Last Letters from Attu. Mary Breu

      

      LAST LETTERS from ATTU

      The True Story of Etta Jones,

      Alaska Pioneer and Japanese P.O.W.

      Mary Breu

      Text and photos © 2009 by Mary Breu

      All photos are by Etta Jones and in the author’s collection, except where noted.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

      ISBN 978-0-88240-810-1 (pbk.)

      ISBN 978-0-88240-851-4, 978-08-88240-852-1 (e-book)

      ISBN 978-0-88240-981-8 (hardbound)

      Alaska Northwest Books®

      An imprint of

      P.O. Box 56118

      Portland, OR 97238-6118

      [phone]

       www.graphicartsbooks.com

      Editor: Ellen Wheat

      Interior Designer: Elizabeth Watson

      Cover Design: Vicki Knapton, Elizabeth Watson

      Front cover images. Top: The Montevideo Maru, 1942; Bottom: Etta Jones and Attu Natives, 1942.

       Frontispiece. Etta Eugenie Schureman, high-school graduation photo, Vineland, New Jersey, 1898.

      In memory of my great-aunt and great-uncle,

      Etta and Foster Jones,

       and all the victims of the Attu invasion

       Etta and Foster on their dogsled, departing on their honeymoon, April 1, 1923.

       Contents

       Preface

       1. To Alaska

       2. Tanana: 1922–1923

       3. Tanana: 1923–1930

       4. Tanana, Tatitlek, and Old Harbor: 1928–1932

       5. From Kodiak to Kipnuk: 1932

       6. Kipnuk Culture: 1932

       7. Letters from Kipnuk: 1932–1933

       8. Kipnuk School: 1932–1934

       9. Letters from Kipnuk: 1934–1937

       10. Old Harbor: 1937–1941

       11. Attu: 1941–1942

       12. Invasion: 1942

       13. The Australians: January–July 1942

       14. Bund Hotel, Yokohama: July 1942

       15. Yokohama Yacht Club: 1942–1943

       16. Yokohama Yacht Club: 1943–1944

       17. Totsuka: 1944–1945

       18. Rescue: August 31, 1945

       19. Return to the United States: September 1945

       20. Home: 1945–1965

       Afterword by Ray Hudson

       Acknowledgments

       Notes

       Bibliography

       Index

       About the Author

       About the Afterword Writer

       Etta Jones and her great-niece, author Mary Breu, Bradenton, Florida, December 1952.

       Preface

      Etta Jones was my favorite great-aunt. For my first twenty years and her last twenty, I knew her as a compassionate, generous, genteel woman. She was short in stature, and had pure white hair and jet-black eyebrows. I always knew she had an interesting past because bits and pieces were mentioned over the years. Relatives had kept all of Etta’s letters, photos, documents, and artifacts, and this private treasure was eventually handed down to me. In 2002, thirty-seven years after her death and at the end of my teaching career, I decided to put her story together to share with family members. While going through Etta’s extraordinary collection, I realized that