that caused the US pilots to lose all contact with the Japanese fleet. However, the weather caused the Japanese to cancel plans to invade Adak with 1,200 men. Invasion of Kiska and Attu Main articles: Japanese occupation of Kiska and Japanese occupation of Attu The Japanese invasions and occupations of Kiska on June 6 and Attu on June 7 1942 shocked the American public, as the continental United States was invaded for the first time in 130 years since 1815 (during the War of 1812). The invading forces initially met little resistance from the local Unangax, also known as Aleuts. Though the U.S. Navy had offered to evacuate Attu in May 1942, the Attuan Unangax chief declined. Little changed for the Unangax under Japanese occupation until September 1942 when Japan's Aleutian strategy shifted. It was at this point that the Unangax were taken to Hokkaido, Japan, and placed in an internment camp. The invasion of Attu and imprisonment of the local Unangax became the justification for the United States' policy of forcible evacuation of the Unangax in the Aleutian Islands. Unangan civilians were placed in internment camps in the Alaska Panhandle. Allied response 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. Lieutenant Paul Bishop of the 28th Bombardment Group once recalled that: Lieutenant Bob Brocklehurst of the 18th Fighter Squadron also said that: In August 1942, the Air Force established an airbase on Adak Island and began bombing Japanese positions on Kiska. Navy submarines and surface ships also began patrolling the area. Kiska Harbor was the main base for Japanese ships in the campaign and several were sunk there, some by warships but mostly in air raids. On 5 July, the submarine , under command of Lieutenant Commander Howard Gilmore, attacked three Japanese destroyers off Kiska. She sank one and heavily damaged the others, killing or wounding 200 Japanese sailors. Ten days later, was attacked by three Japanese submarine chasers in Kiska Harbor, with two of the patrol