Sometimes in war, there are stories so bizarre and out of place that they seem like a work of
fiction more so than anything. This was the case in December of 1941, where after bombing pearl
harbour and his plane being badly damaged, a Japanese pilot named Shigenori Nishikaichi
crash landed on Hawaii’s smallest main island of Niihau, and ended up starting a rebellion to
take over the island alongside 3 civilians who had defected and sympathised with the pilot.
As soon as his battle damaged breached the yellow sand of Niihau, he was greeted by a
contingency of native Hawaiians who had not yet heard the news of pearl harbour
due to poor radio communications at the time. In traditional hawaiian hospitality,
they greeted the pilot warmly, however one native, named Hawila Kaleohano had read been
reading recent news articles and noticed that American and Japanese relations were tense,
which led him to taking the pilots pistol and his papers before the dazed pilot could react.
As the night turned to day, and after throwing a party for the downed Japanese pilot,
the 3 only Japanese speaking Americans of the island were called in to help translate what
Nishikaichi was saying, as he knew a limited amount of English. The first translator,
Ishimatsu Shintani was of course of Japanese ancestry, and after listening to what the
pilot had to say, abruptly departed without explanation, leaving the natives confused.
They then proceeded to call in the only other two people on the island
with Japanese ancestry to help translate, Yoshio and Irene Harada who had been living
on the island with the natives for over 3 years. After taking in what Nishikaichi the pilot had
said, the Harada’s decided not to translate the part of the bombing of pearl harbour,
and after the pilot expressed his need to get his papers back from Kaleohano, who outright refused,
the Harada’s decided to essentially join the Imperial Japanese Army and ally themselves with
the pilot in his quest to get his papers back, take over the island and then ultimately escape.
Shintai, the first Japanese translator, also changed his allegiance and at 4pm on December
12th he approached Kaleohano with $200 in cash attempting to buy back the papers, and keep in
mind this was a huge sum of cash for the natives too. That said however, Kaleohano still refused
and Shintai angrily walked off saying that there would be trouble if the papers were not returned.
Without waiting on the news of the papers, Harada and decided to take matters into
their own hands and begin the uprising, attacking the lone guard posted to watch
over them and locking him in a warehouse. Although there were meant to be 4 guards
watching over the pilot and the Harada’s, three of them were absent at the time,
and Irene Harada played music on her phonograph to cover up the struggle happening below.
Harada and Nishikaichi then acquired a shotgun and a pistol and intended to force Kaleohano to give
up the papers, however fatefully so, the native was in the outhouse at the time and saw the 2
prodding along a 16 year old hostage with a gun. Unable to find him they shifted their attentions
somewhere else and Kaleohano took the opportunity to run as fast as his legs could take him,
with the 2 conspirators yelling at him to stop and eventually trying to shoot him.
The 2 enemies of the island then proceeded to torch Kaleohano’s house as well as contact the
Japanese military for assistance with the downed planes radio. Fortunately,
no Japanese frequencies picked up the call, and Kaleohano managed to
warn the entire village and escape the island on a rowboat to seek for help.
That however didn’t stop the dynamic duo from trying to subjugate the island,
with them taking multiple people captive and forcing them to search for Kaleohano who had
escaped earlier. Although the natives knew Kaleohano had escaped by boats,
they still pretended to look for him, until eventually the two men realised they were
being deceived and threatened to kill everyone in the village in Kaleohano was not found.
This angering the natives, led a husband and wife duo named
Ben and Elle Kanahele to pounce on the fatigued and discouraged men. The pilot,
able to get his pistol out in time shot Ben a total of three times, however this didn’t stop
the man, who with immense strength picked up Nishikaichi and hurled him into a stone wall,
then proceeding to slit his throat and his wife Ella bashing his head in with a rock.
Harada, by himself, armed with a shotgun, and sticking to his ancestral roots decided to shoot
himself instead of taking on the entire village by himself, marking the end of the Niihau incident.
The next day on December 14th Kaleohano returned with military authorities and both the surviving
Japanese Americans, Irene Harada and Ishimatsu Shintani were taken into custody, with Irene being
sentenced to 31 months in prison and Shintani sent to an internment camp for the rest of the war.
Ben Kanahele was placed in a hospital for recovery and returned to normal soon after
the incident, thus putting an end to one of the weirdest battles of WW2.