None of the Hawaiian shorelines are as untouched as those of Ni’ihau, a small island on the most
western side of the Hawaiian Islands. The island is privately owned and often called the ‘forbidden
island’. The time has stood still here, and the inhabitants live in seclusion, keeping the
traditions of their ancestors alive. When in 1864 Elizabeth Sinclair bought the island for $10.000
from king Kamehameha, she promised to protect the island from influences from outside – a promise
still kept to this day by her descendants: the Robinson family. Since 1864 not much has
changed – there are no roads, no cars, no shops, no plumbing and no internet. It is not possible to
enter or leave the island without the permission of the family, which is seldom given. The only way
to explore the island now is with a helicopter tour that goes from a neighbouring island and
allows tourists to get a glimpse of the untouched island. However, a strange drama occurred on this
forbidden island starting on December 7, 1941. A gruesome story often overshadowed by the enormity
of the Pearl Harbor attack, but happening at the exact same time, only a few islands away…
-intro-
The crash
It was a bright Sunday morning like many other quiet Sunday mornings on the island.
The inhabitants were heading to church when they noticed two aircraft flying very low. Smoke was
coming out of the planes. It was the first sign that this day would not be like any other. The
two planes, along with six others had left that morning from the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu
and were part of the second wave of the squadron participating in the Pearl Harbor attack. They
had been attacking targets in the south-eastern O’ahu and were now returning to the carrier.
One of them, the 21-year old Airman First Class Shigenori Nishikaichi flying his Mitsubishi
A6M2 Zero fighter, had come under heavy fire. The bullets had punctured his fuel tank, and
he was leaking gas fast. Nishikaichi had to make a decision: he was not going to be able to return to
the carrier with the speed in which he was losing gas. While the other plane was disappearing on the
horizon flying back to the carrier, Nishikaichi had to make a crash landing. The pilots had been
told that if something would happen with their aircraft, they should attempt to emergency land
on the barren island of Ni’ihau. There, they would have to wait along the coastline where
they would be picked up by an I-class submarine. They were told that there would be no problems
with locals because the island was uninhabited. Well, the Japanese were wrong. The island was in
fact inhabited and at this moment in time around 182 Hawaiians called this island their home. After
circling above the village, the plane made a crash landing not far from the home of Hawila Kaleohano.
It was this man who was the first one to approach the plane and recognise it as Japanese. He was
aware of the tensions between the United States and Japan, but having no direct contact with the
outside world, no one yet knew what had happened at Pearl Harbor a few hours earlier. He found the
wreck with a stunned pilot in it and was able to grab the pilot’s pistol and papers. The curious
and slightly startled inhabitants gathered around the pilot and barraged him with questions. But,
in broken English, he said he did not speak or understand it. Later it turned out he did not only
understand English but also spoke it fluently. Kaleohano called for two Japanese-speaking
residents to translate. Among the native Hawaiians lived three adults with Japanese descent:
Mr. Ishimatsu Shintani who was married to a native Ni’ihauan woman and worked as head-beekeeper and
Mr. and Mrs. Yoshio Harada who had moved to the island in 1938. Mr. Harada worked as Shintani’s
assistant, and Mrs. Harada worked for the Robinson family as a housekeeper at their ranch house.
When Shintani arrived on the site, he exchanged a few words with the pilot
but promptly left. The baffled natives sent for Harada and his wife. When they arrived,
Nishikaichi informed the couple of the attack, and made it clear he needed his papers back
which contained confidential information and could not fall in American hands.
Harada did not share this information with the natives, who still were none the wiser.
The prisoner
While at first Nishikaichi was more or less treated like a guest, his status changed when
during the night the Hawaiians learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor via a battery-powered
radio. They decided to wait until the next day when Aylmer Robinson – the then-owner
of the island – was expected to arrive on the island for his weekly visit. He could
bring Nishikaichi with him to the neighbouring island Kauai, where he lived. In the meantime,
they kept the Japanese pilot under loose guard in a carriage awaiting the arrival. But the next day
Robinson did not arrive. Little did the Hawaiians know that after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
the United States had instituted a ban on all boat traffic between the islands.
At this time Robinson tried his best to persuade the Kaua’i Army District Commander, Lieutenant
Colonel Eugene Fitzgerald, to permit his weekly supply run to the island. However, Fitzgerald
didn’t budge and Robinson could not leave. Keeping the pilot near the village turned out to
be very disruptive since he continued to ask for his papers. He desperately wanted them destroyed.
After four days of waiting for Robinson to arrive, the islanders decided to move him
near the ranch of the Robinson family. Harada was also residing nearby, and thus, as his translator,
had easy access to the prisoner. Some reports state that it was actually Harada himself who
requested this change of venue, but this is not completely clear. At this point, however,
it does become clear that Harada is helping the pilot. He wanted Shintani, as a fellow Japanese,
to also become an accomplice. He tries to convince him to help as an interpreter and to
stay with the pilot. Shintani refuses, fearing the consequences of this treacherous collaboration.
But when they met again later that day Harada was able to convince Shintani to help, sending him
to Kaleohano with 200 dollars – an enormous amount of money for the Hawaiians - to bribe
him in giving back the pilot his papers. It is most likely that both the pilot and Harada
make him fear the invincibility of Japan and the severe consequences of treason against the Emperor
when Japan would rule the world. When Kaleohano refuses to give the papers to Shintani,
he starts to plead that Nishikaichi threatened to kill him and Kaleohano if he does not return
with the documents. At that moment Kaleohano snapped and is said to have told Shintani that
he would “rather die an honest American than as a disgraced traitor”. It became apparent to
Shintani that he would not get the papers. With Kaleohano now knowing he collaborated,
he fled the house and went into hiding. The battle
When it became apparent that Shintani might not return at all, the situation became tenser.
Harada now feared that Shintani had implicated him as a cohort of Nishikaichi. They needed a new
plan. Earlier Harada had stolen a revolver and shotgun from the Robinson ranch house.
Nishikaichi and Harada decided to attack the guard – a big three-hundred-pound guy named
Hanaike Nihue – who had no weapon to defend himself. Harada’s wife,
helping her husband, is said to have played music on a phonograph to cover up the sounds of a fight.
Their plot was successful: Hanaike Nihue now was their prisoner as they locked him up in a shed.
Both armed, they headed to Kaleohano’s house to retrieve the pilot’s papers.
While walking to the village, they came upon a carriage that was heading that way.
In the carriage sat Hanaike Nihue’s wife and six children. The two Japanese stopped the
carriage and ordered everyone at gunpoint to get out except Laika, Nihue’s cousin,
who was sitting on the horse driving the carriage. She became their second hostage.
Luckily, when they stopped to open the gate to the village, Laika was able to run away.
The two Japanese first approached the wrecked plane, where a young man named
Kalihihili Niau was standing guard. Having two guns, it was easy for them to take this young man
hostage and Nishikaichi forced him to show them the way to Kaleohano’s house where the papers
were supposed to be. In the meantime, however, Kaleohana was no longer at home. He had joined
Hanaike and the other Hawaiians who were preparing the distress signal fires on the cliffs. Since
Robinson’s arrival was now five days overdue, and the situation on the island became more critical,
it became clear something needed to be done. Kaleohana and the others decided to sail to
the neighbouring island to see what happened with Robinson and to get help. It would be a 14-hour
journey of rough-water rowing. Before the group left, Kaleohana hid the papers in a secure place.
And, well, at this point both Harada and Nishikaichi were unable to find the papers
in the house and had decided to dismantle the two machineguns on the aircraft.
They were able to capture two more villagers. One they tied to a carriage, the other they forced to
help with putting the machineguns along with the ammunition on the carriage. They rode into the
village, with their guns at the ready, and then they opened fire. While the villagers were hiding
in the bushes, down at the beach and in the caves the two Japanese took over the entire village.
They were calling for Kaleohana to surrender and give them the papers.
Their rampage through the village lasted for hours, well into the early morning of Saturday.
The two Japanese got more frustrated by the hour and at dawn they set fire to both the plane
and Kaleohano’s house. However, the fire they had set in the cockpit didn’t spread. Even that did
not work out for them. While one of their hostages had been able to run away from them, the other was
forced to go out in the village and get Kaleohano and the papers. This made him able to get away as
well. Now the Hawaiians had enough of the terror the two Japanese men had brought upon them. When
Nishikaichi and Harada had gone to find more tools to attach the machinegun to
the carriage better, a Hawaiian man named Ben Kanahele - a 6-foot sheep rancher notorious for
his strength – and the earlier released hostage, decided to steal the ammunition of the machinegun.
When Nishikaichi returned and found out the ammunition was missing, he was furious.
Now the deadliest and most confusing part of the story occurred. Both men were furious,
and unfortunately, they managed to capture Kanahele and his wife, Ella. Under the threat of
severe violence, they forced them to their house. There, the pilot threatened to kill everyone in
the village starting with the captured couple. What happened within the house isn’t completely
certain, but a scuffle took place between the strong Kanahele and Nishikaichi. Kanahele was shot
three times: in his stomach, groin and thigh. Yet after being shot, he still managed to pick up the
pilot like he was a sheep and he threw him against a stone wall. Ella subsequently beat him over the
head with a rock, and Kanahele finished the job by slitting his throat. Realising the consequences
of his actions, Harada took his own life with his own shotgun. It was a bit of an awkward situation,
since it took him two tries. And even after the second attempt he didn’t die instantly. Yet
within a few hours on that same spot both the pilot and Harada met their end.
The aftermath
Although I recounted one perspective on how Nishikaichi died, who actually killed him
has never become clear. Some accounts say it was actually Kanahele’s wife,
while other sources say the pilot died by the force of the blow against the wall. As
all this was transpiring the party that went out to seek Robinson managed to set up a rescue party.
The next day on December 14th Aylmer Robinson, the party of Ni’ihauans, and 13 men from the
299th Infantry Regiment arrived on the island. However, by then the peace and silence the island
was used to, had already returned. Both Harada’s wife and Shintani were then taken into custody.
Shintani was sent to an internment camp on the U.S. mainland throughout the war. He didn’t become
a naturalised U.S. citizen for twenty years. Harada’s wife not only lost her husband that day,
but also her freedom as she was imprisoned for 31 months. She was never charged with any crime and
in 1944 she returned home to Niihau. Ben Kanahele recovered from his wounds and was awarded two
presidential citations: The Medal of Merit and the Purple Heart. In the hometown of the young pilot
Shigenori Nishikaichi a stone column was erected in his honour. On the granite column stands the
engraving: “his meritorious deed will live forever”. The Niihau incident, or the battle
of Niihau as it was often called, was only a small episode that stood on the beginning of a long and
bloody war. But nevertheless it left a big impact. Thank you for watching this video. If there’s a
topic or event you’d like to know more about, let me know your thoughts in a comment.
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