Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land

by Walter R. Borneman

Meanwhile, a consortium of nineteen pulp and paper makers, thirteen rayon producers, and two timber companies—nearly all based in Japan—proposed a similar mill near Sitka. The aftermath of World War II had interrupted Japan’s traditional timber sources from Manchuria and Sakhalin Island (both now occupied by the Soviet Union), and in the rush to rebuild it turned to other sources. Given the recent war with Japan, there was considerable apprehension in the United States about such a large foreign investment in Alaska. Eventually, the State Department blessed the deal as good not only for Japan’s economic recovery but also for “the economic development of a self-sustaining economy in the Territory of Alaska.”