Bill - Aunt Phils Trunk v4

Aunt Phils Trunk
Volume Four

Bringing Alaskas history alive!

By
Phyllis Downing Carlson
Laurel Downing Bill

Aunt Phils Trunk LLC
Anchorage, Alaska

www.auntphilstrunk.com

DEDICATION

I dedicate this first revision of Aunt Phils Trunk Volume Four to the memory of my paternal aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson. She was one of Alaskas most respected historians, and without her lifelong interest, and then researching and writing about Alaska, this series would never exist.

I also want to dedicate the work to Aunt Phils stepchildren, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their families; to my brothers and sisters, their families and all our cousins. And I dedicate the work to my husband, Donald; son Ryan and his wife, Kaboo; daughter Kim and her husband, Bruce Sherry; and Amie, Toby and Toben Barnes. Thank you so much for believing in me.

And I dedicate this collection of historical stories to my granddaughters, Sophia Isobel and Maya Josephine Sherry, who remind me how important it is to preserve our past for their future.

Lastly, I dedicate this collection of historical stories to my faithful readers. Thank you for your support and constant encouragement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe an infinite debt of gratitude to the University of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the Alaska State Library in Juneau, the Z.J. Loussac Public Library in Anchorage, the Seward Community Library and the University of Washington for helping me collect the photographs for this book. Without the patient and capable staffs at these institutions, the following pages may not have been filled.

I want to extend a heart-felt thank you to Robert DeBerry of Wasilla for his excellent attention to detail as he readied for publication the historical photographs that appear in Volume Four of Aunt Phils Trunk. I also am extremely grateful to Nancy Pounds of Anchorage for slaving away with her eagle eyes to carefully proofread the pages.

My family deserves medals, as well, for putting up with me as I chased down just the right photographs to go with Aunt Phils stories, poured over notes and the collection of rare books that make up Aunt Phils library and sat hunched over my computer for hours blending selections of Aunt Phils work with stories from my own research.

Aunt Phils Trunk Volume Four is filled with stories that take the reader from 1935 to 1960. It includes events that unfolded during World War II, the Cold War with Russia and the long struggle for statehood.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WORLD WAR II ERUPTS

DEFENSE FOR ALASKA

T ora! Tora! Tora! screamed Japanese flight commander Mitsuo Fuchida as he led 183 bombers and Zeros during an early morning attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. By 8 a.m., hundreds of bombs were falling on airfields and battleships around the Hawaiian port.

The USS Shaw exploded after bombs hit their mark during the Japanese raid of Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.

The USS Arizona burned and sank after being attacked by Japanese bombers. It became the final resting place for 1,177 American crew members who died Dec. 7, 1941.

A second wave, with another 167 attack planes, followed an hour later and destroyed more ships and shipyards.

Within two hours, the sneak attack had killed 2,402 Americans, destroyed five battleships, put three out of commission, sank or damaged almost a dozen other warships and obliterated more than 180 aircraft on the ground.

The Japanese lost 27 planes and five midget submarines.

In addition to Pearl Harbor, Japan also attacked the U.S. territory of Guam, the Philippines, Wake Island and Midway Island the next day, as well as British interests in Malaya and Hong Kong.

On Dec. 8, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt went before both houses of Congress to request a declaration of war against Japan. Following a vote, the declaration was formalized a few hours later. Britain declared war on Japan that same day.

Three days later, Germany declared war on the United States.

Strategically situated in the North Pacific, Alaska soon became a flurry of military activity.

If we would provide an adequate defense for the United States, we must have ... Alaska to dominate the North Pacific, said U.S. Secretary of State William Seward in a speech to convince Congress of the value of buying Alaska in the mid-1860s.

The rush for gold in the Klondike in the late 1890s brought the first surge of military to the Great Land. The U.S. government built Fort Seward at Haines, Fort Liscum at Valdez, Fort Davis at Nome and Fort St. Michael, near the village of the same name at the mouth of the Yukon River. Two more installations were established along the Yukon River Fort Egbert at Eagle and Fort Gibbon near Tanana.

The U.S. Army Signal Corps built the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph communication system to link the military units. It strung telegraph lines across 1,497 miles of wilderness and laid 2,128 miles of submarine cable that connected Alaska with the rest of the nation. The Corps also established a 107-mile radio link between Fort St. Michael and Port Safety on the Seward Peninsula.

After the gold rush played out, the Army withdrew. It closed all its forts between 1921-1925, except Fort Seward renamed Chilkoot Barracks.

In 1937, as Adolf Hitler was formalizing plans for expanding German dominance in Europe and the Japanese were invading China, the U.S. Navy established a small seaplane base at Sitka. It conducted several survey flights and fleet exercises in the North Pacific and Aleutian Islands.

Chilkoot Barracks, built south of Haines in 1904, was the first permanent U.S. military installation in Alaska. Originally named Fort William H. Seward, it was renamed Chilkoot Barracks in 1922 and was the only U.S. Army post in Alaska until World War II. Deactivated in 1946, the government sold it as surplus property to 50 World War II veterans who established it as Port Chilkoot.

Soldiers of the Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 250th Coast Artillery, stand at attention for an inspection in Sitka during the early 1940s.

Tension between America and Japan grew as 1940 approached.

Suffering from the Great Depression, the United States and many European countries enacted high protective tariffs that stifled Japanese exports and increased Japans poor economic condition which prompted its invasion of China.

Anti-western sentiment in Japan grew after President Roosevelt decided not to renew the 1911 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Commerce and Navigation in July 1939. Then the U.S. Congress passed the Export Control Act in July 1940. These two actions eliminated Japans primary source of oil, scrap metal and other material resources needed for war.