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World War II's Alaskan Front: The Aleutian Island Campaign · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer,
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  Speaker 1: Max the Great North Williams. What do you think that works?
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  Speaker 2: It works? It all works. I am from the most
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  Speaker 2: northern state out of the three of us. You're a Michigan.
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  Speaker 2: That's the correct term, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: That's hilarious.
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  Speaker 2: So it was good for the michig.
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  Speaker 1: You're no Brown, I'm ben bowling today we are. We're
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  Speaker 1: doing it with the help of a researchers social you,
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  Speaker 1: Max Williams.
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  Speaker 2: The Michigan Michigan Max and.
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  Speaker 1: The Michigan or Williams doing some uh doing some double duty. Here.
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  Speaker 1: We are continuing our weird mission, our don Quixote esque
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  Speaker 1: qixotic mission, to do an episode about every single state
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  Speaker 1: in these United States where punch and windmills whenever we
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  Speaker 1: get the chance. Well, that's on them from punching giants anyway. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: jousting them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're all completely mad. We're insane people.
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  Speaker 1: Anybody who says they're not completely mad is lying to
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  Speaker 1: themselves or to you.
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  Speaker 2: Correct. So where are we going Alaska.
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  Speaker 1: Oh nice, nice, nice, I'm sorry, I'll ask her where
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  Speaker 1: we're Oh Alaska, I don't even know. She's great, but
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  Speaker 1: it's true. We are going to Alaska, which is huge.
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  Speaker 2: It's mad, big, y'all mad, big giant land masks much
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  Speaker 2: bigger than Vatican City six hundred and sixty three thousand,
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and sixty eight square my else over a
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  Speaker 2: fifth of the side of the entire contiguous these United States,
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  Speaker 2: which is three million, one hundred and nineteen thousand, eight
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  Speaker 2: hundred and eighty four point six nine miles.
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  Speaker 1: Take a breath square six six nine. Nice. Let's let's
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  Speaker 1: not forget Thiku.
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  Speaker 2: Mex left the sixth nine of their own purpose man
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  Speaker 2: for effect.
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  Speaker 1: We're having a cloud outless moment. I feel so seen,
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  Speaker 1: you know what. By way of segue, max mentions was
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  Speaker 1: also big. World War Two. World War two, as any
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  Speaker 1: history buff knows, began in nineteen thirty nine.
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  Speaker 2: Also known as the Gnarly War.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, also known as World War two the warranning. It
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  Speaker 1: ended in nineteen forty five. As of now twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: as we record, World War two is currently the deadliest
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  Speaker 1: and most destructive war in history. Full stop yeah, short
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  Speaker 1: of like another nuke being detonated. It will probably you know,
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  Speaker 1: hold that title simply because the nature of warfare has
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  Speaker 1: just changed. It's a lot more targetable, it's a lot
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  Speaker 1: more precise. Uh.
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  Speaker 2: This was a ground conflict, you know, with people murdering
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  Speaker 2: each other with with guns. And then of course you
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  Speaker 2: know the big ones, the big boy, the little man.
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  Speaker 1: Big man, little boy, uh fat fat boy, little man
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  Speaker 1: fat Uh No, little little boy.
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  Speaker 2: Of fat man. That's rat Man. Yeah, that's right. Big
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  Speaker 2: ups to Robert oh Oppenheimer. Anyone seen Have you seen
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  Speaker 2: it yet? Whether have you seen Oppenheimer?
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  Speaker 1: I've read a lot about it. There's an excellent graphic
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  Speaker 1: novel called Trinity. Yes that actually you remember this because
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  Speaker 1: Matt Frederick and I. Matt introduced me to it and
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  Speaker 1: we had we got a wild hair where we're going
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  Speaker 1: to try to make a podcast out of it. But
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  Speaker 1: from what I hear, Christopher Nolan basically nailed it.
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  Speaker 2: There is a documentary that's available right now on the
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  Speaker 2: Criterion channel called The Day After Trinity, and that refers
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  Speaker 2: to something that Oppenheimer said in an interview when he
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  Speaker 2: was asked about the idea from the president at the
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  Speaker 2: time of stemming nuclear proliferation or you know, kind of
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  Speaker 2: pulling back nuclear you know, armaments or whatever. And Oppenheimer said,
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  Speaker 2: where many years too late? That should have begun, that
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  Speaker 2: effort should have begun the day after Trinity, which of
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  Speaker 2: course refers to the test of the nuclear bomb.
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  Speaker 1: I want to shout out friend of the show, friend
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  Speaker 1: of ours, Patrese, who lives in Australia, who had this
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  Speaker 1: great suggestion talking about Oppenheimer movie, had this great suggestion
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  Speaker 1: of doing an MCU approach to all these physicists and
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  Speaker 1: nuclear related scientists. And I think stuff will get real
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  Speaker 1: spicy when they get to Parsons, you know sex call
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  Speaker 1: it guy. Well, moving on, right. War is hell. It
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  Speaker 1: drives many innovations, but it also shows humanity the worst
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  Speaker 1: of itself. More than fifty nations getting tangled in the conflict,
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  Speaker 1: more than one hundred million souls are deployed. Books and
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  Speaker 1: books and books have been written about World War Two,
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  Speaker 1: not to mention the fact that films about World War
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  Speaker 1: Two still come out continually every single year. Saving Ryan's
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  Speaker 1: Privates no, sorry, the version Saving Private Ryane.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, storming the beaches in Normandy. All of that good, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: is Dunkirk World War two? Is that World War One? Yep,
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  Speaker 2: Dunkirk is two and also an excellent Christopher Nolan film.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a look at Christopher. So what we're saying
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  Speaker 1: is it's easy for some of these conflicts and some
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  Speaker 1: of these stories to get lost in the mix because
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  Speaker 1: so many crazy, terrible things happened. And here is something
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  Speaker 1: that you may not have known. I certainly didn't until
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  Speaker 1: Max asked us about it. Noel, there were World War
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  Speaker 1: two battles fought in Alaska, and of course, just to
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  Speaker 1: be just so nobody else has to have this emotional
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  Speaker 1: roller coaster that I had, Moose were not part of
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  Speaker 1: the battles.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I've always would loved the idea of like moose,
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  Speaker 2: which is its own plural of course, being you know, armored,
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  Speaker 2: like some sort of attack bear. You know situation.
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  Speaker 1: I told you when I got back because I had
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  Speaker 1: to go to a producing show called Missing in Alaska
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  Speaker 1: and spent like two weeks or a little more than
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  Speaker 1: two weeks I think, in that state right as October
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  Speaker 1: was coming, and Moose run the town. This is something
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people who don't live in Alaska don't know.
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  Speaker 1: Alaskans have a hard time celebrating Halloween because moose like pumpkins,
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  Speaker 1: and they will just go and eat the jack of
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  Speaker 1: lanterns and beat me here, Max, fucking no one can
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  Speaker 1: stop them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're massive. Yeah. If you if you kill a
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  Speaker 2: moose in Tears of the Kingdom Legend of Zelda, it
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  Speaker 2: nets you three pieces of prime meat.
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  Speaker 1: Oh how many? How many pieces of prime meat do
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  Speaker 1: other animals?
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  Speaker 2: Typically only one?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So Zelta gets it, Nintendo gets it.
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  Speaker 2: Nintendo also got World War Two because it's always, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: this is not really the point of today's episode, but
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  Speaker 2: I always I think that both of us find it
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  Speaker 2: fascinating how Japan is one country that had to just
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  Speaker 2: reinvent itself entirely, you know, essentially after having its old
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  Speaker 2: way of life annihilated by a nuclear weapon. And they
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  Speaker 2: did so with Gusto and and and repurposed themselves as
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  Speaker 2: this incredibly important cultural, pop cultural mecca, you know, for
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  Speaker 2: for everything from toys to manufacturing to just culture, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: design all of this.
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  Speaker 1: Nintendo was a playing card company. That's that's a success story.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
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  Speaker 1: So what we're saying is history of World War Two.
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  Speaker 1: It's just shock full of terrible battles, lots of place
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  Speaker 1: names that become legendary. We mentioned Dunkirk, but what about
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  Speaker 1: Omaha Beach, Guadalcanal, Okinawa. To your point, there are three
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  Speaker 1: names you may not have heard of at all, islands
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  Speaker 1: off the coast of Alaska, adat Atu and Kiska. They
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  Speaker 1: are part of the story of what's called the Allusion Campaign.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Elusive Allutian Campaign, a chain of small islands
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  Speaker 2: known as the Aleutian Islands that separate the Bearing Sea
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  Speaker 2: to the north from the main part of the Pacific
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  Speaker 2: Ocean to the south. They form kind of an arc
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  Speaker 2: to the southwest and then northwest for around eleven hundred
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  Speaker 2: miles or eighteen hundred kilometers from the very tippity tip
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  Speaker 2: of the Alaskan Peninsula to the Atu island that you mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: Ben As the moose flies indeed, or.
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  Speaker 2: As it you know, gallops.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the moose in Alaska can fly. If you have
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  Speaker 1: never been to Alaska, just take that on. I think
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  Speaker 1: you're thinking of Rocky as opposed to Bullwinkle. Oh maybe yet.
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  Speaker 1: There are also a lot of costumes on the moose's
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  Speaker 1: very popular. It's it's the it's the annual moose Cosplay festival.
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  Speaker 2: That's what you go mainstay on the wall of hunting lodges.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, oh gosh, yeah. So Americans, the American forces
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  Speaker 1: starting nineteen forty two, they struggle to take control of
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  Speaker 1: two of these islands, Atula and Kiska. And not only
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  Speaker 1: do they confront the Japanese, but they're really fighting two
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  Speaker 1: different battles. Not only are you fighting human enemies, but
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  Speaker 1: shout out to Jack London from to build a Fire,
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  Speaker 1: you're fighting one of mankind's eternal enemies, the climate that
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  Speaker 1: you were not evolved to exist in, the bitter bitter cold.
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  Speaker 1: It is incredibly cold. And the story of this battle,
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  Speaker 1: the series of conflicts, the defense of American soil. As
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  Speaker 1: you point out, Max, it has largely disappeared from the
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  Speaker 1: collective consciousness, which is why if you go to the
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  Speaker 1: Library of Congress you're going to see titles like World
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  Speaker 1: War Two's Unknown Campaign, because there hasn't been a film
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  Speaker 1: about this yet. And this is making me think it's time.
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  Speaker 1: It's time that we open up the pitch process for
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous studios again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe we can bring in Nolan to the process.
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  Speaker 2: He seems to be down for this type of content.
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  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about the Aleutian Islands. Man, what,
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  Speaker 1: I've never been to those islands, but they're part of Alaska.
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  Speaker 2: No, but you may have heard of a chain of
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  Speaker 2: volcanoes in the Pacific known as the Ring of Fire.
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  Speaker 1: Correct, Johnny Cash.
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  Speaker 2: Those are in fact a continuation of the Alaskan Allusian Range,
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  Speaker 2: which are in fact underwater.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, the Johnny Cash song Ring of Fire
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  Speaker 1: is entirely about the likelihood of volcanic explosions and earthquakes
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  Speaker 1: in the Pacific.
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  Speaker 2: Think about it. Read the lyrics the very least, the
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  Speaker 2: volcanic explosion of love.
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  Speaker 1: There we go, and most of these islands do show
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  Speaker 1: their volcanic origin. You can see evidence of that, and
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  Speaker 1: some of the volcanoes on those islands remain active today,
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  Speaker 1: thinking specifically of the Shishaldan volcano, which is near the
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  Speaker 1: center of Unimak Island. The shores are not your typical
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  Speaker 1: tourist destination.
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  Speaker 2: They're rocky.
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  Speaker 1: It's dangerous to approach them by water because the land
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  Speaker 1: rises abruptly from the coast to these big, big mountains.
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  Speaker 1: There's not really a fun beach, is what we're saying.
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  Speaker 1: Oh and for eight thousand years, nobody lived there except
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  Speaker 1: for Aleutian people.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, the Aluits also known as the Unangan. They
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  Speaker 2: were the only occupants of these islands, and by the
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  Speaker 2: time Russian explorers hit the scene around twenty five thousand,
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  Speaker 2: Unang and indigenous people dispersed to occupy the whole of
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  Speaker 2: the Aleutian Islands.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and in seventeen forty one, Russian forces send two
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  Speaker 1: dudes to explore the area. One is a Danish guy,
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  Speaker 1: Vitus bearing.
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  Speaker 2: Bearing Straight named after Hi might sound familiar. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: didn't look it up, but that hasen.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right there, It's like who invented the saxophone. So
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  Speaker 1: there's another guy, Alexei Chirikov, and he is Russian, and
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  Speaker 1: they're kind of doing like a maritime Lewis and Clark thing.
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  Speaker 1: So their ships become separated in a storm, and this
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  Speaker 1: leads Cherikov to quote unquote discover several of the Eastern Islands.
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  Speaker 1: I'm saying quote unquote discover because, of course, for almost
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand years other people were living there and they
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  Speaker 1: were continually discovering where they lived. So Bearing quote unquote
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  Speaker 1: discovered several of these Western islands. Things are well for
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  Speaker 1: our buddy Vitas. He he dies during the voyage. The
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  Speaker 1: crew survives. They come back to Russia. They say, you guys,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we love fur coats, and the Russians are like, yeah, man,
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  Speaker 1: we're Russian. Fur Coats are one of our you know,
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  Speaker 1: they're one of our big things. And they say, there
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  Speaker 1: are so many furry animals out there, we should go hunting.
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  Speaker 1: So hunters come from all around Siberia flock toward these islands.
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  Speaker 1: They move across the Aleutians to the Alaska mainland, and
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  Speaker 1: this is where Russia gets its foothold in North America.
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  Speaker 1: And they do this in a bloody parallel of what
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  Speaker 1: US colonists would later do. They slaughter the Anangun people. Yeah. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's sort of the vibe of, you know, folks coming
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  Speaker 1: into areas that they would like to think they discovered,
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  Speaker 1: right and then just contending with the inconvenient fact that
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  Speaker 1: they're already, like, you know, people hanging out there. Let's
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  Speaker 1: tell Hey, let's tell Max. We hey, Max, we discovered
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  Speaker 1: this studio.
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  Speaker 2: I'll slaughter you, I believe it. Yeah. The door locks
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  Speaker 2: from the outside. Well, yeah, Max is a bloodthirsty conqueror. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: as well. As a crack producer.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and the first Nation's folks living there, the Unongun
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  Speaker 1: who were not slaughtered, were enslaved or they were forced
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  Speaker 1: to relocate. Eventually, Russia sells the islands and the rest
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  Speaker 1: of Alaska to the United States in eighteen sixty seven.
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  Speaker 1: And the street name for this was Seward's Folly or
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  Speaker 1: Seward's ice box, because literally everybody else in America I
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  Speaker 1: thought it was the dumbest idea.
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  Speaker 3: Oh random history fact right here. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated,
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  Speaker 3: it was a three prong assassination attempt to get Lincoln,
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  Speaker 3: Andrew Johnson, and Seward. Seward actually got the attack happened
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  Speaker 3: john and the attack didn't happen, but Seward survived the
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  Speaker 3: assassination ten So that's his other footnote in history. That's
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  Speaker 3: a smaller one behind he bought Alaska, Max with the facts.
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  Speaker 2: That seeking in the ponds backs and he's fallen.
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  Speaker 3: Lol.
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  Speaker 1: It's just for you right now here with the fact.
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  Speaker 2: So in nineteen forty two, you might have heard of
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  Speaker 2: a little thing called Pearl Harbor. Six months before that,
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  Speaker 2: that fateful Japanese attack that really kicked off World War
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  Speaker 2: two in earnest in Hawaii, the Japanese were eyeing the
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  Speaker 2: Aleutian Islands.
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  Speaker 1: They were Yes, this is very true. And once they
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  Speaker 1: reached the island chain this archipelago, the Japanese started conducting.
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  Speaker 1: Japanese forces started conducting airstrikes on Dutch Harbor, which was
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  Speaker 1: the site of two US military bases. They started this
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  Speaker 1: on June third and June fourth. Then they made landfall
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  Speaker 1: at Kiska Island on June sixth, and then uh, just
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  Speaker 1: a day later, they make landfall on Atu Island, about
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  Speaker 1: two hundred miles away. They quickly establish pop up military
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  Speaker 1: bases on both islands. Does it feel like some of
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  Speaker 1: these indigenous names, you know, for these islands that obviously
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  Speaker 1: descended from the people who lived there, were possibly inspiration
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  Speaker 1: for some Star Wars things. Yeah, I know, that's a
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  Speaker 1: good call.
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  Speaker 2: It island just really feels very much in the Star
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  Speaker 2: Wars universe. The Japanese garrison their forces there, established military
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  Speaker 2: bases on both Kiska and Atu Islands, and very similarly
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  Speaker 2: to other islands in the Aleutian chain, Atu and Kiska
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  Speaker 2: didn't really represent much of a military stronghold strategically speaking, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with that. Man because they didn't
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  Speaker 1: have a ton of resources. They're rocks in the far North.
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  Speaker 1: They had a lot of harsh weather. It was they're
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  Speaker 1: out of the way, they're out of the way, they're
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  Speaker 1: out of the main way of the conflict. That they
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of crazy storms and fog and rain,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, it snows a lot. If you ask
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  Speaker 1: historians after the fact, you'll hear a lot of them
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  Speaker 1: argue that Japan seized those two islands because they wanted
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  Speaker 1: to divert attention during the Japanese attack on Midway Island,
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  Speaker 1: which was occurrying June fourth through seventh in nineteen forty two,
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  Speaker 1: and so they were trying to get the US Navy
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  Speaker 1: to misdirect its forces a diversion right right. And they
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  Speaker 1: they also thought, apparently, and this makes sense, that holding
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  Speaker 1: those islands could stop the US from invading Japan's home island,
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  Speaker 1: because once you get to that top of the globe,
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  Speaker 1: Japan is a lot closer to the Aleutian Islands than
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  Speaker 1: we might assume.
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  Speaker 2: Does it make sense maybe that the Japanese would have
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  Speaker 2: targeted these island chains because it was something they were
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  Speaker 2: kind of comfortable with in terms of you know, military operations,
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  Speaker 2: you know, because it's similar layout to their home turf.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's similar, it's easier to get to. It's also yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it goes into kind of the island hopping strategy. But
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  Speaker 1: they are again the Bearing Sea and the Sea of
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  Speaker 1: Altast separate them, but they're they're very close, you know
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  Speaker 1: what I mean.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And jumping real quick, there is this interesting thread
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  Speaker 3: that I've really been kind of pulling on in history,
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  Speaker 3: and we've actually talked about it a number time. I
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  Speaker 3: kind of think this is like part three or four
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  Speaker 3: of a series that we have, which spoiler there's another
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  Speaker 3: part or in works where it's like this fear of
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  Speaker 3: Japanese invasion on the West coast of America. It was
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  Speaker 3: never really a thing that was ever actually that close.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, we have the fire balloons, we have
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  Speaker 3: the guy who tried to fire bomb Oregon. Japan was
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  Speaker 3: always trying to keep this narrative going like, hey, America, we're.
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  Speaker 2: Not that far away, watch out, yeah, which is like.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, there's not really any proof that they ever
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  Speaker 3: got to the point where they thought invading the US
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  Speaker 3: was feasible because it's so far.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and we should draw a differentiation there between
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  Speaker 1: US the whole thing and continental US because Hawaii is
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the ocean. So from a strategic standpoint,
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  Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor, the Pearl Harbor attack makes sense for Japan.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been much more feasible than attacking SA
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco anyway.
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  Speaker 2: But it was a big deal to have the Japanese
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  Speaker 2: occupying any portion of American soil, no matter how out
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  Speaker 2: of the way.
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  Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Like philosophically speaking, yes, how dare the
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  Speaker 1: uh so? They know it's remote, they know it's barren,
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  Speaker 1: but they're saying Japanese troops are on US soil, they're
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  Speaker 1: occupying US land, and they stoke this fear amongst themselves,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: not without some justification. They say, look, these forces might
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: this might be the first step in an attack on
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Alaska or you know, even the entirety of the Pacific Northwest.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: And the press is drumming up a lot of bloody
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: headlines about this. But the people in charge of the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: American war effort, from what I understand, man, they're still
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to survive Pearl Harbor exactly.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: That's that's you know, mission critical, that's like item number
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: one on the to do list, right right, and so
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: their attention is already kind of in a couple of
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: different places. Japan occupies these islands for months, and for
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a while for the first few months, all the US
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: military does is sort of fly by and bomb stuff occasionally,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: sort of an effort to show that they are doing something.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: In the meantime, the Japanese soldiers who have garrison on
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: these islands are doing a bang up job of getting
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: very cozy, relatively as cozy as you can get in
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: these very harsh climates. The Japanese Navy is keeping them
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: stocked with you know, snacks of their war snacks, and
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: also you know, arms.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Of cose and ammunition and fuel.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: And all that kind of stuff. So by January of
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: nineteen forty three, the US has sort of beefed up
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: its Alaskan Command to the tune of around ninety four
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: thousand soldiers. They've set up several bases around and on
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: other Aleutian islands, and on January eleventh, troops from that
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Alaskan Command make landfall on Amchitka Island, which is about
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: fifty miles from Kiska Island, one of the two main
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: ones that the Japanese are occupying.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is where we have to introduce US
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Navy Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kincaid, And I want to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: stop and say, you know, thank you to all our
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: veterans to Nina. And yes, we have not ever been
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: members of the Navy. And I will never not think
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Rear Admiral is low key hilarious.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: It's funny, yeah, Ian. Yeah, A lot of a lot
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: of military terms associated with leadership do kind of have
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a teh quality to them. So
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: you guys cool by jumping real quick.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: I got some pretty intense facts right here. The temperature
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: currently on ODD two station in Alaska, yeah, is fifty
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: three degrees.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: We're recording this in August.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: Fifty three below, just fifty three degrees, and in Kiska
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: it is supposed to get up to fifty five today.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Boiling global boiling.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh right, but that's not insane, right, that's what
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: we're talking, Like fifty three it's cold, but it's not like.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: It's the height of August. So it's the heighth of August,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: so it'd be one of the warmest months in the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Northern hemisphere. That's about as hot as it gets, even
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: with all the hard work we've done throwing all those
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: pollutants in the air. Everybody get back to the coal
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: exactly because it's still it's still too chilly in Alasco anyway. Sorry, so,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: US Navy Rear Admiral Kinkaid, No, why are we introducing
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: this guy?
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Well, because he set up a blockade of Atu and
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Kiska to help kind of stem the flow of those supplies,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: those snacks and armaments and all the other goodies that
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: the Japanese are supplying to the occupiers there. And on
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: March twenty sixth of nineteen forty three, the Japanese ships
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: that are afloat in the Bearing Sea try to get
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: around the blockade and deliver some supplies. In real this
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: is very Star Wars he too, remember that whole Star
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Wars movie that's just about the blockade. Oh yeah, really
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: really powerful stuff. You know. No, it's not that movie
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: has always eluded me as so like talky you know,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: government ye stuff. Which movie is? I think it was
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: the Phantom Menace that starts.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Off with with like all the alien guys talking about
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: in the brockade a brockadeh. I barely remember the fanom
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: did you ever hear this theory that and this is
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: this really interesting fan theory.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: That it was attack of the Clones. Actually that was
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: broad attack of the Clones.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: Sounds like that because they go get the clones because
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: they need to break the blockheads. Okay, hello, this is
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: future Max here, I the guy producing the episode, not
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: on the recording. Yeah, I led Noel Stray He's correct.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: It is the Phantom Menace, not Attack of the Clones.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Uh. To be completely honest, I don't know the plot
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: of either of those movies. I've seen them.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I've definitely seen them, but I don't know. I don't
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: know if you really remember anything else about the movie.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: But I want to add this a dendem in here.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: So there's that solved it that way was terrible to remember.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Here's the question. Have you guys ever heard the theory
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that Lucas originally wanted jar Jar Binks to be revealed
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: as a Sith lord?
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Yep? Is that true? Yeah? That's well, that's it's true.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: That's a theory. Okay, but it's like one of those things,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: you know, wait until two am watched the YouTube documentary, Right,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: it's way too long.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Maybe maybe he pivoted because the character was just so
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: blasphemously unpopular.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and coded in some really racist boy howdy was it? Ever?
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: And poor guy, there's a whole thing where the guy
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: that played the voice of jar Jar Binks. I believe
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: he's the voice, and he also was the model that
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: they based the CGI movements out of. That guy kind of.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: No fault of his own, sort of got canceled because of,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you know, because of George Lucas's ill informed attempts at
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: making that character.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: By the way, if you go into Google, because I
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: was gonna kind of look up who the actor was,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: but he type jar jar Binks.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: First.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: First suggestion is jar Jar Binks is not a sith.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Second suggestion, jar Jar Banks is a Sith lord. Coo Oddly,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: number three is jar jar Binks is a Sith lord,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: et cetera.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Crossword It's like history.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: It rhymes you know, ye dancers theory or fan theory.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Anyway for the crossword anybody's playing.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: That, can we just say that that this look at
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: the blockade he's attempting to The Japanese ships are trying
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: to break through the blockade, but they are spotted by
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: some US ships that are patrolling the area, and a skirmish,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I guess you could call it begins, you know, a
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: sea battle. I don't know if it was big enough
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: to call it. Well. I had a name was the
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Battle of the Common Door Ski Islands, which is a
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: fun name. But as we know, the Japanese have have
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: had a little bit of a head start. So there
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: already you know, out gunning and outnumbering. Yes, they're dug
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: in real good uh. And the US fleet has a
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: hard time matching their forces, and they are seriously hobbled,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: you know, by the Japanese, the Japanese ships, So the
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: American side suffers some serious casualties. After quite a few
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: hours of fighting, the Japanese ships then suddenly decide to withdraw.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Why is that, you know, it's because they were worried
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the heat was around the corner. They thought bombers were arriving,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: because they were estimating how long it would take for
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: American forces to contact each other and how long from
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: there it would take for US bombers to come and
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: just rain fire on the islands.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, got it its own kind of ring
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: a fire there. So after the battle, the Japanese soldiers
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: that are garrison there on Atsu and Kiska are incredibly
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: isolated because they aren't. That flow of supplies they were
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: had grown accustomed to has stopped. It was more successful.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: No more snacks, the no more snacks in the break
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: room exactly. They're having to kind of fend for themselves.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Their supplies are diminishing significantly. They do get intermittent delivery,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: secret submarines delivering to them, but you can only go
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: so far with that, right because they're not huge.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: You know, you can't the submarines coming up and it's
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: throwing like a twenty four pack of chips out.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Zero. These aren't even lays chips. This is what I want, ruffles?
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Right? Where are my ruffles?
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Okay? I suspect that the three of the three of
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: us might have the same hierarchy of chip oh.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: I think that's gonna have the Freedo's in there like
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: damn it and there.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Also ran anyway, that is not they do with it.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Because you're making a very important point. The whatever submarine
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: can deliver is probably going to be survival rations.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Yep. Are we talking like mr type things on the
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Japanese side too? Or you know they have been different,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: I wondered, and I'm just conjecturing here, Like you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: obviously the Japanese when did like dry like ramen noodles
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: and things become invented after.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: World War it was after World War two, that's right,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and we can we talked about that recently.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: But I'm wondering what those rations might have looked like
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: because we know about mries. We talked about that pretty extensively.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: I just have curious as to what Japanese rations looked like,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: if there was any parallel thinking there.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: They had something called imperial Japanese rations that were served
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in these little tin boxes and you had to cook
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: them yourself. There's actually there are a couple of articles
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and sources you can find. They usually had rice and
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: then some kind of protein and then vegetables, pickled vegetables
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: most likely, and green tea. Sometimes you would get barley
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: instead of rice, and then you were sort of expected
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: to forage for other stuff. So these guys, if they're
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: getting Imperial, they might be getting those rations. They might
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: just be getting rice and being told, hey, get water,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: cook the rice. It's definitely not ideal, and the American
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: forces are thinking, all right, This is our opportunity to
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: to storm the beach to land troops on the islands
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and take the combat to these Japanese garrisons. This is
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the origin of something with the unfortunate name Operation land Crab.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Have I told you that my nickname for my girlfriend
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: is the crab?
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: No?
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Not. I often refer to as the crab, like, not
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: just my little crab or my crab. I say hello
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: the crab, and it's sometimes when I text her, I'll
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: just say the crab question mark, how is an emoji
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: that is a crab? She described herself as a bit
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: of a recluse early on in our relationship, so I
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: call it hermit crab. But it's become a term of affection,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: so I often refer to her as the crab. So
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: our home is also littered with crab plushies and crab.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I have like a pair of crocs with crab. What
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: do you call those little dingles that go on? Yeah,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: you know the little the decorative flare for for crocs.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Do you guys do you have a name based on
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I'm the butterfly because she thinks I'm a bit of
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: a she's a shut in. I'm a social butter. Oh okay,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: but these terms have taken on their own meanings.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what, Every relationship creates its own language.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: My girlfriend would approve of Operation land Crab, and then
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I hear that, I immediately think of her with affection.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: That's what that one's for you day. Did she listen
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: to the show?
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: So, like we said, American ships have been sporadically bombing
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the islands for a while. On May eleventh, nineteen forty three,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the US enacts Operation land Crab. Eleven thousand US troops
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: land on Atu, which is again not the world's biggest island.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: The Americans are a little schuffed about this. They're a
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: little optimistic. They say, we're gonna bedone in like a
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: couple of days, you guys, because they didn't know how
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: bad the weather was going to be, they didn't know
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: how terrible the terrain was. Their short mission ends up
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: lasting more than two weeks. I love military like like
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: like classic military men terms of phrase, you know, when
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: describing conflicts, and Lieutenant Donald E. Dwindle, which is another
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: great military man name, described it as such.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: It was rugged. The whole damn deal was rugged, like
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: attacking a pill box by way of a type rope
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: in winter. I don't quite get it, attacking a pill
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: box by way of a tight rope.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so like you know what pillboxes you've got that
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: it's like a concrete enclosure with a little slit where
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: people can shoot.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Oh not actually a pill box of pills. Okay, sorry
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: the visual wasn't working on me, but I get it now.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: But yeah, but still that is a beautiful turn of language.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: They also so, now that's what we talked about the
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: very beginning. So they have two enemies. Now, they have
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the Japanese forces who are already entrenched and dug in,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: and then they have the just terrible, terrible weather. Or
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: it turns out that the weather was responsible for more
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: US casualties than any actual enemy combatant.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: That's right, more than twenty one hundred American soldiers were
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: removed from the conflict. Taken out of action is how
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: the National Park Service refers to this as in their
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: article Battle of att Tu sixty years later, which we
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: highly recommend giving a read. So that means killed or injured, right,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: taken out of combat right due to the horrible conditions.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they are no longer operators.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Things like disease would have come into play, you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: right exactly, so these would would have been also referred
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: to as non battle injuries, while around seventeen hundred were
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: killed or injured by Japanese forces.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it turns out when they were thinking through operation
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: land craft, despite the fact that they were familiar with
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the islands, despite the fact that people in general understand
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Alaska's cold Uncle Sam and not taking the weather into account,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: so they didn't have the right kind of gear to
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: operate there. They were falling victim to frostbite exposure. Trench
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: foot is thankfully something I hope no one's ever experienced.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: This is it like gang green.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: It's super nasty. It can become gang green. It's like
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you have your imagine you're walking through wet, crappy environments
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: for weeks and you never get to change your socks,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: so it basically your foot starts to rot, yeah essentially,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: or just like oh god, yeah. If you don't treat it,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: it can become gangrenous and result in amputation.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: Lots of bacteria and things can form in this nasty
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: kind of fetid, closed situation, you know, and.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: You're turning your foot into a terrarium. For bacteria.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Even more so, think of it as like really advanced
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: athletes foot terrible, terrible stuff, and you know, we have
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: to exercise humanity. Realized that a lot of these Japanese
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: soldiers are laboring under the same brutal conditions. They're not
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: having a good day either, just like any war. I'm
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: sure there are a lot of soldiers on either side
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: who are going.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Oh why, why, why do I have to be here?
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: But because these guys weren't dressed warmly enough, the US
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: soldiers had to keep moving to keep their circulation going,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: and sometimes that meant they would expose themselves to enemy fire.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Some of them were too beat up to walk, so
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: they crawled around and when they killed Japanese soldiers, they
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: stole their clothing to stay warm. And that leads to
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: friendly fire, because now you are dressed as an enemy soldier.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: A term friendly fire always kind of cracks me up.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: It's the least friendly thing you can imagine it just
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: of course that to say the obvious, but it refers to,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: you know, accidentally shooting someone that's on your team.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Right, right, And it is a very real thing, like
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: an own goal. Yeah, it has happened in every single
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: modern conflict, so this battle has already kind of been decided.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: The fate of the Japanese is sealed as soon as
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the Americans establish air and naval supremacy, which despite Pearl Harper,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: is still only a matter of time because the US
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: is much closer. They cut those supply lines. They made
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: it unlikely for reinforcements to arrive, and by May, the
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: last remaining Japanese troops were starving. Yeah, give it, run
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it out of bullets.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Give a quick read or a long read too. It's
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: not particularly long article, but to the Battle of the
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Aleutian Islands from history dot Com from back in two
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: thousand and nine. It is actually updated as recently as
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty, so lots of good resources there for this
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: chronology that we're pulling from. The commander of the Japanese
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: force is a Colonel at Yasuyo Yamasaki, decides to give
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: it one last tarah, one last push, and right before
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: morning on May twenty ninth, he and he leading his forces,
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: they execute what's referred to a Bonzai charge, which is
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: a term that I was not intimately familiar with. This
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: was apparently a tactic that was employed during the war
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: in the Pacific, of course.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Overwhelming numbers. That's right, everybody runs.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: It once and so Yamasaki's troops do the big charge.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: It really is kind of like just a murderous rampage essentially, right.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is, and it's a dangerous tactic as well.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: This becomes one of the largest bondsi charges of its time.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: From where you're not worried about people dying, you're putting
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: all your cards on the table, cannon fodder city, You're
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: literally throwing bodies at a problem. And they did this
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: out of desperation. So they charge into the American lines.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: They sweep through the combat outpost, they get all the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: way to the support troops in the rear of the camp.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: They almost succeed, but after a final attack on May thirtieth,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the US soldiers win. The day, they've counted more than
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: two thousand Japanese casualties, including the commander they lost around
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: The US lost around one thousand men retaking Atu, and
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: then within two days they had secured the island and
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: the Battle of Atu, the only land battle ever fought
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: on American soil, and World War Two was over. Shout
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: out also to the National Park Service right there.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: Articles They truly do you know, just what we just
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: described Ben sounds more like an episode of Game of Thrones,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: it really does modern warfare. And then that's why it
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: makes sense this is such a deadly war because these
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: types of tactics, they just don't make sense anymore, you know,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: because of the nature of combat has just changed. So
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: this type of land charge, I just picture men on
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: horses with lances or something, you know, but instead it's people,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: you know, running while firing machine guns and bayoneting people
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: and stuff. But it's not that different.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: And honestly, to give you a sense of the desperation
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: when people are starving and you want them to make
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: a suicide run like this, sometimes all you have to
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: do is tell them that there's food in the enemy camp.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Jesus right, that level of desperation is just mind boggling. Well,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: this might sound like the end of the story. There
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: is one more operation of note that I think is
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: worth the very least kind of breezing through without for
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: fear of giving short shrift to literally the loss of
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: human lives and just the vast, overwhelmingly deadly nature of
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: this entire conflict. This one actually was not so bad.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: This is the ridiculous one.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: This is the ridiculous one. So remember we said there
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: were two islands that were that form the setting or
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: the theater for this conflict. The eleventh Army Air Force
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and the Navy Patrol Wing four get their assignment to
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: take back Kiska Island in something called Operation Cottage, which
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: is not as creative. They're told, literally, push the enemy
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: into the sea, get the island back. And this after Atu.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Literally push them into the sea, push them into the sea.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: And so they said, look, we've got lessons learned. We're
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: going to give you the right clothing. We're gonna give
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: you the right gear and equipment, and you are going
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to encounter way Or troops and we face at Atu.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: And so on August fifth, nineteen forty three, they arrive
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: at Kiska. They've already been told the weather's going to
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: be horrible. This is going to be way harder than
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the other island. The weather is nice, the sea is quiet,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and there's no one there.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have themselves a little beach chill. Now they don't.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: But there's certainly probably surprised, you know, in the positive direction,
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: because they've been prepared for the absolute worst, and they
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: get there and it's an absolute kikawalk. And there is
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: an actual reason for this. The Japanese forces had abandoned
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: their post on July twenty ninth, nineteen forty three. The
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Japanese forces stationed on Kiska decided to hide tailor out
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: of there. Kiska City, which is what they were referring
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: to their outpost as was wired with explosives and demolish
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: including all of their supplies, ammunition and outposts. Yeah, booby trap,
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: yeah exactly. But then they did as an advance of
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: the Americans arriving though, right, Yeah, they just like they
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: didn't want to leave them anything that would be of use.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We have a statement from Carl Kosokobek, who was there,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: is a Japanese veteran, and said, quote, we threw our
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: rifles and bayonets into the water and then we went away.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: They never saw us. So in fifty five minutes, the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: entire Japanese force there over five thousand people boarded the vessel.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: They drifted off silently into the night. And the word
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: for that is noctificant, which we recently learned, Oh wow,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: to go about in the night.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: That's a good one. What makes sense nocturnal in the root.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: I imagine the Allies had a hard time believing that
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: this wasn't some sort of rouse.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine running, Okay, they're gonna pop out any minute,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: there's somebody, because it's ridiculous, right. Imagine you're you're running
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: full bore onto the shore. You've got your uh, you've
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: got farm locked and loaded. You might be yelling. You
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: might just be like, ah, how long do you keep
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: yelling until you notice that no one's there except maybe
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: maybe there's a moose who is like, come on, man.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: I just picture it's like that scene in Spinal Tap
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: where they're like lost and can't find the stage and
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: they're just pumped up like rock and roll, and then
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: they turn a corner and I realized that they're not
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: there yet, so they kind of like get flustered and
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: then okay, okay, let's get back, let's get the energy back.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I picture them like screaming and then they turn a corner.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: No one's there. Okay, Okay, they're definitely gonna be around
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: this next Okay, let's get up, let's get up the
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: energy again, and then no on after you know, again
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: in our version of events, several of these highs and lows,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: they finally accept the fact that there truly is no
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: one around.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, and they are still fighting the weather. So there
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: are unfortunately fatalities. Twenty four Allied troops are killed by
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: again friendly fire. Four die due to Japanese booby traps. Yeah,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: seventy one die when one ship hits a floating mine.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: And then a lot of other guys one hundred and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: sixty eight either get wounded or they fall ill, probably
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: do at least in part to the weather.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: That's right, We're around eight days of this, looking around
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: and realizing that finally no one was there. This was
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day. On paper, I guess,
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: perhaps to save face, I would imagine written off as
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: a training exercise.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, sure, yes, that's like I have a bad habit.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Noel and Max both know this. I have a bad
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: habit of doing something klutzy and then just immediately look
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: at yeah whomever has seen it, making eye contact and
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: yelling on purpose.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've borrowed that tactic from you. It's a good one, Ben,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: It's a good one. So yeah, at the end of
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: the day, this represents a defeat of the Japanese forces
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: at the Aleutian Islands, and very interesting story. It's got
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: some you know, the intense the intensity of this conflict
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: is represented. We got a little ridiculousness thrown in there.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously, at the end of the day, none
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: of this can be seen as purely ridiculous, although the
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: foibles and follies of man are nothing if not ridiculous
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: at times. But I think this is a really interesting
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: kind of little encapsulation of the entire conflict. And I'm
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: surprised that it hasn't been dramatized, you know, because it
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: seems like exactly the kind of story that would really
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: play well on on screen.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I want to at least see the moment where they
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: run onto the abandoned island. Yeah, I want that definitely.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: How it went down, there's no question, and you.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Know, you describe it well. It is a microcosm of
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: a larger, horrific conflict that fundamentally altered the course of
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the world, and the consequences of World War Two continue
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: to echo and resonate today. The war continues for two
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: years after the Battle of the Aleutian Islands, Japan finally
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: surrenders to the Allies on September second, nineteen forty five.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: This basically ends World War Two. And now if you
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: go to these islands you'll see the battlefields there have
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: become national historical landmarks in recognition of this singular, unique
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: conflict that again a lot of people don't know about,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: and that's why we aller big big thanks to our
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: research associate and super producer Max the the Great North Michigan,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the Michigan Goose, all of this things, it contains a
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: multitude Williams.
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: And also there are moose in Michigan. Also, do you
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: guys know what the plural of moose is?
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Moose? You already talked about that. It was the first
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: thing I said. It's plural. Yeah, it's one of my
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: favorite things about the humble moose. But yeah, also huge
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: thanks to the to the to.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: The elder Williams Alex who composed this banging track that
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: you're listening to right this very second.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Jonathan Strickland are a human booby trap if ever there was.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, he'll like that one aka the quizt And of
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: course big big thanks to Eves Jeffcoat, who, unlike Tipper Gore,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: has a show coming out on our network.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Sure we cleared that one up. Yeah, that was a
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: good save.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and thanks of course to Christopher Hasiotis who just
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I was talking with Christopher earlier and he hipped me
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: to some amazing facts about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: specifically famine.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, it's a hungry boy.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: He's that kind of dude's next time, folks.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.