Why didn't the people of Attu return?
As you may know, Attu Island is part of the Aleutian Islands which is part of the State of Alaska:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attu_Island
Its population is currently 0, but that wasn't always the case.
Attu is notable because during World War II it was part of the incorporated Alaska Territory, incorporated meaning that it was part of the United States proper and was not merely an overseas territory or protectorate of the United States (the same was true with the Hawaii Territory). Prior to World War II, natives of the island lived on Attu; they were all U.S. citizens who were residing inside the United States proper. In 1942, the Japanese military captured the island, making Japan the only foreign power other than the U.K. to invade and occupy a part of the United States proper in the country's entire history. At the time there were about 70 or so villagers living on the island, along with a white schoolteacher and her husband.
The Japanese executed the schoolteacher's husband and moved the entire population of the island--remember, these were U.S. citizens living in the United States proper--to Japan to serve as slave labor. The Japanese built the island's first and only airport and prepared to use it to launch attacks on the rest of the Aleutian Islands, but the Americans moved to recapture the island a year later in a bloody battle that was the only battle fought between American and Japanese forces in arctic terrain and the only land battle that was fought inside the United States proper. The Americans managed to recapture the island, and they took possession of the airport built by the Japanese, which still operates today and is considered the property of the U.S. government.
But after VJ-day, they didn't relocate any of the islanders who had been captured to their home island, resettling them instead on other Aleutian Islands. Why did they do this?
Just a guess.
After all that crap that they had gone through(16 or the 70 inhabitants died while in the Japanese slave camp) the survivors probably needed the support survices of a larger population. They couldnt survive as the sole inhabitants of a remote island. They had to be farmed out to different communities. The island itsself is so far from the mainland that after the war they put a coast guard base there, and that was the only thing on the island- until they decommissioned even that after a few years (according to wiki).
They never cleaned up the place after the war. Usually when a battle ends there are numerous undetonated bombs and mines that need to be "picked up."
http://www.ktoo.org/2013/02/19/attu-island-bears-the-industrial-scars-of-war/
Also:
http://www.nps.gov/aleu/historyculture/unangan-internment.htm
EDIT: As an example of a "happier" story, there are still minefields in the Falklands protecting penguins from natural and environmental predators:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/25973/how-island-full-landmines-led-thriving-penguin-population
My Dad served at that battle.They didn't even have the proper clothes or provisions for the artic,they were trained in New Mexico,near Claunch.They ate the rice they found on the dead Japanese soldiers to survive.Some of the Japanese blew themselves up,lots of hand to hand combat.As many or more died from the terrible weather conditions.He said he never saw the sun shine while he was there.
My guess is the natives never returned because they thought the area had become cursed.
I had more of these photos,but they were stolen from me.I have his dog tags,prayer book,a US dinner fork,and a ID bracelet that he wore while he was there.
He had awful PTSD,but they called it shell shock then.The gentlest man you could ever meet.
[img][800:720]http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u660/2lucky4snuffy/85cc0ab547811a426422af0509a6ba54_zpsf2ffc350.jpg[/img]
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Queen of the Nagas
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