Incident At Niihau

History is the remembered and recorded account of what has happened in the past. What if that record is wrong or incomplete?

Unfortunately, it frequently happens.

Sometimes, things get left out of the history books, those things help explain to the modern world what really happened and why.

My field is history and my area of emphasis was World War II. World War II still fascinates me. That is why I am here, but for WWII, my mother and father would never have met.

I recently learned of something that helps explain a fact of WW II that most people, including myself, have been unaware.

Why did President Roosevelt intern Japanese-Americans during the first months of WWII? Was it revenge for Pearl Harbor or just racism?

Actually, there was an incident (well known at the time) that now is omitted from most discussions of the internment of Japanese-Americans ... The Incident at Niihau.


Niihau is the smallest of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands, located southwest of Kauai and privately owned. It is also called the Forbidden Isle since there is limited access for tourists only through special tourist programs. For many years the island operated as a ranch with local inhabitants working for the Robinson family who bought the island in 1864.

Prior to the beginning of World War II and based on a recommendation by an army officer, the Robinson's deeply plowed the land and had placed rock piles strategically so as to prevent aircraft from being safely landed.

However, the Japanese believed Niihau to be uninhabited and had designated the island as an emergency landing area for any stricken aircraft in its preparations for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Airman 1st Class Shigenori Nishikaichi and his Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter were in trouble on the morning of December 7, 1941, having been hit in a brief fight with a few US P-36A fighters.

He decided to land on Niihau and be picked up by rescue submarines. He had a hard landing which was witnessed by native Hawaiian Howard Kaleohano, one of the few islanders who spoke English. Since Niihau was so isolated, word of Pearl Harbor had not yet reached them.

Kaleohano took the pilot's side arm and official looking papers from him and invited him to breakfast. The pilot spoke almost no English so Kaleohano brought in Japanese-born Ishimatsu Shintani, one of the three adults of Japanese heritage living on the island.

Shintani spoke to the pilot in Japanese but didn't relay any useful information to Kaleohano. While not a US citizen himself, he did have children born in Hawaii who were, by virtue of their birth, US citizens.

Kaleohano then called in the Haradas, a husband and wife. Mr. Harada had been born in Hawaii and was, therefore, a US citizen. They spoke with the pilot and learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nishikaichi demanded the return of his side arm and the papers taken from him. The Haradas chose not to inform Kaleohano of what they had just learned.

The goodhearted Hawaiians treated Nishikaichi to a luau. However, later that evening, upon hearing what had happened at Pearl Harbor on an old battery powered radio, they took the pilot into custody and questioned him again. Mr. Harada now accurately reported what the pilot had told him.

It's important to realize that at this time, no member of the Robinson family was living on the island. The current head family member, Aylmer Robinson, lived on Kauai ... coming over by boat every Monday to check on the islanders.

The next morning, the Hawaiians took the pilot by tractor to Kii Landing, near the northern tip of the island. This is where Mr. Robinson's boat would dock when he came over from Kauai. However, Mr. Robinson was prevented from leaving Kauai by new wartime restrictions. There was no way to directly contact the islanders.

While they waited, the pilot began to work on Mr. Harada's loyalties, using Japan's easy victory at Pearl Harbor to convince him that they were bound to win the war.

By December 11, 1941, Mr. Harada had decided to take action to help Nishikaichi. He stole some weapons stored on the island and managed to lure the Hawaiian guard away from the pilot and lock the guard up.

Then Harada and Nishikaichi went to Kaleohano's house. Unable to locate him there, they then went to the crashed plane where the pilot tried to operate the smashed radio. Kaleohano had been hiding in his outhouse. As he was fleeing, Harada and the pilot returned to the house, ... Harada shot at Kaleohano but missed.

Kaleohano went to the village to warn the residents and then, after hiding the papers that he had taken from the pilot, hurried to the northern tip of the island to light an emergency signal fire. The guard, who had been locked up by Harada, had by then managed to free himself and he too rushed to the village to warn the islanders, most of who then fled to remote parts of the island.

By the time Kaleohano got to the northern tip of the island, a signal fire had already been set by other islanders. Deciding that they needed to take stronger action, Kaleohano and five other men decided to row for Kauai across the treacherous crossing between the islands. Upon reaching Kauai, they were able to contact Robinson who had been desperately trying to reach the island. Based on the information relayed, the military commanders agreed to launch a rescue mission to Niihau.

Back on the island, Harada and Nishikaichi had managed to recapture the guard and one other villager. They also returned to the plane and took the machine gun and ammunition; unsuccessfully attempting to burn the plane as well. They marched though the village firing their weapons and calling on Kaleohano to come out, unaware that he had left the island.

Ben Kanahele and his wife were taken prisoner when they returned to the village for food. Kanahele, 49, was a 6-foot native Hawaiian known for his strength. Harada and Nishikaichi demanded that Ben search for Kaleohano. Kanahele knew that Kaleohano had left for Kauai, but pretended to look for him.

A well armed Nishikaichi was now holding the shotgun, with the pistol stuck in his boot, and threatened to shoot Kanahele and all the other islanders if he did not produce Kaleohano. Ben Kanahele, speaking in Hawaiian to Harada, demanded that he take away the pilot's pistol. Harada refused, but he requested the shotgun from the pilot.

As the pilot handed over the shotgun to Harada, Kanahele and his wife lunged at him. However, Nishikaichi was too quick for them, shooting Kanahele three times! Kanahele still managed to grab the pilot and with his great strength threw him into a stone wall. Mrs. Kanahele grabbed a rock and began to bash the pilot's head. Kanehele was able to draw a knife and slit the pilot's throat ... Harada then used the shotgun on himself.

All was over by the time the military rescue party arrived the next morning ... or was it?

Ben Kanahele fortunately recovered from his wounds and was awarded the Medal of Merit and the Purple Heart.

Although not an active participant in the worst of the incident, Shintani was taken into custody and interned on the U.S. mainland ... becoming a naturalized American citizen in 1960.

Mrs. Harada, labeled as a Japanese spy, was jailed on Kauai on December 15, 1941. Later she was transferred to a military prison on Oahu ... released in late 1944, she then returned to Niihau where she lived for the rest of her life.

A January 1942 Navy report used the actions of Shintani and the Haradas as indications of the 'likelihood' that Japanese residents previously believed loyal to the United States may aid Japan. This incident along with the war hysteria did influence Franklin Roosevelt to remove more than 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and intern them in the U.S. interior.

While, there are a number of programs and books relating to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, rarely is there now mention of the Niihau incident.

In today's environment, our government's actions and resultant internment of Japanese Americans would have been labeled as racist by civil rights advocates and declared unconstitutional by our highest court. I'm not sure that the government should have taken the Niihau incident as far as they did ... nor am I sure ...

Was it fair to take away the homes, businesses and lives of so many people just because they were of Japanese ancestry? No, it wasn't.

Well, almost 70 years after the fact and knowing what happened, it may appear that the President overreacted ...

However, remember, you are living in December 1941 and there are only 4 aircraft carriers standing between you and a Japanese landing along the West Coast.

You don't know if there is another surprise task force steaming toward San Francisco as you try to make the best decisions you can make.

No, you're not FDR, and maybe you would have made a different decision ... decisions had to be made ... FDR made his ... Niihau played an important role ... Eleanor didn't agree with the decision that he reached concerning Japanese Internment ... Do you?

TOGGLE Barber's POLL to OPEN and CLOSE

The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor certainly caught everyone by surprise, but it wasn't entirely unexpected ... "ATTACK WILL BE LAUNCHED AS FOLLOWS: BOMBARDMENT, ATTACK TO BE MADE ON FORD ISLAND AT 7:30 AM"

So said Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell in his report to the War Department, dated July, 1924.

The Robinson family certainly seemed omniscient to have so deeply plowed their land and strategically placed rocks for years just in case their land was used in a military attack in the Pacific. Who was the military officer who got them to take the action they took?

He has been recently identified as Colonel Gerald C. Brant ... advising them in 1933 that the Japanese would use Niihau as a forward air base to launch a full-scale invasion of the Territory of Hawaii.

An ex-cavalry officer turned aviator, Brant was an associate of Billy Mitchell and had testified on his behalf in the famous 1925 court marshal that found Mitchell guilty of insubordination, ... Douglas MacArthur's being the lone dissenting vote.

Makes one wonder if Billy Mitchell was somehow involved, but the surviving Robinsons believe that it was Brant who convinced their ancestors to dig up the island, first by mule and plow and later by tractor, for nearly eight years ... completing the task in the summer of 1941, a few months before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Brant eventually rose to the rank of major general, retiring in 1948 ... Mitchell did not live to see his prediction realized, dying in 1936. Well, almost realized ... the attack came at 7:10 AM!


On December 7, 2006, 65 years after the Day of Infamy, the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island opened its doors to the public.

The museum is housed in several 1930s-vintage, bullet-ridden hangars in the shadow of the famed red-and-white tower.

Exhibits include a fully restored Mitsubishi-designed Zero A6M2-21, built under license by Nakajima, the same type of fighter that attacked Pearl Harbor. The displayed plane was actually based in the Solomon Islands, where it flew against American fighter squadrons, including the “Jolly Rogers,” the “Black Sheep,” and the Cactus Air Force of Guadalcanal.

It has been reconfigured and remarked to depict the "Niihau" plane that was flown on December 7 by Shigenori Nishikaichi .

The museum's “Niihau Exhibit” includes the actual tractor that dug the defensive furrows, along with the airframe skeletal remains of Nishikaichi’s Zero, only recently unearthed and recovered by the museum from the island of Niihau.

Also on display is the exact 1942 Stearman Biplane former President George H. W. Bush used to first solo as an 18-year-old naval aviation candidate. Hanging from the rafters is a Aeronca 65TC – a two-place, tandem-seat civilian trainer that was in the air and took enemy fire during the attack on Pearl Harbor.