Governor Proclaims June 3, 2014 as Dutch Harbor Remembrance Day

Dutch Harbor Remembrance Day

Effective Date: Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014

WHEREAS, on June 3, 1942, six months after the attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base, Japanese aircraft assaulted United States Army and Navy installations at Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island, Alaska; and

WHEREAS, the bombing of Dutch Harbor was the first hostile action on Alaskan soil. In response, the United States forcibly evacuated 881 Unangan (Aleut) people from their homes to internment camps set up on the Alaska Panhandle. As a result of the horrific conditions of the camps, more than one in ten evacuees perished; and

WHEREAS, in the days and weeks that followed, Dutch Harbor was attacked again, as well as the island communities of Adak, Kiska, and Attu. Attu and Kiska were actually held by Japanese forces, the first time that an enemy occupied American soil since the war of 1812. Many Attuans were taken back to Japan as prisoners, where they would remain throughout the duration of the war, suffering and dying from starvation and disease; and

WHEREAS, in August 1942, the United States Air Force set up an Army base on Adak Island and fended off hostile forces on Kiska, while the Navy patrolled the surrounding waters and damaged important Japanese cruiser vessels; and

WHEREAS, the brave men of the United States Armed Forces and allied Canadian forces fought the enemy in severe weather conditions for over a year in order to retake the remaining Aleutian Islands. The battle for Attu ranks as one of the United States’ most costly assaults in the Pacific during the war, as hundreds of American servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Alaska; and

WHEREAS, each year on the anniversary of the bombing of Dutch Harbor, we remember and honor all those who were affected by the attack, especially the military personnel who served and died to defend our nation, and the Aleuts who died while imprisoned.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sean Parnell, Governor of the State of Alaska, do hereby proclaim June 3, 2014 as Dutch Harbor Remembrance Day in Alaska, and encourage all Alaskans to join with the people of Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, and the Aleutian Islands in honor of all who were lost in Alaska during World War II, to remember those who courageously fought to defend our land, and ask that the Alaska flag be flown at half-mast in remembrance of those who perished.

Dated: June 2, 2014