Aleutian World War II National Historic Area
2716 Airport Beach Rd
Unalaska, AK
Where the Second World War reached American soil, and where the Unangax people were forced from their home islands in its name.
In June 1942, the war came to Alaska. Japanese carrier planes bombed the US base at Dutch Harbor, and Japanese forces went on to occupy the far-western Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska, the only part of the American homeland occupied during the Second World War. The battle to retake Attu in 1943 was one of the deadliest of the Pacific war measured by the share of men lost. The Aleutian World War II National Historic Area preserves this landscape and tells its story.
But the campaign carried a second, quieter tragedy. To clear the islands for war, the United States forcibly evacuated the Unangax, the Aleut people whose home these islands have always been, and held them in bleaky, unheated camps in Southeast Alaska, where many died. The Unangax are still here, and this site tells their history alongside the military one, in their own light.
What Guests Love
- Standing where the only WWII battle on US home soil took place
- The Aleutian WWII visitor center inside a restored 1940s aerology building
- Bunkers, gun mounts, and pillboxes still scattered across the green tundra hills
- Learning the wrenching, less-told story of the Unangax evacuation
Worth Knowing
- Getting here takes real effort and planning, by air or the long Alaska Marine Highway ferry
- Weather is famously raw and changeable, with wind, fog, and rain likely in any season
- Some wartime sites sit on active port or private land, so respect closures and signs
- Come with time and a reflective frame of mind; this is a place of both battle history and human loss
Details
Unalaska, AK
Learn about Aleutian World War II National Historic Area
The war reaches Alaska
On June 3 and 4, 1942, Japanese aircraft launched from carriers struck the US Army and Navy base at Dutch Harbor, killing dozens and damaging fuel tanks and buildings. Days later, Japanese troops landed on Kiska and Attu at the western end of the Aleutian chain and dug in, seizing American territory.
For more than a year the Aleutians became a grinding theater of war fought in some of the worst weather on earth, where fog, williwaw winds, and cold caused as many casualties as combat. In May 1943, American forces landed on Attu to retake it. The battle lasted more than two weeks and ended in a desperate Japanese banzai charge. Of the many defenders, only a small number were taken prisoner. Measured against the number of troops engaged, it ranked among the costliest battles of the Pacific.
The Japanese later slipped their remaining garrison off Kiska under cover of fog before an Allied landing force arrived. The campaign is often called the forgotten war, fought at the edge of the map and quickly overshadowed by events farther south.
The Unangax evacuation
The Unangax, sometimes called Aleut, have lived across these islands for thousands of years and are the original people of the Aleutian chain. When war reached the islands, the US government evacuated Unangax communities, in many cases with almost no notice and only what they could carry, and burned some villages to keep them from the enemy.
The evacuees were taken to Southeast Alaska and housed in abandoned canneries and camps that were crowded, damp, and unheated. Medical care was poor, and a heartbreaking number of people, especially the very old and the very young, died in the camps before they could return home. Some western communities were never resettled at all.
The Unangax survived, rebuilt, and remain a living people whose culture continues in Unalaska and across the region today. In 1988 the United States formally apologized and provided reparations for the wartime treatment of the Unangax. Telling this story honestly, alongside the battle history, is central to what the site is for.
What remains on the land
The hills above Dutch Harbor and Unalaska are still studded with the physical remains of the war: concrete bunkers, gun emplacements, pillboxes, ammunition magazines, and the earthworks of Fort Schwatka atop Mount Ballyhoo, one of the highest coastal defense posts ever built by the US military. Wind and tundra are slowly reclaiming them.
The visitor center occupies a restored aerology building from the 1940s beside the airport, with exhibits on the battle, the base, and the Unangax story. From there, a self-guided route leads to accessible sites around the area.
Because the islands are treeless and green, the ruins stand out starkly against the slopes, and it is easy to imagine the young servicemen who were stationed here in the fog and cold, far from home.
Reaching and reading the place
Unalaska and Dutch Harbor lie far out in the Bering Sea, reached by air or by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry, which makes the long run out the chain only seasonally. There are no roads in. Getting here is part of understanding how remote and exposed this front truly was.
The weather is a character in the story, raw, wet, and wind-driven in almost any season, exactly the conditions that made the Aleutian campaign so brutal. Dress for it, allow extra time for travel delays, and treat the wartime and cultural sites as the memorials they are.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Unalaska
Church of the Holy Ascension
About 3 miles, a 10 minute drive
A historic Russian Orthodox church on Unalaska's waterfront, the spiritual heart of an Unangax Orthodox community with roots going back generations.
Museum of the Aleutians
About 3 miles, a 10 minute drive
A regional museum covering thousands of years of Unangax history along with the Russian era and the Second World War in the islands.
Mount Ballyhoo
About 4 miles, a 15 minute drive
The peak above Dutch Harbor crowned by the ruins of Fort Schwatka, with dramatic overlooks of the harbor, the sea, and the surrounding treeless slopes.