Attu Island is the site of the only World War II land battle in North America. The Japanese occupied it in 1942 and we took it back in May of 1943 after a bitter battle that left only 29 of the 1,000 Japanese alive (many committed suicide). Of our 15,000 troops, 550 were dead and 1,500 wounded, and another 1,200 Americans were casualties to Attu's climate. The island was subsequently used as a launching site for American bombing missions to Japan's home islands. Attu is at the western end of the Aleutian Chain, 1,500 air miles southwest of Anchorage, 500 miles east of the Russian mainland, and 750 miles east of the Kurile Islands. Located between the cold Bering Sea and the warm Japanese current of the North Pacific