The campaign to retake the lost islands would be as bloody as it was innovative. Drawing up plans to strategically “hop” along the Aleutians chain to seize islands ahead of the enemy, US service branches banded together, with the Eleventh Air Force focused on air superiority, naval forces concentrated on intercepting crucial enemy convoys, and Army personnel prepared to be the boots on the ground. These cold, fog-bound stretches of rock and sea were the site of the first multiservice amphibious assault of the war, the first American use of carrier-based close air support, and even the first airstrikes against the Japanese mainland by land-based bomber formations. The discovery of a largely intact Japanese Zero aircraft crashed on an uninhabited island was a major intelligence breakthrough, allowing US forces to identify weaknesses of the dreaded fighter plane. The waters of the Aleutians also hosted the last daylight gun battle between surface warships in history at the Komandorski Islands in March 1943.

To recapture Attu in May 1943, American servicemembers faced both the bitter cold and a determined enemy, offering a danger not often encountered elsewhere by American forces. Fighting progressed up frozen mountains, where the inclement weather and dwindling supplies fueled desperation on both sides. But there were also acts of heroism, like that of Private Joseph “Joe” Pantillion Martínez, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. In the aftermath of the Japanese garrison’s furious and brutal final banzai charge, combat casualty ratios stood at 71 American servicemembers killed or wounded for every 100 Japanese troops lost—a cost surpassed in the Pacific only by that of Iwo Jima.

Kiska was found to have been abandoned by the Japanese in August 1943, and ground combat in the Aleutian Islands ended. But even as the spotlight moved elsewhere in the Pacific, all US service branches maintained a presence in the Aleutians. The cold, damp conditions kept hospitals busy, and the continual need for new personnel created opportunities for servicewomen to be deployed to the islands as the war progressed. Keeping up the morale of personnel based in the Aleutian Islands was crucial: troops entertained themselves with unit newspapers, bands and clubs, and interservice entertainment events, while USO tours offered thrilling chances to see and meet their favorite celebrities, including Bob Hope and Martha O’Driscoll.

In addition to more than 70 unique artifacts and materials from the Museum’s collection, including never-before-seen images, rare American and Japanese cold-weather uniforms, and equipment from those who were there, On American Shores features numerous first-person accounts from veterans who fought to retake the islands from the Japanese.

Despite being the only fighting of World War II to take place on North American soil, the Aleutian Islands Campaign has largely faded from public memory. On American Shores showcases this powerful story, introducing new audiences to a pivotal moment of the war and its impacts on America’s progress in the Pacific theater.