Anchorage, Alaska – Gregory Golodoff spent most of his years on a quiet Alaska island, dwelling an unusual life, managing a co-op retailer, fishing for crab and serving because the village council president. But Golodoff’s latest dying on the age of 84 has reopened a chapter of American historical past and stirred up reminiscences of a long-forgotten Japanese invasion that prompted the one World War II battle on North American soil.
Golodoff was the final survivor amongst 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured distant Attu Island throughout World War II. He was 3 when the island was taken. He died Nov. 17 in Anchorage, his household stated. His sister, Elizabeth “Liz” Golodoff Kudrin, the second-to-last surviving Attuan, died in February at 82. Three of their siblings died in captivity.
“The eldest generation has passed away to the other side,” stated Helena Schmitz, the great-granddaughter of the final Attu chief, who died in Japan alongside along with his son.
Attu is a desolate, mountainous slab of tundra, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) huge by 56 kilometers (35 miles) lengthy and sits between the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea on the volcanic Ring of Fire. It’s probably the most westerly island within the Aleutian chain – nearer to Russia than mainland Alaska – and was one among just some U.S. territories, together with Guam, the Philippines and the close by island of Kiska, taken by enemy forces throughout the conflict.
The American effort to reclaim Attu in 1943 amid frigid rain, dense fog and hurricane-force winds turned referred to as World War II’s “forgotten battle.” About 2,500 Japanese troopers perished, many in hand-to-hand fight or by suicide; 28 survived. Roughly 550 U.S. troopers died. Initially skilled and outfitted to struggle within the North African desert, many suffered from frostbite and publicity resulting from insufficient gear.
In this picture supplied by Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc., Gregory Golodoff takes half in an interview, April 26, 2023, in Anchorage, Alaska. Golodoff was the final dwelling resident of Attu, Alaska, whose residents have been captured by the Japanese in World War II.
Even after the surviving captives have been freed on the shut of the conflict, they weren’t allowed to return to Attu as a result of the U.S. navy determined it might be too costly to rebuild the group. Most have been despatched to the island of Atka, about 322 kilometers (200 miles) away.
With the lack of their homeland, the Attuans’ language, Sakinam Tunuu, is now all however gone, spoken solely by members of Schmitz’s rapid household. The distinctive basket-weaving fashion of the island is practiced by simply three or 4 weavers, and never all are of Attuan descent. Schmitz runs a nonprofit named Atux Forever to revive the cultural heritage.
Much of what’s identified in regards to the Alaska Natives’ time in Japan is chronicled within the e book “Attu Boy,” written by Golodoff’s older brother, Nick, with help from his editor, Rachel Mason, a cultural anthropologist with the National Park Service in Anchorage.
Mason knew the three siblings. Gregory and Liz had little reminiscence of Attu or Japan, and neither preferred to speak about it, she stated.
Nick Golodoff, who was 6 when he was captured, had a childlike innocence about his time as a prisoner, Mason famous. The cowl of his e book featured {a photograph} of him using on the again of a Japanese soldier, each smiling.
That expertise was removed from typical. Of the Attu residents interned in Japan, 22 died from malnutrition, hunger or tuberculosis. Schmitz’s great-grandfather, Mike Hodikoff, died along with his son of meals poisoning from consuming rotten rubbish whereas in Japanese captivity, the e book famous.
Japanese troopers landed on Attu Island on June 7, 1942, when residents have been attending companies on the Russian Orthodox church. Some ran for his or her rifles, however Hodikoff informed them, “Do not shoot, maybe the Americans can save us yet,” based on the e book.
FILE – In this picture supplied by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a remnant of World War II stays is seen on Attu Island, Alaska, Aug. 22, 2017.
Instead, the village radio operator, Charles Foster Jones, was shot and killed earlier than he might alert authorities, changing into the one U.S. civilian killed by the invading forces in North America, based on a tribute to Jones by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The different residents – all Alaska Natives aside from Jones’ spouse, a white trainer from New Jersey named Etta Jones – have been stored captive of their properties for 3 months earlier than being informed to pack up and produce what meals they might for the journey to Japan.
They first went to Kiska, one other Alaska island; one Attu resident died on the best way. Stuffed within the cargo maintain of a ship, the others launched into a two-week voyage to Sapporo, the biggest metropolis on Japan’s Hokkaido Island, the place they have been stored in 4 rooms in an deserted dormitory. Only Etta Jones was separated from them and brought in a unique boat to an internment facility in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
One Japanese guard complained the Attuans ate higher than the Japanese, however situations worsened when the Alaskans ran out of the meals they introduced.
The Golodoffs’ mom, Olean, and others have been pressured to work lengthy hours in a clay mine. As their numbers dwindled, she additionally turned the cook dinner for the surviving POWs, although there was little to make. She was decreased to gathering orange peels off the road and cooking them on prime of a heater, stated George Kudrin, who married Olean’s daughter Liz in Atka after he returned from the Vietnam War.
“I fed them to my children, and only then would they stop crying for a while,” Olean as soon as informed an interviewer.
Her husband, Lawrence, and three of their seven youngsters died in Japan. Nick Golodoff lived till 2013. Another son who survived captivity, John, died in 2009.
Kudrin stated Olean did not communicate of her experiences in Japan, and his spouse, Liz, was too younger to recollect something.
“She always knew that she was part of the history of World War II and she always said, ‘I am a survivor with my mama,'” he stated.
American forces reclaimed Attu on May 30, 1943, after a brutal 19-day marketing campaign. Much of the preventing was waged in dense fog amid winds of greater than 190 kph (120 mph). Attu Island right this moment is a part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and identified extra for being one of many prime locations in North America for teams devoted to viewing birds, particularly these from Asia.
Greg Golodoff’s spouse of fifty years, Pauline, stated he by no means spoke together with her about his expertise in Japan or about being the final dwelling resident of Attu. “I tried to ask him, but he didn’t want to talk about it,” she stated.