Inspection of Something Lost

A Canadian soldier looking over a captured Japanese Type 96 light machine gun on the island of Attu, in the Aleutians (near Alaska). Many people have forgotten about this theater of the war. Technically, it was the only campaign undertaken on American soil. The Japanese thought that by attacking the islands and ports to the north, it would draw American naval forces up there to protect the islands, and then they would have the advantage in the south Pacific. However, their plan did not work. All it really did was throw two opposing forces into one of the hardest places to survive in the world.