The Near Islands or Sasignan Islands are the smallest and westernmost group of the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

.

Geography

The largest of the Near Islands are Attu

Attu Island

Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. It was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on the incorporated territory of the United States ,...

 and Agattu

Agattu

Agattu is an island in the Near Islands in the western end of the Aleutian Islands. With a land area of 221.593 km² Agattu is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the Aleutians. It is the second largest of the Near Islands, after Attu Island. It is volcanic and considerably mountainous...

. Besides a few rocks

Islet

An islet is a very small island.- Types :As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability....

 in the channel between Attu and Agattu, the other important islands are the Semichi Islands

Semichi Islands

The Semichi Islands are a cluster of small islands in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. They are located southeast of Attu Island and northeast of Agattu Island, near...

 to their northeast, notable among which are Alaid

Alaid Island (Alaska)

Alaid Island is the westernmost of the Semichi Islands, a subgroup of the Near Islands group that lies at the extreme western end of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.-References:...

, Nizki

Nizki Island

Nizki Island is an uninhabited island in the Aleutian Islands in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located at , it is the middle island of the Semichi Islands group of the Near Islands. Flanked by Shemya to the east and Alaid to the west, three-mile-long Nizki is periodically joined to Alaid by a sand spit...

 and Shemya.

About 20 miles to the east-southeast from Shemya are small rocky reefs known as the Ingenstrem Rocks.

The total land area of all of the Near Islands is 1,143.785 km² (441.618 sq mi), and their total population was 47 persons as of the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

. The only populated islands are Shemya and Attu.

History

The islands were named Near Islands by Russian explorers in the 18th century because they were the nearest of the Aleutian Islands to Russia. They are the farthest of the islands from mainland Alaska.

During the Second World War, the Japanese Imperial Army occupied the Near Islands in 1942. American forces retook

Battle of Attu

The Battle of Attu, which took place from 11-30 May 1943, was fought entirely between forces of the United States and the Empire of Japan on Attu Island off the coast of Alaska. The action, which was part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign during the Pacific War, was the only land battle of World War...

 the islands during the Aleutian Islands Campaign in 1943.