Descendant of last native leader of Alaska island demands Japanese reparations for 1942 invasion

ANKERAGE, Alaska — Helena Pagano’s great-grandfather was the last Alaska Native chief on a remote island in the Bering Sea, closer to Russia than North America. He died of starvation as a prisoner of war after Japanese troops invaded during World War II and expelled the few dozen residents from their village, never to return.

Pagano has long believed that 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 again this summer by her first visit to the island. She accompanied Japanese officials who, as part of a redoubled effort to recover the remains of World War II soldiers killed abroad, recovered the bones of two people from the tundra.

The Attuans “lost their homeland, they lost their relatives,” Pagano said. “This story has never been told, and the Japanese never really helped us in that regard.”

Attu Island is the westernmost part of Alaska’s Aleutian chain. It was one of a few American territories, including Guam, the Philippines and nearby Kiska Island, captured during the war.

Japanese landed on Attu on June 7, 1942, killing the radio operator. The residents were held in their homes for three months and then taken to Japan.

American troops waged a bloody campaign amid hurricane winds, rain and dense fog in 1943 recapture Attu Island in what became known as the ‘forgotten battle’ of the war. 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 the Japanese island of Hokkaido, 22 died over the next two-plus years from malnutrition, starvation, tuberculosis or other ailments, including Pagano’s great-grandfather, Mike Hodikoff, the last chief. Hodikoff and his son both died in 1945, suffering from food poisoning after being reduced to scrounging through rotting garbage for sustenance.

After the war, surviving Attuans were not allowed to return to the island because the US military said rebuilding would be too expensive. Most were sent to the island of Atka, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) away. The last surviving Attu inhabitants held in captivity died last year.

In 1951, six years after the war ended, Japan offered Attuans who survived about $4,000 a year — more than the then-average American annual salary — for three years, Pagano said. Almost everyone accepted, but her grandmother refused, suggesting that the treatment the POWs suffered was too terrible to be compensated with money.

The Japanese have never compensated the families for the deaths of prisoners or for the loss of land and damage to Attuan culture and language, said Pagano, who runs Atux Forever, a nonprofit organization dedicated to Attuan culture. The historical trauma still weighs on the roughly 300 Attuan descendants who remain in the U.S., she said.

In addition to restitution, she would like to see the Japanese government invest in a cultural center for Attuans somewhere on mainland Alaska and work with the U.S. government on an environmental cleanup of Attu Island, including removing old anti-aircraft guns and steel planks. that was used for temporary airstrips, along with a peace monument that Japan said it erected there without the input of Attuans or American veterans who served in the battle.

Officials from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they have not received any requests for additional refunds from Attuans.

Demands have been made for compensation for brutality against prisoners of war, wartime Korean forced laborers and “comfort women” from across Asia who were forced into prostitution for Japanese soldiers. But the Japanese government has insisted that any compensation issues be resolved under a 1951 treaty in San Francisco, whose signatories had renounced their rights, or other treaties, said Yoshitaka Sato, an official at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Well-being. Japan had exceptionally set up funds for women in 1995 and 2015.

Pagano says the 1951 treaty does not preclude additional refunds.

The island is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. In August, Pagano made her first trip to Attu, on a ship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.

She said she did not know in advance that Japanese officials would exhume any remains, and she found it disrespectful, saying the bones could be those of Attu residents or American soldiers.

Jeff Williams, deputy manager of the sanctuary, said the excavation plans were not approved until just before the trip.

The former village site of Attu, where the bones were excavated, is owned by the Aleut Corp. – one of many regional for-profit companies created to benefit the people of Alaska. Spokesperson Kate Gilling said in an email that Aleut Corp. “recognizes the significant historical trauma that the Attuan people endured during and after World War II” and that it was aware of Atux Forever’s call for reparations.

“We believe that a greater partnership between all entities in the Aleutian region and Pribilof Island will help advance solutions that are comprehensive and inclusive,” she said.

As war veterans and their relatives age, the Japanese government has faced increasing calls to speed the recovery of remains and has done so, including through increased use of DNA testing. Of the approximately 2.4 million Japanese troops who died in the war outside Japan, the remains of just over half have been recovered.

Japan conducted its first recovery of remains at Attu in 1953, recovering those of approximately 320 Japanese soldiers, who were taken to Japan and stored at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery. The remains of the others on Attu are missing.

Sato, the Japanese government official, said the U.S. government determines which areas Japan can survey for remains and requires Japan to take necessary environmental protection measures.

Japanese efforts to recover the remains on Attu had been stalled for a long time, largely because of U.S. environmental concerns, Sato said. In 2009, the US government demanded an environmental assessment, leading to a further delay of more than a decade.

Before the August visit to Attu, the US proposed a survey without digging, but later agreed to scoop up a small piece of land, Sato said. Under the supervision of American officials, the remains of two suspected Japanese soldiers were exhumed.

The remains were sent to Anchorage for temporary storage pending a preliminary evaluation by Japanese experts, which would be sent in late March. If their analysis shows the remains are most likely Japanese, samples will be sent to Japan for DNA testing, Sato said.

During the August visit, Pagano spent two days on the island, collecting water samples from a creek to check for lingering environmental contamination.

While others returned to the ship to sleep for the night, she camped – likely the first Attuan to spend a night on the island since its inhabitants were forcibly removed 82 years ago.

“I felt very calm, peaceful and complete as a person,” Pagano said.

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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.