Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

More than 500 Americans and more than 2000 Japanese died fighting in the Aleutian islands during WW2.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/battle-of-attu-60-years.htm



Now compare that to the 800+ indigenous Aleutians that were interned during WW2, many of which died in the American concentration -- err, I mean internment -- camps. The Aleutian people were also legal citizens of the US.

Edit: some more info. 881 Aleuts were gathered up, endured slave labor, and 118 died from lack of food, warmth or medical care. All extremely preventable as is evidenced by the camp just 30 miles away of around 700 Nazi POWs. All 700 returned home alive and in good health. Historian Stan Cohen even wrote, "All in all, the German imprisonment in Alaska was quite pleasant."

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/21/516277507...


To be clear, this is the US interning its own citizens not POW captured by Japan


Thanks for that link, I knew some Americans were relocated in Alaska but I didn't realize there were internment/concentration camps. I also didn't know about the Nazi POWs kept there during the war.

The last two paragraphs are a pathetic conclusion from the governement.


Asking why Japan invaded the Aleutians is a fun question for flat earthers. On most map projections it's way out of the way but on a globe if you draw a geodesic from Tokyo to Seattle (or Sapporo to San Diego and Los Angeles) it's basically halfway.


Maybe it's like pacman where going off one edge teleports you to the opposite edge. A finite land that goes on infinitely


And to better visualize it we could just map it to a sphere...


I think you're on to something here...


It probably meant the continental USA.


Yes, probably that because Alaska and Hawaii were not admitted as states until 1959. Otherwise there would be Pearl Harbor counts as well.


Oh wow I completely forgot about that detail. Of course Pearl Harbor would have been counted.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: