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Article: Attack on America: Dutch Harbor 60 years later: this may come as a surprise, but the nation was attacked twice during WWII. The second time was at the "Pearl Harbor of the North" in the Aleutian Islands. The National Park Service is making sure we all remember with a new visitor's center.
- Article from:
- VFW Magazine
- Article date:
- June 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Japan staged not one, but two audacious attacks on U.S. territory during World War II. On June 3-4, 1942--a full six months after Pearl Harbor--Japanese forces again hit American turf, shocking the nation.
Their carrier-based bombers and fighters struck Dutch Harbor Naval Base and Fort Meats in the eastern Aleutians, which stretch west from mainland Alaska. The front-page headline in the Anchorage Daily Times read simply: "Raid Dutch Harbor!"
The Aleutians were the perfect steppingstones for an invasion of North America. Japan's principal aim, however, was to prevent America from invading its home islands. Located just 100 miles off the Alaskan mainland, ...