World War II and Japonski Island History
Two-sided map of Sitka Sound and Installations on Japonski and Causeway
Here is a printable pdf - for printing on legal size paper - of the WWII installations on Sitka Sound and on Japonski and neighboring islands, and the Causeway.
As always, treat historic resources with respect, so the next generation can learn from them, too. |
The Japonski Island Boathouse, slightly right of center. Photo taken from atop a gravel conveyer near Harbor Island, similar to a view from the bridge, today. Photo Sitka Historical Society, Johnson Collection.
World War II Significance of the Japonski Island Boathouse
The Japonski Island Boathouse is part of the Sitka Naval Air Station and its Harbor Defenses, now designated a National Historic Landmark as the only defense installation in the North Pacific at the outbreak of WWII.
These installations were on islands throughout Sitka Sound, and the Boathouse was the only repair facility for over 50 Army and Navy craft. After the war, the military installations were re-purposed as a federal hospital and a high school for Natives. The Boathouse was used for maintaining the Shore Boats, ferries between the now-vanished federal community of Mt. Edgecumbe and the town of Sitka until a bridge was built in 1972. While other buildings have been razed or remodeled, the Boathouse remains exactly as it was when built in 1941, offering a rare glimpse into what WWII servicemen, and members of the Mt. Edgecumbe community in the 1950s and 60s, saw and experienced. |
E. W. Merrill photo of fish camp at Sealing Lagoon, on Alice Island. These islands were owned by Sitka Tlingit people since time immemorial. Over the years this became a military reserve, and these islands were leveled and connected for the US Navy and Army installations for WWII.
Japonski Island History
Articles written by Bob DeArmond that ran in the Sitka Sentinel in the early 2000s, on the history of the Japonski Lagoon and on the WWII Causeway.
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