War in the Wind: The Battle of Attu Island, 1943In June 1942, forces of the Japanese Northern Army occupied Attu Island as part of its Midway campaign. Attu, at the far western end of the Aleutian Archipelago, was American soil. In May 1943, American forces landed on Attu to liberate it. They were unprepared for the tenacity of the Japanese defenders and the brutality of the environmental conditions. What was expected to be a week long clean up exercise became a month long, nose to nose meat