Kiska Island, in the Aleutians far west of Alaska is also the site of a deadly World War II battle in which only one side fought.

In the early hours of June 7, 1942, 1,200 Japanese soldiers stormed the island. Just 10 Americans were living on the island, operating a weather station.

After killing two of the Americans, the Japanese settled into Kiska and stayed for more than a year, carving out tunnels, building machine gun bunkers, and even planting gardens.

On August 15, 1943, shortly after the Japanese lost Attu Island back to the United States, 34,426 American and Canadian soldiers landed on Kiska Island, only to find the Japanese had evacuated only weeks earlier under cover of fog.

Even so, almost 200 Allied soldiers died due to a combination of friendly fire from soldiers twitchy over fears of Japanese holdouts and booby traps.

In the case of the worst of the friendly fire incidents, U.S. and Canadian forces fired briefly on each other for a loss of 82 men.

Admiral Ernest King reported to the Secretary of the Navy that the only things remaining on the island were “dogs and fresh brewed coffee”. Secretary Knox asked for an explanation, King replied: “The Japanese are very clever. Their dogs can brew coffee”.

Today, the island is a treasure trove of items and emplacements left behind by the Japanese after their withdrawal. Bomb craters, equipment dumps, concrete-lined tunnels, gun emplacements, shipwrecks, and tons of additional war material all remain in this remote island near the end of the Alaskan Aleutians.

Images by photographer Brendan Coyle.
Quoted text via War History Online. Additional info sourced from Wikipedia.