Mary Breu - Last Letters from Attu: The True Story of Etta Jones, Alaska Pioneer and Japanese POW

LAST LETTERS from ATTU

The True Story of Etta Jones,

Alaska Pioneer and Japanese P.O.W.

Mary Breu

Text and photos 2009 by Mary Breu

All photos are by Etta Jones and in the authors collection, except where noted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

ISBN 978-0-88240-810-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-88240-851-4, 978-08-88240-852-1 (e-book)

ISBN 978-0-88240-981-8 (hardbound)

Alaska Northwest Books

An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118
Portland, OR 97238-6118
(503) 254-5591

www.graphicartsbooks.com

Editor: Ellen Wheat

Interior Designer: Elizabeth Watson

Cover Design: Vicki Knapton, Elizabeth Watson

Front cover images. Top: The Montevideo Maru, 1942;
Bottom: Etta Jones and Attu Natives, 1942.

Frontispiece. Etta Eugenie Schureman, high-school
graduation photo, Vineland, New Jersey, 1898.

In memory of my great-aunt and great-uncle,

Etta and Foster Jones,

and all the victims of the Attu invasion

Etta and Foster on their dogsled, departing on their honeymoon, April 1, 1923.

Contents

Etta Jones and her great-niece, author Mary Breu,
Bradenton, Florida, December 1952.

Preface

Etta Jones was my favorite great-aunt. For my first twenty years and her last twenty, I knew her as a compassionate, generous, genteel woman. She was short in stature, and had pure white hair and jet-black eyebrows. I always knew she had an interesting past because bits and pieces were mentioned over the years. Relatives had kept all of Ettas letters, photos, documents, and artifacts, and this private treasure was eventually handed down to me. In 2002, thirty-seven years after her death and at the end of my teaching career, I decided to put her story together to share with family members. While going through Ettas extraordinary collection, I realized that her story deserved a much wider audience, so I began to write this book.

To start, I wanted to confirm that events she wrote about in her letters were accurate in her telling, so I checked details on the Internet. Everything I read that addressed her story contradicted what Etta had written and what I knew about her. And the more research I did, the more discrepancies accumulated. I decided that I needed to do in-depth research on documents and texts located in archives in Alaska, so in 2003, I obtained a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum to travel there. After that, I made four more trips at my own expense.

My search took me to the National Archives, the Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, the Loussac Library, and the University of Alaska, all in Anchorage. I uncovered more material at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. I pored over Congressional records, Bureau of Indian Affairs records, archival documents, newspapers, and Australian and American texts. I interviewed and corresponded with key people who were involved, directly or indirectly, with Ettas story.

Etta was a prolific letter writer. Her engaging writing places the reader alongside Etta and her gold-prospector husband, Foster, when they lived, worked, and taught in remote Native communitiesAthabascan, Yupik, Alutiiq, and Aleutin Alaska in the 1920s,30s, and40s. Ettas and Fosters backgrounds were as diverse as the landscape of the Northland, but they were both conscientious and diligent workers. Hardship became part of their chosen way of life, and they embraced it. Their goal was not to change Native cultures; rather, as conveyed in her letters and other documents, it was to teach their students reading, math, and some domestic skills.

Ettas language vernacular differed somewhat from todays usage; for example, she used the word Japs because it was a commonly used term in the United States during World War II. I have edited her letters for clarity and relevance. Her letter writing depended on the random delivery of mail in remote Alaska villages, so sometimes she added postscripts after she had signed off and was waiting for the mail to arrive. Or, when the mailman arrived unexpectedly, she would hastily compose brief letters to be mailed immediately.

Etta also wrote a fascinating sixty-four-page manuscript in 1945 that was never published. It is full of facts and impressions that give the reader special insights into life in territorial Alaska. I have included excerpts from Ettas manuscript throughout this books narrative. Likewise, in 1967, Fosters prospecting partner and friend Frank Lundin wrote an unpublished manuscript, in which he described their experiences during Alaskas gold rushes in the early 1900s. Excerpts from Lundins manuscript are also woven into the narrative.

The photos in the book are primarily from Ettas collection. For the captions, Ive used the information Etta wrote on the back of the photos. If there was no inscription, I gathered information from her letters and unpublished manuscript. Regarding the photos of Attu,Ive used several of Ettas pictures of the Aleut Natives to document these disappearing people.

I have created a Web site to accompany this book, where the reader may find further material on Ettas story, and a schedule of author appearances and book signings: www.lastlettersfromattu.com.

This book portrays events as they happened to Etta and Foster Jones. Qualities we often hear about, such as resolve and courage, are qualities that defined Etta Schureman Jones. She was a pioneer in Alaska Native villages. She was a remarkable woman who survived profound adversity. She played a significant role in a pivotal but less-known event in Americas history.