Three new, helpfully compact and well-illustrated history books from the University of Alaska Press cast light on important but often overlooked aspects of Alaska history.
You might think that the World War II conflict in the Aleutians would be common knowledge by now. The invasion of Alaska by Japanese troops and their eventual expulsion was hardly the "forgotten war" some claim. It was well reported in the American press at the time and has often been the subject of articles in this newspaper and other current periodicals. Nonetheless, one regularly encounters lifelong Alaskans -- not to mention out-of-staters -- who admit to knowing nothing about it.
Part of the problem may be the remoteness of the battle sites. It requires special dispensations from government agencies to set foot on either Attu or Kiska, the locations of the major Japanese installations. Both are a long, long way from the populated parts of the state and remain dotted with munitions that may well go off at any moment.
The solution has been to bring the battle sites to the public via photographs. "Kiska: The Japanese Occupation of an Alaska Island" by Brendan Coyle features historic and contemporary photos of the place, dubbed "far and away the most significant intact battlefield remaining from World War II" by Australian historian Dirk Spennemann.
Coyle shows ships, subs, aircraft, trenches and guns as they look today, often juxtaposed with photos of the same or similar pieces as they looked in 1942-43. Pictures of active structures and encampments are contrasted with landscapes showing the pits where buildings once stood. One odd bit of business is Coyle's composite photographs, which meld old and new images into a single frame. Perhaps the intention is to give a sense of scale or historic resonance, but the effect is more goofy than ghostly.
The recent photos taken by Coyle of both the relics and the landscape of the island are beautiful, however. They are accompanied by a swift text that includes both the history of the Aleutian campaign, with a focus on Kiska, and the author's narrative of his travels to the place. (For more on the book, look for a more in-depth review in We Alaskans, out this Sunday).
A more obscure but no less crucial corner of the state's history is covered in "A Dangerous Idea: The Alaska Native Brotherhood and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights" by Peter Metcalfe with Kathy Kolkhorst Ruddy.
The early years of the ANB, often described as the first Native rights organization in the country, have been well reported by eyewitnesses and historians. The more recent developments, mostly concerning the Alaska Federation of Natives, since federal land claims settlement legislation was enacted in the 1970s, is likewise abundantly documented, though a concise and comprehensive history remains to be written.
"A Dangerous Idea" supplies that service for a span of four decades, from the 1930s through the 1960s. This is sort of a missing gap in many larger history books, but here the tireless effort of ANB leaders gets its due. The situation regarding Native land claims was particularly tenuous during the period roughly spanning the New Deal to the Great Society. Even politicians who personally supported civil rights for Native people -- Ernest Gruening and Bob Bartlett among them -- opposed distributing Alaska territory to tribes.
The ANB spearheaded a savvy and long-sighted legal campaign that set the groundwork for the modern status of Native corporations. "There would have been little left to settle had the ANB not deployed the sword and shield by which they defined, then protected Alaska Native claims," Metcalfe writes.
The economic text takes up less than 90 pages; notes and index material occupies more than 40 pages. Photos include incidental shots that peel away some of the formality of familiar group portraiture while revealing the grit at the heart of the ANB leadership. Particularly notable is a picture of attorney William Paul suited up as a college football quarterback.
Completing the trio is "Steaming to the North: The First Summer Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, Alaska and Siberia, 1886" by Katherine C. Donahue and David C. Switzer. Relying heavily on the cutter's logs, the authors recount scenes of Native life and trading fairs, commercial whaling under sail and steam, traditional dress and hunting tools in the years just before the Nome gold rush changed life on Alaska's north and west coasts forever.
Profiles of the testy captain, Michael Healy, and his chief officers are included along with many full-page photos taken during the trip. These photos, beautifully restored where necessary and captioned as well as possible, are a real highlight.
The book also touches on the history of the famed Coast Guard cutter. In the 1880s it was a supply vessel, mail ship, rescue boat and the closest thing most of the territory knew to law enforcement. The ship served through World War II and was on its way to becoming a seaside restaurant when it sank off Massachusetts in 1963.