many stops for refueling and overnight layovers is a testament to the human spirit to overcome sleep deprivation, inept officials, and multitude of diverse tasks to complete the job. Judith Barger's book BEYON.D THE CALL OF DUTY  Army Flight Nursing in World War II,  details Lt. Elsie Ott's odyssey. This wonderful book is a tribute to flight nurses, and Barger gives a vivid picture of the terrible ordeal of Lieutenant Ott. Years later,  Elsie  told an interviewer that she was so tired when the flight arrived in Washington, she was unable to answer simple questions and requested permission to fill out paperwork the next day. She couldn't even remember her name and had to sneak a peek at her dog tags to provide that information.As a result of the success of her mission, the bureaucrats who thought medical evacuations and a flight nurse program were ridiculous to consider had a change of heart. This mission would have taken at least two months by air and ship;  therefore the first school for training flight nurses was soon opened at Bowman Army Air Field in Kentucky.  Due to her actions,Lt. Elsie Ott was the first woman to be awarded the Air Medal by the United States Army.Lt. Elsie Ott receives Air Medal from Brigadier General Fred  BorumThe citation accompanying the award read:Second Lieutenant Elsie S. Ott,…

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Father John McHugh, B-24 Bombardier, Miracle Man

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Consolidated Aircraft built the “B-24 Liberators [which] were not designed for crew comfort. The bombers were not pressurized or heated. Crews wore oxygen masks above 10,000 feet and were exposed to temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero. Crew members’ heated jackets didn’t work most of the time. They were heavy, but not heavy enough to keep out subzero temps for up to 10 hours at a stretch.” ( https://inmilitary.com/world-war-ii-bombardier-shot-everything/ )

During the early days/years of writing Our Duty, my daughter, Kristine, told me that I really needed to include Father John McHugh, a priest she had met over the weekend. I explained that the book was about people who I knew and their contributions during WW II; it was mainly honoring family members. Anyone who knows Kristine is aware that she is pretty adamant in her convictions, and also pretty persuasive. (If for no other reason than she just wears you down.) Because of her story concerning a man I knew nothing about, a priest who had lived thirty years of his life helping the poor of Belize began inching his way into my book. I really needed to include Father John McHugh,  By this time Father was ministering to Native Americans in Mora, New Mexico. Through phone calls at first, which entailed much yelling due to Father’s hearing impairment, (He would rather the money for hearing aids be spent helping the poor.) and later through “turtle mail,” a total stranger was also inching into my heart, and becoming better known than many family members. John McHugh was just a twenty year-old farm boy from Oklahoma when he, like millions of others, joined the military to fight the Nazis and the “Japs.” He became part of the new Army-Air Corps because he was enthralled with the idea of flying. After extensive testing, both physical and mental, John was selected for officer training as a bombardier. In this precarious place, aptly called the “greenhouse” he had a bird’s eye view of the sky and the earth around him. This was not a great place to be on a bomber when other planes are attempting to  shoot you from the skies. Looking at the front of the B-24 in the WW II museum When my husband Paul and I visited the WW II museum in New Orleans, LA, one of the first things I saw was the front end of a B-24. I suddenly realized what an awful position the bombardier had---even more so than the ball turret gunners. The area was cramped and the airman inside was a sitting duck, visible from all but the back side. It was definitely like sitting in a flying greenhouse. In her award-winning book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand detailed the critical job of the bombardier. The main character of the book Louis Zamperini told her, “For flat runs he (the bombardier) used the Norden bombsight, an extremely sophisticated analog computer that, at $8,000,cost more than twice the price of the average American home [at that time]. On a straight bombing run …[the bombardier] would visually locate the target, make calculations, and feed information on speed, altitude, wind, and other factors into the device. The bombsight would then take over flying the plane, follow a precise path to the target, calculate the drop angle, and release the bombs at the optimal moment. Once the bombs were gone, [the bombardier] would yell, ‘Bombs away!’ and the pilot would take control…

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About This Blog

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This blog is an endeavor to shine a light on some of those humble heroes of the WW II. If you ever think back to the long ago (longer for some of us) days of grade school, what do you most remember? Recess, of course, and if you were lucky to have wonderful cooks like Mrs. Demming and Mrs Nigg, the aroma and to-die-for cinnamon rolls, breads, and casseroles will always be a special memory.

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