In June 1942, during World War II, Japan bombed Dutch Harbor and occupied Attu and Kiska Islands (in the Aleutian Islands in southeastern Alaska). Japanese forces took the Aleut/Unangax̂ people from the village of Attu hostage, sending them to Japan as prisoners of war. The U.S. Federal Government removed 881 Aleuts/Unangax̂ from their homes in the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands for their protection, and relocated them to four internment camps in southeast Alaska.
This document lists natives of St. Paul Island, in the Pribilof Islands chain, who were transported to an abandoned cannery at Funter Bay, Alaska, aboard the United States Attack Transport Delarof. Conditions at Funter Bay Evacuation Camp and other camps were primitive and became so poor that disease and other causes resulted in a 10-percent death rate.
Upon their return in 1944 and 1945, some Aleuts/Unangax̂ found their villages leveled, while others found their homes and property had been vandalized, looted, or destroyed by American troops.
