I watched something on this little known but large battle on the History Channel. I was facinated by it. So I purchased a book on off Amazon.com. Apparently the Japanese occupation of the island was the first occupation of American soil in over 200 years. I'm so used to seeing pictures of pacific battles in tropical oasis type coral atolls and islands, but this was in freezing weather. And to this day no one knows the reason for the japs invading. Check out this website on it: http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/aleutians/attu-homepage.htm
And the Aleutian islands homepage: http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/aleutians/

And these pics of it.

This was the village on attu before the jap invasion. only 38 people inhabitated the island.