On December 7th, 1941,
Japanese pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi was flying his Mitsubishi Zero over the Pacific Ocean.
The 22-year-old was escorting the bomber jets of the second wave of attack on Pearl Harbor,
which targeted the Army airbase of Bellows Field.
On their way back to the aircraft carrier, the Japanese group was met by a squadron of American
P-36 Hawks. Although the Mitsubishi Zeros were a far superior aircraft,
they no longer had the element of surprise on their side.
Nishikaichi was hit immediately after taking down a Hawk.
The fuel tank of the aircraft started leaking profoundly through a bullet hole.
The carrier was over 200 miles away, and the plane wasn’t going to make it.
Nishikaichi had to perform an emergency landing on whichever island was closest to him.
The Japanese fighter pilot thought he had crash-landed on a deserted Hawaiian island,
but he was wrong. He was about to incite a violent rebellion… one which has remained
in relative obscurity until recently. It was a frightening incident of an
enemy soldier running amok on American soil and an event that would contribute
to the eventual incarceration of thousands of Japanese-Americans living in the United States...
Niʻihau
Niʻihau is the westernmost and second smallest of the main Hawaiian Islands.
It has been privately owned by the Robinson family since 1864. During World War 2,
the owner was Aylmer Robinson, a Harvard University graduate who was fluent in Hawaiian.
He ran the island without direct interference from the government.
Although he lived in the neighboring island of Kauaʻi, he made weekly visits by boat to Niʻihau.
The place was only accessible with Robinson’s permission,
which was rarely given to anyone except his close friends or family.
In 1941, Niʻihau had 136 inhabitants, almost all Native Hawaiians, and only a few English speakers.
While planning the Pearl Harbor attack, the Imperial Japanese Navy knew that many of
their aircraft would be damaged in battle and wouldn’t be able to return to its carriers.
Therefore, the pilots needed a rendezvous point where they could be rescued by a submarine.
They designated Niʻihau as an excellent location for these damaged aircraft to land. The island
was wrongly believed to be desolate, and it was only a 30-minute flight away from Pearl Harbor.
On December 7th, 1941, after taking part in the second wave of the Pearl Harbor attack,
Japanese Airman Shigenori Nishikaichi lost control of his A6M2 Zero.
As the pilot attempted to flare out for a landing, the jet’s wheels hit a wire fence, and the plane
nosed hard. Nishikaichi’s safety harness ripped, and he slammed against the instrument panel.
The Incident
The Japanese pilot crash-landed on the island of Niʻihau,
in a field near where native Hawaiian Howard Kaleohano was standing.
Born in 1912 and educated on the Big Island of Hawaii, Kaleohano first traveled to Niʻihau in
1930 to visit his sister. But he remained on the island, where he eventually married and had kids,
becoming one of the few natives fluent in both English and Hawaiian.
Kaleohano was unaware of the Pearl Harbor attack but knew that the relationship between Japan and
the U.S had been bad for a few years. When he recognized Nishikaichi’s plane as Japanese,
he seized the dazed pilot’s firearm and personal documents before he could attack.
When the Japanese soldier awoke, Nishikaichi asked Kaleohano in broken English if he was Japanese.
The native Hawaiian took the pilot into his home,
where his wife served breakfast to the unlikely visitor.
It became apparent that Nishikaichi and Kaleohano wouldn’t be able to communicate.
So Kaleohano summoned Ishimatsu Shintani, a 60-year-old beekeeper, to help.
But Shintani was not happy to translate for the pilot.
He had lived in Hawaii for over 40 years and had even raised a family there.
Still, citizenship grants at the time weren’t given to immigrants in Hawaii territory.
Knowing this, he was incredibly nervous about the unusual situation. After speaking briefly with the
pilot, his face went pale, and he left the house without giving Kaleohano useful information.
Kaleohano needed to find somebody willing to help. So he called the
other two Niʻihau residents of Japanese ancestry:
Hawaiian-born Nisei Yoshio Harada and his wife Irene Harada, who spoke Japanese.
When the pilot informed them of the Pearl Harbor attack, the couple chose to keep the information
a secret. This was the beginning of a sell-out that would cost them and the nation significantly.
Ignorant of the situation, some friendly locals treated the pilot to a luau, with music, drinks,
and food. They all sang together as they waited for Nishikaichi to be rescued.
However, the submarines never arrived.
Niʻihau did not have electricity. But when night fell,
a transmission brought by a battery-powered radio informed them of the terrible attack.
The islanders realized that an enemy fighter had crashed on their land.
Aylmer Robinson, the Island’s landlord, only made weekly visits to the Island and had appointed
Yoshio Harada as the resident superintendent a few months prior. This situation put Harada
in a difficult situation, torn between his American citizenship and his Japanese heritage.
Pilot
Nishikaichi stayed the night in the home of John Kelly, the luau host,
along with Mr. and Mrs. Harada. -
The morning after, the pilot was taken to Kii Landing, near the northern tip of the island,
where Robinson made his weekly inspection visits.
After Robinson failed to appear on December 8th because of newly imposed wartime restrictions
hindering boat traffic from Niʻihau and Kauai, the Haradas offered to house Nishikaichi.
Without Robinson, they would be on their own.
The Niihauans agreed that one of them would be stationed outside the house,
taking shifts to ensure that someone was always on watch to guard the dangerous enemy.
In the Harada household, pilot Nishikaichi tried to earn their loyalty. He gradually
won over Yoshio and, and after some reluctance, his wife, Irene. They both agreed to help him.
On December 11th, the Harada’s let Shintani, the beekeeper, in on their plan.
The three of them talked privately at the Harada house. The following morning, Shintani knocked on
Howard Kaleohano’s door and demanded the pilot’s documents and gun back. But Howard refused.
The Haradas realized that Shintani wasn’t going to be of much help. They were determined to
proceed with Nishikaichi’s new plan: death with honor, prevalent amongst Japanese soldiers.
That same morning, Mr. Harada stole a shotgun and a pistol from the Robinson family’s ranch house.
As the Island’s superintendent, he had a key. He loaded the firearms and hid them
in a secluded warehouse used to store honey from the island’s thriving beekeeping industry.
Mr. Harada and Nishikaichi overpowered the guard on rotation that day.
They made their way to Kaleohano’s house to retrieve the documents, unaware that the islander
had already handed them over to a relative after Shintani’s threat. As the pair left the house,
Kaleohano, who had been hiding, tried to run away. Nishikaichi fired his shotgun but missed.
Kaleohano summoned other islanders and convinced them to travel with him to Kauai
to meet with the Robinson family and inform them of the situation.
The group set out on a 10-hour boat ride while another group lit a torch
at the top of Mount Paniau, visible all the way from Kauai.
On the night of December 12th, Nishikaichi and Harada attacked the town, taking several
hostages. They demanded that Kaleohano surrender to them and that the documents be handed over.
The remaining citizens, who knew of Kaleohano’s plan, pretended to look for him,
hoping that he would make it back in time before somebody got hurt.
One of these men was Ben Kanahele, whose wife was one of the hostages.
After stalling for several hours pretending to look for Kaleohano, Ben pleaded with
Harada to take the pilot’s gun. As the pilot handed it over, Ben Kanahele jumped at him.
But Nishikaichi was fast and shot him three times.
The enraged Kanahele threw the pilot against a stone wall.
At the same time, Mrs. Kanahele grabbed a rock and struck the Japanese pilot several times.
Finally, her husband pulled a knife and ended the attack.
Seeing his plan fail miserably, and knowing the consequences he would face as a traitor,
Harada turned the shotgun on himself.
Closure
Mr. Robinson was able to see the signal fire from his home.
He was astounded when he received a phone call from Kaleohano in Waimea.
For days, he had been trying to send a Kauai Military boat to the island,
but the Navy’s ban on all boat traffic had hindered his efforts.
After being briefed on the situation, the Navy finally approved a rescue mission
on Niʻihau island. Robinson and the military reinforcements from Kauai arrived the next day
and arrested Shintani and the grieving Mrs. Harada.
For his part in the Niʻihau incident, Ishimatsu Shintani was taken into custody
and interned on the mainland for the rest of the War. He blamed Japan for his actions.
After the postwar repeal of racial barriers to immigration,
he eventually became a naturalized American citizen in 1960.
Irene Harada lost her husband and her freedom on the same day.
She was jailed and transferred to a military prison on Oahu.
The woman was released in late 1944 and returned to Niʻihau.
Ben Kanahele recovered from his injuries and was
later awarded the Purple Heart and Medal for Merit.
The actions of the Niihauans of Japanese ancestry were written down in a January 1942 Navy report
as evidence of the likelihood that these people would favor their ancestry over their citizenship.
With the nation in an uproar after the attack at Pearl Harbor, there is no doubt that the
Niʻihau incident influenced President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration.
It promptly relocated more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast
to incarcerate them in the continental U.S.