Pre-WWII Attu

L-R "Mrs. Mike," "Little Mike," and "Big Mike" Hodikoff. In 1934 Big Mike was chief of the native Aleut Tribe on Attu. They are posing in front of their native Barabara, the Aleut hut. Trapping Blue Fox, fishing, and making baskets was the only means they had of making a living.

This photo was taken in 1934 by the Bureau of Aeronautics of the U. S. Navy during an aerial survey of the Aleutian Islands. (Official U. S. Navy Photograph. Was made available for distribution on Thursday, August 6, 1942 at 3:00 P.M.)

At the time this photo was released in 1942, it was assumed that Big Mike and his family were prisoners of the Japanese. It was later learned that Mike Hodikoff died in 1945, in Japan, while still imprisoned.

Click on image to view reverse side.

Attu Aleut Village, Chichagof Harbor
Pre-1942 Japanese Invasion Photo
(Contributed earlier)

Village of Attu
In 1934 there were only 38 natives
in Attu, Aleutian Islands
(Official U. S. Navy Photograph)

The Village of Attu
Chichagof Harbor, June 1937
National Marine Fisheries Service
NOAA Photo Library

Click HERE for the HI RES image
version of the 1937 village
(Note: This file is 188kB in size!)

On the 6th of June, 1942, the Japanese 301st Independent Infantry Battalion landed on Attu via Chichagof Harbor. At this time, Attu's population consisted of several Blue Fox, forty-five native Aleuts, and two Americans: Foster Jones and his wife, a sixty year old schoolteacher. They (with the exception of the fox) all lived in a little village of frame houses around Chichagof Harbor, maintaining a precarious existence by fishing, trapping the foxes, and weaving baskets. Missionaries, as well as government patrol boats and small fishing craft, provided the inhabitants with their only direct link with the outside world...except for a small radio operated by Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones subsequently committed suicide after the Japanese invasion with his wife attempting to do the same. She recovered under Japanese care. For a short time, the Japanese occupational forces maintained the services of the Aleut fishermen to supply them with food. As the Japanese forces became more entrenched on Attu, Mrs. Jones and the entire Aleut population of the little village of Chichagof was transported to Hokkaido, Japan in the hold of a freighter for internment. After WWII, the Aleuts were resettled on Atka Island, in the Aleutians.