2RHPZ
12-12-2005, 02:39 AM
Islands were invaded by the Japanese, then hundreds died in US camps
JEANNETTE LEE
IN ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
THE story of how Japanese-Americans were interned during the Second World War is widely known, thanks to the best-selling book Snow Falling on Cedars .
But few Americans realise hundreds of Alaskan natives suffered a similar fate, being forced from homes on the Aleutian and Pribilof islands when Japan's forces invaded several islands in the Bering Sea.
Now a new documentary film, called Aleut Story, tells how they were taken to grim camps in the forests of the Alaskan mainland, where one in ten died.
Many of the 881 Aleuts who were forced to leave were initially thankful to be ferried out of the war zone - until they arrived at five overcrowded and disease-ridden sites scattered in damp spruce forests in south-east Alaska 1,500 miles away.
They were not suspected of spying or sabotage - as were many Japanese-Americans - but they were not allowed to leave the camps unless they were drafted into the military or coerced into the Pribilof fur seal hunt, which brought millions of dollars to the US government.
Link (http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2374332005)
JEANNETTE LEE
IN ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
THE story of how Japanese-Americans were interned during the Second World War is widely known, thanks to the best-selling book Snow Falling on Cedars .
But few Americans realise hundreds of Alaskan natives suffered a similar fate, being forced from homes on the Aleutian and Pribilof islands when Japan's forces invaded several islands in the Bering Sea.
Now a new documentary film, called Aleut Story, tells how they were taken to grim camps in the forests of the Alaskan mainland, where one in ten died.
Many of the 881 Aleuts who were forced to leave were initially thankful to be ferried out of the war zone - until they arrived at five overcrowded and disease-ridden sites scattered in damp spruce forests in south-east Alaska 1,500 miles away.
They were not suspected of spying or sabotage - as were many Japanese-Americans - but they were not allowed to leave the camps unless they were drafted into the military or coerced into the Pribilof fur seal hunt, which brought millions of dollars to the US government.
Link (http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2374332005)