Video: 'Alaska vs. Japan - The Battle of Attu'

(Tuesday, May 11, 1943, 8:42 a.m. CAWT; during the Battle of Attu, part of the American Theater of World War II) — An assault force of 12,500 U.S. soldiers landed on the northern and southern ends of Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands today in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese Imperial Army forces led by Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki.

The island, part of the U.S. territory of Alaska, had been renamed Atsuta by Japan, and was a supply point for the Aleutian island of Kiska, still in use by Japan as a submarine operating base.

Attu,  where foreign invaders occupied American soil for the first time since 1812. is the only land battle in which Japanese and American forces fought in snowy conditions, in contrast with the tropical climate in the rest of the Pacific.

The more than two-week battle ended on May 30, 1943, by which most of the Japanese defenders had been killed in brutal hand-to-hand combat after a final banzai charge broke through American lines.

The charge effectively ended the battle for the island, although U.S. Navy reports indicate that small groups of Japanese continued to fight until early July 1943 and isolated Japanese survivors held out until as late as Sept. 8, 1943.

In 19 days of battle, 549 soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division were killed and more than 1,200 injured. The Japanese lost over 2,351 men, including Yamasaki; only 28 prisoners were taken.