Alaska's Hidden Wars: Secret Campaigns on the North Pacific Rim
Alaska's Hidden Wars: Secret Campaigns on the North Pacific Rim
by Otis Hays Jr., Jr.
University of Alaska Press, 2004 Paper: 978-1-889963-64-8 | Cloth: 978-1-889963-63-1 Library of Congress Classification D769.87.A4H395 2004 Dewey Decimal Classification 940.5428
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
On the eve of World War II, the national interests of Japan, the United States, and the Soviet Union collided in the North Pacific.
Alaska's Hidden Wars tells the story of the war in the North Pacific, a story of savage weather, isolation, and sacrifice.
Two island chains, the Aleutians and the Kuriles, became the focus of a series of major campaigns that pitted the Americans against the Japanese. Alaska's Hidden Wars chronicles the role of Japanese-American intelligence specialists and reveals a Japanese eyewitness account of the defense of Attu. Two virtually unknown aspects of the North Pacific war are also exposed: the brutal North Pacific weather and the imprisonment of American airmen in Kamchatka.
In 1942, the Japanese raided Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands and occupied the islands of Kiska and Attu. The Americans mounted a vigorous campaign, and the Japanese retreated to the Kuriles. For the next two years, the Americans launched air raids and fleet bombardments, while American soldiers maintained lonely outposts along Aleutian coasts. But in 1945, when Japan finally surrendered, the Kuriles were taken, not by the waiting Americans, but by the Soviets.
Alaska's Hidden Wars is a fast-moving history that brings declassified archival sources to light and draws the reader into the lonely, bitter war fought in the North Pacific.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Otis Hays, Jr. served in Alaska as an intelligence staff officer during World War II. Later, while a professor of journalism at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, he was recalled to active military service in 1951 and served as psychological warfare officer in the Far East and the Pentagon until 1965. He was director of Indo-China Affairs for the U.S. Information Agency during the Vietnam War from 1966 through 1972. Mr. Hays is the author of Home from Siberia: The Secret Odysseys of Interned American Airmen in World War II and The Alaska-Siberia Connection: The World War II Air Route.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, 1941/1943
Chapter 1. Lowering the Security Curtain
Chapter 2. Confrontation in the Aleutians
Chapter 3. The Secret Nisei in the Aleutian Campaign
Chapter 4. Nisei Support at Attu and Kiska
Chapter 5. The Tatsuguchi Diary
THE KURILE ISLANDS, 1943/1945
Chapter 6. Looking Beyond the Aleutians
Chapter 7. American Prisoners in the Kuriles
Chapter 8. Whither the North Pacific Weather?
Chapter 9. American Deception and Japanese Reaction
Chapter 10. The Waiting Period in the North Pacific
Chapter 11. Soviet Presence in the North Pacific
Chapter 12. Lifting the Security Curtain
Appendix A. Nisei MIS Roster
Appendix B. Propaganda Leaflets
Appendix C. Tatsuguchi Diary Translation
Appendix D. Signal Intelligence Operations
Notes
Bibliography
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: World War, 1939-1945 Campaigns Alaska Aleutian Islands, World War, 1939-1945 Campaigns Russia Kuril Islands, Aleutian Islands (Alaska) History, Military, Kuril Islands (Russia) History, Military
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