Out on the Causeway

Like a giant causeway over the wastes of the North Pacific, the Aleutians stretch about 1,000 miles from the Alaskan mainland (see map). On to windswept, fog-washed Attu at their western tip, American troops swarmed last week.

The Job. In attacking Attu, the Army & Navy simply cut around the Jap forces on strongly held Kiska, presumably proposed to deal with them later or to starve them out. Although the Japs apparently had a relatively small force on Attu, they had a strong position. Only 35 miles long and 20 miles wide, Attu is fiercely rugged. Its swampy beaches offer no natural cover, few places for landings. The Japs would have to be blasted from every rock and shelter.

The Objective. Occupation of Attu will give the U.S. a bomber strip which the Japs recently built (but apparently have never been able to use in the foul Aleutian weather). That strip, when & if it can be used, places the Jap naval base at Paramoshiri, 750 miles to the west on the Northern tip of the Kurile Islands, within easy reach of U.S. bombers. Established there, U.S. fighting men would be only 650 miles from Hokkaido, topmost of the main Japanese islands.

But, for the moment, the main purpose of the Aleutian campaign was probably to drive the Japs back from the North American reaches, where they have been perched since June 3. The long-term possibilities of Aleutian bases, always limited by weather and isolation, can be realized only when world strategy permits all-out attack on Japan.

On Kiska, now between Americans on Attu and Americans on Amchitka, the Japs have a fighter strip, several thousand bomb-harried troops, a seaplane base, and a haven for submarines. The Japs' General Baron Sadao Araki was not sanguine. Said he: "Setbacks there and at home will only increase our strength. . . ."

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