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On June 7, 1942, Major Matsu- toshi Hozumi led some 1,200 men of the Japanese Army North Seas Detachment ashore on barren and perpetually fogbound Attu, the west- ernmost of Alaska's Aleutian Islands. It was the first enemy force to occupy U.S. soil since the War of 1812. That unopposed landing and a similar sor- tie a day earlier against Kiska, 200 miles to the east, threatened the sea routes over which American aid flowed to Russia and secured Japan bases from which to advance on mainland Alaska or the U.S. West Coast. The Japanese landings also ultimately provoked one of the bloodiest and most challenging American military offensives of World War II.
While the speedy recapture of Attu and Kiska was of great psychological importance with regard to Ameri- can public opinion, the United States was not able to consider reconquest of the Aleutians until the spring of 1943. Even then, preparations for Operation Sandcrab were uncoordinated. Planners focused on Attu, which they believed to be less heavily defended than Kiska. Tapped to undertake the...