Talk:General Discussion/@comment-16545476-20140707120618/@comment-24332640-20140708031936

I feel like we had this exact argument before, Mr. Anonymous and I'll just say exactly what I said then:  The spring event was not over 5 days. You seem to be pulling that number out of your ass. It was based on three largely unrelated battles that spanned a roughly two week period and wasn't a single operation at all. In fact they're not even chronological (the attack on Port Darwin, E-3, was actually the first of these battles). Even if you think AL is a bigger deal than some of these battles (though I would argue that Port Darwin was actually much larger scale...'cause it was), each battle was still just one map. Not three.

As far as what Operation AL is, I'm not ignoring it. I think you're conflating it with the entire Aleutian Islands campaign or something...but the name "Operation AL" refers to the initial attack on Dutch Harbor and the capture of the (completely undefended) islands of Attu and Kiska. The actual naval part of that operation took two days...it was not a "much longer" operation that Midway. And the total IJN forces consisted of 2 light carriers, 3 cruisers, and 5 destroyers. Hardly a large force. Contrast that with the attack on Port Darwin which involved 4 fleet carriers, 3 cruisers, 7 destroyers, and 3 submarines. And translated to one map.

The US took a while to respond because frankly those two islands were very low priority. That's why the defenses were so weak in the first place. They were barren, mountainous volcanic islands with little strategic value. People disagree over why Japan even wanted them. Some say it was nothing more than a diversionary attack just before Midway and others argue it was to prevent a US attack from the north...though the islands weren't suitable for building airfields so there's not much they could actually do with them besides leave a garrison there.

There's no conspiracy here. There isn't a lot of talk about those islands because they really weren't important. Most (though not all, sure) of the people living there had been evacuated before the attack. Actually, the demands for apology you mentioned were because of the terrible conditions in the camp that people were forcibly evacuated to, not for failing to defend the islands...