Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears are located on Amaknak Island in Unalaska Bay, in the Aleutian Islands Chain, 800 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska. In early June 1942, Japanese aircraft attacked Unalaska in a fierce two-day bombardment that resulted in 43 American deaths. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor these two bases were the only US defenses in the Aleutians, and they continued as important coastal defenses throughout the war. - NPS