Battle in the Aleutian Islands
The war in the Pacific has mainly been a question of the posses- sion or conquest of island bases, and for some time it has been concentrated on the islands north and north-east of Australia. But neither the Japanese nor the Americans have been unaware of the potential importance of the Aleutian Islands, which stretch out like stepping-stones three-quarters of the way across the .northern Pacific from Alaska towards Russian territory in Asia. The Japanese had occupied and fortified Attu and Kiska, and it is on the westernmost of these that the Americans have made two successful landings and have had the best of the fierce conflict that has ensued. If they succeed in ousting the enemy, as seems likely, they will make the Japanese position on Kiska precarious in the extreme. The value of these islands lies in their potentiality as advanced air-bases. For the Japanese they afford a possible way of attacking the United States. For the Americans they afford a far more feasible means of attacking japan, by direct bombing raids on her base in the Kurile Islands, or even on the Japanese mainland. Moreover Attu lies near the route of the shipping which takes supplies to Russia, at present unmolested, but which may not always be immune from attack. Its occupation would bring the American front line appreciably nearer the heart of Japan.
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