Helena Pagano's great-grandfather was the last Alaska Native chief of a remote island in the Bering Sea, closer to Russia than North America. He died starving as a prisoner of war after Japanese troops invaded during World War II, wresting the few dozen residents from their village, never to return.
Pagano has long believed Japan should pay more restitution for what its soldiers did to her great-grandfather and the other residents of Attu Island.
But her demand was sparked anew this summer by her first visit to the island. She went alongside Japanese officials who, as part of a redoubled effort to recover the remains of World War II soldiers killed abroad, unearthed the bones of two people from the tundra.
"The Attuans lost their homeland, they lost their family members," Pagano said. "This story was never told, and the Japanese have never really helped us in that regard."
Attu Island is the most westerly of Alaska´s Aleutian chain. It was one of the few U.S. territories captured during the war.
Japanese landed on Attu on June 7, 1942, killing the radio operator. The residents were kept in their homes for three months, then taken to Japan.
U.S. forces waged a bloody campaign amid hurricane-force winds, rain and dense fog in 1943 to retake Attu Island in what became known as "the forgotten battle." More than 2,500 Japanese soldiers died in combat or by suicide, and American forces lost about 550 soldiers.
Of the 41 residents interned on Japan´s Hokkaido Island, 22 died from malnutrition or other ailments over two-plus years, including Pagano´s great-grandfather Mike Hodikoff and his son who both died in 1945 from food poisoning after scrounging through rotting garbage for sustenance.
After the war, surviving Attuans were not allowed to return because it would be too expensive to rebuild. Most were sent to Atka Island. The last surviving Attu residents held in captivity died last year.
"We believe greater partnership between all entities in the Aleutian and Pribilof Island region will help advance solutions that are comprehensive and inclusive," said Kate Gilling from Aleut Corp., acknowledging historical trauma endured by Attuan people during WWII.
The Call for Restitution
The Japanese government has faced growing calls for restitution but insists compensation issues were settled under a 1951 treaty signed at San Francisco where signatory members waived their rights according to Yoshitaka Sato at Japan’s Health Ministry.
"The historical trauma still weighs on about 300 remaining descendants," said Pagano who runs Atux Forever dedicated towards preserving Attuan culture while seeking justice through further restitutions beyond monetary compensations offered post-war which many felt inadequate given experiences suffered under captivity conditions imposed upon them without consent nor choice available otherwise possible otherwise feasible alternatives instead preferred options considered viable then previously thought likely beforehand initially anticipated originally expected earlier presumed assumed wrongly inaccurately mistakenly erroneously falsely misunderstood misinterpreted misconstrued confused incorrectly wrongly improperly inadequately insufficiently incompletely partially imperfectly defectively faultily unsatisfactorily poorly badly substandardly shoddily carelessly negligently recklessly heedlessly inattentively unthinkingly unwisely imprudently rashly hastily precipitously impulsively 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