The Untold Story of Alaska’s WW2 Invasion By: Samantha Seiple Genre: nonfiction GHOST IN THE FOG

In 1942 on June 7 Japan attacked and took over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The U.S. government kept it a secret for many years. This book is a really interesting book because it had many true stories of the people who fought and died there, and stories of the people who lived in the towns that were taken over. Sometimes it jumps from one story to another when the first story wasn’t even finished. And after a few more stories it comes back to the first story and finishes it. Japan took over the Alaskan Islands because the US military was not ready for it because they were not planning to enter WW2. ex: we didn’t have enough soldiers in Alaska. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan thought we were going to invade them from Alaska, so they took over the islands of Alaska to weaken and destroy our bases. Some stories in this book were really sad because the men, women and children were separated by the Japanese soldiers and brought to Japan or were killed. A lot of the Americans were tortured or were put to labor in prison camps. They were promised that they would be brought back to America after WW2, but they never knew if they were ever going to come back. Summary

If I were able to ask a question to anyone in the book I would ask Colonel Lawrence Castner. He was the person in charge of the group called Castner’s Cutthroats. I’ll ask him “How hard was it when your group went out on your top secret mission to the islands when they were taken over by the Japanese to get information from them and not get caught?” I would also ask him “Would you get some people from prison for your group, like in the movie The Dirty Dozen?” Questions

I learned that the Islands of Alaska were taken over by the Japanese forces. I also learned that if America made one small mistake, they could have taken over more of America. Another thing I learned about was that there was a group called Castner’s Cutthroats that had top secret missions to get information and kill Japanese soldiers. They had a green flag so that when an area was clear, they signaled the pilots in the PBYs that it was clear to land. I have many other things that I learned in this book. I can’t explain all of them, but I can explain this one, the government lied and kept secrets from people so that they didn’t panic about the Alaskan Islands being taken over. Things I Learned from this Book Click here for the offical government videoClick here for the offical government video after the war was over

Recommendation I recommend this book to anyone that is interested in World War 2, and wants to know about when Alaska was taken over. This book is a really good book to anyone interested in knowing what happened in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. One more thing, if you ever want to know more about this book, go to your local library and see if they have it, or just ask me!! In Alaska, U.S. troops land on Attu in the Aleutian islands to retake them.