著者

野口 泰弥 大島 稔

出版者

北海道立北方民族博物館

雑誌

北海道立北方民族博物館研究紀要 (ISSN:09183159)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, pp.85-110, 2019

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In June in 1942, Japanese army invaded and occupied Attu and Kiska islands of theAleutian Islands. In those days 42 Unangan (Aleut) people and two white man andwoman lived on Attu Island. Some islanders died in the period of the Japaneseoccupation. On September in 1942, Japanese Army transferred these islanders (exceptone white woman) to Otaru city of Hokkaido prefecture in Japan and detained themuntil the end of war. In Otaru, Tuberculosis was going around among islanders so manypeople died. After the war, survivors returned to the U.S. However, the U.S. governmentdidn't allow them to return to Attu Island. This is the reason why Attu Island is now anuninhabited island. This text is a report on Unangan (Aleut) people of Attu Island which was writtenby Karl Kaoru Kasukabe(春日部薫: 1913-1995)during WWII. He followed JapaneseArmy as interpreter and attended "Aleutian Islands Campaign." During his militaryservice, Kasukabe researched culture and language of Attu people. The original text was handwritten between 1942 and 1943 and is housed in HokkaidoUniversity Library (Identification No. 572.9/KAS/別シ). Generally speaking,ethnographic records about Attu islanders have been very rare. This text includesdetailed ethnographic information about culture, history, and language of Attu peopleand partly includes important description about the background of Aleutian IslandsCampaign. Therefore, this text is worth publishing for future study.