1942.06.17 “When the Fog Cleared”
by Lucius Curtis “Lute” Pease, Jr. (1869 -1963)
15 x 19 in., crayon and ink on board
Coppola Collection
Pease was a cartoonist for the Newark Evening News from 1914 to 1954, and received the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He was a miner in Alaska for 5 years before beginning a career in art. He was an illustrator for the Oregonian and famously interviewed Mark Twain. From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.
At the end of the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942), Japanese forces also invade Attu and Kiska, part of the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years. Japanese occupation of Attu and Kiska begins. The Battle of Midway comes to a close the same day, and the losses to the Japanese fleet are viewed as a turning point in the Pacific war.
Many Americans feared that the Japanese would use the islands as bases to strike within range along the rest of the US West Coast. Although the West Coast was subject to attack several times in the past six months (including unrestricted submarine warfare in coastal waters, the bombardment of Ellwood in California and the bombardment of Fort Stevens in Oregon), the Aleutians Islands Campaign of June 1942 was the first major operation by a foreign enemy in the American Theater.
It was not until May-August 1943 that the Japanese were driven from these positions. The battlefield on Attu and the Japanese occupation site on Kiska are both National Historic Landmarks and are included in the Aleutian Islands World War II National Monument.
