Ghosts in the Fog. The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion

192 Pages·2014·38.91 MB·English

by  Samantha Seiple

Title Page
Dedication
Preface: The Forgotten
Chapter 1: The Secret in the Dungeon
Chapter 2: Invasion of the Ghost Warriors
Chapter 3: The Rising Storm
Chapter 4: Escape and Burn
Chapter 5: Dead Man Walking
Chapter 6: Fighters, Bombers, and Cutthroats
Chapter 7: The Last Banzai
Chapter 8: The Surprise Attack
Chapter 9: Ghost Towns
Chapter 10: The Prisoners
Afterword: The Remembered
Acknowledgments
Source Notes
Image Credits
Index
Teaser to Byrd & Igloo: A Polar Adventure
Also Available
Copyright
ON JUNE 7, 1942, Japan invaded Alaska.
On June 10, 1942, the U.S. Navy denied that it happened: “None of our
inhabited islands or rocks are troubled with uninvited visitors up to this time.”
The Japanese invasion and occupation of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska was
shrouded in secrecy. This secrecy was not only for security reasons but also to
avoid provoking a widespread panic across the United States and to avoid
acknowledging the fact that the westernmost section of Alaska was now part of
Japan’s quickly expanding empire.
Decades after World War II, the U.S. government kept the documents about
the Japanese invasion of Alaska classified, and the Americans who were there
when it happened didn’t want to talk about it.
Because of this silence, one of the bloodiest and deadliest hand-to-hand
combat battles between the United States and Japan was virtually forgotten. This
is the story they didn’t want you to know.
MAY 14, 1942. PEARL HARBOR, OAHU, HAWAII, FIVE MONTHS AND ONE WEEK AFTER THE
JAPANESE ATTACK.
A soldier stood with a loaded gun in front of a locked steel door. He was
guarding the secrets buried below from spies and thieves. No one was allowed to
talk about what went on in the “dungeon,” and if anyone did, their life was at
stake. The armed guard stopped anyone who tried to enter. If necessary, he
would shoot to kill.
A tall, thin man with dark hair and glasses was facing the locked steel door.
The armed guard didn’t bother him. That’s because Lieutenant Commander
Edwin Layton, known as Eddie to his friends, possessed the security clearance to
enter. Plus, he was a regular. The soldier unlocked the door for him and stepped
aside.

Lieutenant Commander Edwin Layton
Eddie rushed down the flight of stairs deep into the dungeon. He stopped
when he got to the bottom and stood in front of another locked steel door. As he
waited anxiously for it to open, he thought about the urgent phone call he’d
received earlier in the day.
“I’ve got something so hot here it’s burning the top of my desk!” said
Lieutenant Commander Joseph J. Rochefort.
“What is it?” asked Eddie.
But Joe wouldn’t tell Eddie over the phone. Since Joe wasn’t one to
exaggerate, Eddie immediately stopped what he was doing and rushed over to
meet with him.
Lieutenant Commander Joseph J. Rochefort
Eddie and Joe, who were both known for their quick wit and brilliance,
became lifelong friends when they met onboard a ship making its way across the
Pacific to Japan in 1929. The navy had sent them to Tokyo to learn Japanese. At
the time, it was rare for any American to speak Japanese, but it wasn’t unusual
for the Japanese to be fluent in English.
During their three years in Japan, Joe never once mentioned to Eddie that his
background involved cryptography, a relatively new field involving cracking
codes from intercepted messages. The navy called a cryptanalyst a “cryppy.”
Following his three years in Japan, Eddie would find himself back in the
United States working in naval intelligence. Using his firsthand knowledge of
Japan and by studying detailed maps, Eddie identified strategic targets within
Japan’s electric power distribution network for the United States to bomb in case
of war.
During this time, Eddie was also assigned to naval communications and
introduced to code cracking, becoming a cryppy himself. He and Joe would
cross paths again in 1936 when they were assigned to the same ship. And, five
years later, on May 15, 1941, their paths crossed once more when Joe was
assigned to work in the dungeon.
Joe was the head cryppy in the dungeon, located in the basement of the
administration building of the Fourteenth Naval District. Being the head cryppy
meant that Joe was the commander in charge of the combat intelligence unit,
also called Station Hypo.
Station Hypo didn’t really describe the group — and this was intentional.
The name was a cover to keep their work in the dungeon a secret from everyone.
If the enemy ever found out who worked there and captured them, they would be
tortured or even killed in an attempt to get top secret information.