ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Helena Pagano’s grandfather was the last Alaska Native chief of a remote island in the Bering Sea, closer to Russia than North America. He starved to death as a prisoner of war after the Japanese army entered World War II, taking a few residents from their home, never to return.
Pagano has always believed that Japan should pay more for what the military did to his grandfather and other residents of Attu Island.
But his passion was rekindled this summer with his first visit to the island. He went with Japanese officials who, as part of a two-fold effort to recover the remains of World War II soldiers killed abroad, unearthed the remains of two people from the tundra.
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Mr. Attuan “lost his country, he lost members of his family,” said Pagano.
Attu Island is the westernmost point of Alaska’s Aleutian chain. It was one of the few US territories, including Guam, the Philippines and the nearby island of Kiska, to be occupied during the war.
The Japanese landed at Attu on June 7, 1942, killing the radio operator. The residents were kept in their homes for three months, and then taken to Japan.
The US military conducted a bloody campaign amid strong winds, rain and thick fog in 1943 to retake Attu Island in what became known as the “forgotten battle” of the war. More than 2,500 Japanese soldiers died in battle or by suicide, and the American army lost about 550 soldiers.
Of the 42 residents trapped on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, 22 died of malnutrition, starvation, tuberculosis or other diseases during the two-plus years, including Pagano’s grandfather, Mike Hodikoff, the last officer. Hodikoff and his son both died in 1945, suffering from food poisoning after being reduced to scrounging through rotting garbage for sustenance.
After the war, the remaining Atuans were not allowed to return to the island because the United States military said it would be too expensive to rebuild. Most were taken to Atka Island, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) away. The last remaining Attu residents who were locked up died last year.
In 1951, six years after the end of the war, Japan gave the surviving Atuans $4,000 a year – more than the average annual salary in the US at the time – for three years, Pagano said. Almost all of them were accepted, but his grandmother refused, pointing out that the treatment given by the POWs was too terrible for them to be paid for.
The Japanese never compensated these families for the deaths of prisoners or the loss of land and damage to Atuan culture and language, said Pagano, who runs Atux Forever, a nonprofit dedicated to Atuan culture. The trauma of history still weighs on the 300 or so Atuan descendants left in the US, he said.
Besides restoration, he would like to see the Japanese government invest in a cultural center for the Atuans somewhere in Alaska and work with the US government in cleaning up the Attu Island area, including the removal of old anti-aircraft guns and steel frames. which was used for temporary air lines, as well as a peace memorial said Japan stopped there without being installed by Atuans or US soldiers who served in the war.
Officials at Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Foreign Ministry said they have not yet received requests for additional refunds from Atuans.
There have been charges of brutality directed at POWs, during the Korean War forced laborers and “comfort women” from across Asia were forced into prostitution for the Japanese military. But the Japanese government has insisted that all compensation issues be settled under the 1951 agreement in San Francisco, which signatories waived their rights, or other agreements, said Yoshitaka Sato, head of the health, labor and economy ministry. Japan had made money for women in 1995 and 2015 as exceptions.
Pagano says the 1951 treaty will not prohibit another return.
The island is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. In August, Pagano made his first trip to Attu, on a boat operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.
He said he did not know in advance whether Japanese officials would release any remains, and considered it disrespectful, saying the bones could be those of Attu residents or US soldiers.
Jeff Williams, the refuge’s assistant manager, said excavation plans were not approved until before the trip.
The former Attu village site, where the bones were unearthed, is owned by the Aleut Corp. – one of several regional, for-profit corporations designed to benefit Alaska Natives. In an email, spokeswoman Kate Gilling said Aleut Corp. “recognizes the significant historical stress endured by the Atuan people during and after World War II” and that it was aware of Atux Forever’s call for their restoration.
“We believe greater cooperation between all agencies in the Aleutian region and Pribilof Island will help promote comprehensive and inclusive solutions,” he said.
As war veterans and their relatives age, the Japanese government has faced growing calls to speed up the recovery of remains and has done so, including the widespread use of DNA testing. Of the 2.4 million Japanese soldiers who died in the war outside of Japan, the remains of a little more than half have been found.
Japan conducted its first remains recovery at Attu in 1953 and took those of 320 Japanese soldiers, who were taken to Japan and kept at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery. The remains of others at Attu are unknown.
Sato, the Japanese government official, said the US government controls what areas Japan can explore for fossils and wants Japan to take the necessary measures to protect the environment.
Japan’s efforts to recover the remnants of Attu had stalled, largely because of U.S. territorial concerns, Sato said. In 2009, the US government required an environmental review which caused another delay of more than 10 years.
Before the August visit to Attu, the US planned a no-dig survey, but later allowed shoveling into a small part of the land, Sato said. In the care of United States officials, the remains of two suspected Japanese soldiers were unearthed.
The remains were sent to Anchorage for temporary storage pending examination by Japanese experts for shipment in late March. If their analysis determines that the remains are likely Japanese, the samples will be sent to Japan for DNA testing, Sato said.
During the August visit, Pagano spent two days on the island, taking water samples from the creek to check for environmental pollution.
The others returned to the boat to spend the night, he set up camp – he may have been the first Attuan to spend the night on the island since the inhabitants were forcibly removed 82 years ago.
“I felt calm and peaceful and complete as a person,” Pagano said.
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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.