The Aleutian Islands
≈Where historical and fictional events began ≈
Humans had clung to these islands for thousands of years. The Aleutians were rafts
anchored in place upon which the Aleut people lived season to season following the rhythm
of the growing and lessening days.
The Aleutians stretch over a thousand miles east to west, give or take a hundred miles
one way or the other. When you deal with distances that vast , then struggle against land
and sea that rugged and unforgiving, it doesn't make much difference. A five minute skiff
ride can kill just as surely and quickly as one many hours in duration.
And the sea, common everywhere, just not in the Aleutians, doesn't care about your
vessel's size-: Canoe, aircraft carrier, floating fish processor--it'll bust every one of them
up without a flinch. Its power is rivaled only by the volcanoes that dot the Aleutians, but
even forty Krakatoas yield before the oceans. In one night, the North Pacific or Atlantic,
will toss water around in such weight and quantities, that any volcano pales in comparison.
There are no shoulders stronger than those of the oceans and seas. And the
Aleutian inhabitants lived and live upon them.
It is on the furtherest-west Aleutian Island of Attu where the Japanese decided to invade
in June 1942. One can discuss the reasons--but in the overall scheme of war, reason
doesn't mean much. Suffice it to write, that the Japanese came in shooting with over a
thousand men by land--dozens of landing boats-by sea--on Sunday, June 7, 1942, and
shot up the village of Chichagof. Young Japanese soldiers--most scared spitless--expecting
brigades of American defenders spent hours in the night and early morning lost in the
mountains. By the time they came down into the village, they were so ready for battle
that they created one.
From the sea, around the point and into the bay, came the landing boats--guns firing
away. And it was at this point that both the novel The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith, and
the real story of the 44 Aleuts and two Caucasians begin. On that day, history arrived
on the shores of the Aleutians--in Attu and Kiska--and it stayed.
My novel attempts to make a lyrical sense of events before, during and after the capture
through fictional device, yet using research--extensive research- over a period of years-on
which to support the story.
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