Charles Foster Jones

Charles Foster Jones (1 May 1879 – 8 June 1942) was an American ham radio operator and weather observer who with his wife Etta were the only white couple on the Aleutian Island of Attu. During the Japanese occupation of Attu he was executed by Japanese soldiers. He was the only known civilian to be executed by the Japanese on American soil.

Early life Charles Foster Jones was born on 1 May 1879 in St. Paris, Ohio. He was the second child of Dr. Caleb Jones (2 June 1851 – 26 July 1924) and Sarah E. Jones ( Morris; 10 June 1851 – 29 September 1879). his family nicknamed him Chawky.

Later life

The couple travelled across Alaska for several years. During this time, Charles made his own radio and got a license to operate it. At some point the couple became employees for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and in September 1941 they moved to Attu Island which at the time had a population of around 45 Aleuts, making the couple the only white inhabitants of the island. The two lived in a small village at Chichagof Harbor. They were tasked with sending daily weather reports, keeping the school in repair, and directing the music band and entertainment. Etta was reportedly treated with kindness and was respected while in detention, the Japanese calling her "Oba San" which meant grandma, and was seen as a title of respect.

In May 1943 the US Army liberated Attu, but found no trace of Foster or any of the island's inhabitants.

A few months later Mike and his wife Parascovia Lokanin who was from Atka and anthropologist Verne F. Ray recorded what's now known as the Lokanin Discs, a group of four glass 78 rpm discs were recorded in early December 1945 at the University of Washington in Seattle. The discs were found by Verne's wife Dorothy Jean Ray also a anthropologist, after someone had donated papers and letters to the Alaska and Polar Regions Archives at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, among the papers and letters she discovered the glass discs, and they were then handed over to collection manager Robyn Russell who realized the importance of these discs. The discs were found to contain several songs in the Aleut language most specifically the Attuan dialect which was no longer spoken, however the discs provided valuable samples of the Attuan dialect. The first disc was transcribed by Moses Dirks in July 2016.