ATONEMENT

Between July 1981 and December 1982 the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians launched an investigation into the five Aleut evacuee camps. The Commission condemned the U.S. government for its “indifference” to the “deplorable conditions” at the evacuee camps.

On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, a reparations law for the Aleuts and the Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. The Aleuts received restitution from the government for their suffering and losses that included a 5-million-dollar trust fund for the Aleuts, 15 million dollars for the loss of Attu Island, 1.4 million dollars for the restoration of church properties, and individual payments of 12,000 dollars to each Aleut who survived the camps.

The Aleuts were also issued a formal apology from the U.S. government.

PEACE

In the United States, the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Aleutians is often called the Forgotten War. But in Japan, no one has forgotten it. Every year the Japanese celebrate the lives of the soldiers who fought and died in the Aleutians.

In June 1987, with the cooperation of the U.S. government, Japan placed a peace monument on Attu Island. The towering nineteen-foot monument states, in both English and Japanese, “IN MEMORY OF ALL THOSE WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES IN THE ISLANDS AND SEAS OF THE NORTH PACIFIC DURING WORLD WAR II AND IN DEDICATION TO WORLD PEACE.”

FRIENDS

In 1985, Sherman Smith wrote a letter to Dr. Yasuo Sassa, president of the Japanese Alpine Club. In his letter, Sherman told Dr. Sassa about a Japanese flag he had found on Kiska Island forty-two years earlier while serving with the army’s Eighty-Seventh Mountain Infantry, Tenth Division. Sherman recently had the names on the flag translated from the Japanese characters into English, and he asked Dr. Sassa if he knew whether Mr. Kasukabe, whose name was on the flag, was still alive.

Karl Kasukabe was, in fact, still alive. Now seventy-two, he’d lived the long life he’d hoped for. Sherman’s letter was forwarded to Karl, and he wrote back immediately, saying he was “surprised and moved.”

Later that year, Sherman traveled to Japan to return the flag to Karl Kasukabe, and an unexpected friendship developed.

In 1993, the Eighty-Seventh Mountain Infantry, Tenth Division, held a fifty-year reunion on Kiska to share memories and honor the dead. Karl was invited to attend. During the reunion, they held a joint Christian-Buddhist memorial ceremony with sake and rice cakes.

“We thought we would die here,” said Karl. “But to survive and come back is something I would never have thought. My spirit soars.”

Karl, who walked with the help of a cane due to his injuries from the Kiska bombing, summed it up: “Enemies fifty years ago, now dear friends.”