The Niihau Incident

on december 7th 1941 japanese pilot shigenori nishikaichi was flying his mitsubishi zero over the pacific ocean [Music] the 22 year old was escorting the bomber jets at the second wave of attack on pearl harbor which targeted the army air base of bellows field on the way back to the aircraft carrier japanese group was met by a squadron of american p-36 hawks although the mitsubishi gyros were a far superior aircraft they no longer had the element of surprise on their side yushikaichi 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 yishikai 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 [Music] nihao is the westernmost and second smallest of the main hawaiian islands it has been privately owned by the robinson family since 1864. [Music] during world war ii the owner was elmer robinson a harvard university graduate who was fluent in hawaiian he ran the island without direct interference from the government although he lived on the neighboring island of kauai he made weekly visits by boat to niihau the place was only accessible with robinson's permission which was rarely given to anyone except his close friends or family [Music] in 1941 niihau 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 their carriers [Music] therefore the pilots needed a rendezvous point where they could be rescued by a submarine [Music] they designated in the ihow 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 a6m20 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 [Music] panel the japanese pilot crash landed on the island of niihau in a field near where native hawaiian howard kaliohana was standing born in 1912 and educated on the big island of hawaii kaleohano first traveled to the iho 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 kleohana was unaware of the pearl harbor attack but knew that the relationship between japan and the us had been bad for a few years when he recognized nishikaichi's plane as japanese he seized the day's pilot's firearm and personal documents before he could attack when the japanese soldier awoke ishikaichi 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 [Music] it became apparent that nisi kaichi and kelly ohana 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 raised a family there still citizenship grants at the time weren't given to immigrants in hawaiian 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 [Music] kaleohano needed to find somebody willing to help so he called the other two niha residents of japanese ancestry hawaiian-born nisei yushiya harada and his wife irene hirada 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 sellout that would cost them and the nation significantly [Music] 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 [Music] however the submarines never arrived the ihow did not have electricity but when night fell a transmission bought by a battery-powered radio informed them of the terrible attack the islanders realized that an enemy fighter had crashed on their land elmer 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 the situation put harada in a difficult situation torn between his american citizenship and his japanese heritage [Music] 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 key landing near the northern tip of the island where robinson made his weekly inspection visit [Music] after robinson failed to appear on december 8th because of newly imposed wartime restrictions hindering boat traffic from neihau and kauai the haradas offered to house nishikaichi without robinson they would be on their own the nihowins 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 nishikaichi tried to earn their loyalty he gradually won over yoshio and after some reluctance his wife irene they both agreed to help him on december 11th the haradas led 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 gunned back but howard refused the harados realized shintani wasn't going to be of much help they were determined to proceed with nusi kaichi's new plan death with honor prevalent amongst japanese soldiers [Music] that same morning mr harada stole a shotgun and a pistol from the robinson family's ranch house as the island 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 pleojano who had been hiding tried to run away ishikaichi 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 led a torch at the top of mount paniao visible all the way from kauai [Music] 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 behind it 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 kanehele whose wife was one of the hostages after stalling for several hours pretending to look for kaleohano then pleaded with harada to take the pilot's gun as the pilot handed it over and kanehele jumped at him but nishikaichi was fast and shot him three times the enraged kanahele threw the pistol against a stone wall at the same time mrs kanehele 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 [Music] 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 niihau island robinson and the military reinforcements from kawaii arrived the next day and arrested shintani and the grieving mrs harada for his part in the nihao incident ishimachu sentani was taken into custody and interned on the mainland for the rest of the war he blamed japan for his actions after the post-war repeal of racial barriers to immigration he eventually became a naturalized american citizen in 1960 irene herrera 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 niihau ben kanahelia recovered from his injuries and was later awarded the purple heart and medal from merit the actions of an the hounds 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 on pearl harbor there's no doubt that the niho incident influenced president franklin d roosevelt administration it promptly relocated more than a hundred thousand people of japanese ancestry from the west coast to incarcerate them in the continental us [Music] you

Channel: Dark Docs

Views: 624,324

Rating: 4.8753157 out of 5

Keywords: ww2, wwii, hawaii, japan, pearl harbor, documentary, world war 2, world war ii, history channel, history documentary, Niihau, short documentary, ww2 documentary, wwii documentary, summary, analysis, navy, military, military history, military documentary, dark docs, dark skies, dark footage

Id: ZIpaMR9Jdtc

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020