Death of last surviving Alaskan taken by Japan during WWII rekindles memories of forgotten battle

By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gregory Golodoff, the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured the remote Alaska island of Attu during World War II, has died. The invasion prompted the war’s only battle on North American soil. Golodoff died last month in Anchorage at age 84. His sister, Elizabeth Golodoff Kudrin, the second-to-last last living Attuan, died in February at 82. Japan invaded Attu in June 1942, when Golodoff was 3. The Attuans were sent to Japan, where they were held captive until the war ended. U.S. forces retook the island in 1943 after a brutal campaign fought in frigid rain, dense fog and strong winds. Surviving Attuans were resettled on another Alaska island.