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Battle Flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

     As we passed Kauai – glancing out my right side window – I discovered another, slender-shaped island.  Afterward, when I explored French Frigate Shoals’ history, I would learn the following concerning this island: 

     It lay 17.5 miles southwest of Kauai, was 18.6 miles in length and 6.2 miles in width.  It was also known as “The Forbidden Isle.”  This was because Elizabeth Sinclair purchased the island from the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1864; passing private ownership on to her descendants the Robinson family.  The island is generally off-limits to all, apart from relatives of the owners.  This is the Island of Niihau.

     So what’s the big deal about Niihau, no doubt you’re asking yourself, dear reader?  Did you know that during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy invaded Niihau; claiming it for the Emperor of Japan? 

Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7th Dec. 1941, by a Jap Zero.

     This is how it happened:

     A Japanese Pilot, while escorting bombers attacking Pearl Harbor in his Zero, was jumped by nine U.S. P-36As.  Being no match for the Zeros, all nine P-36As were shot down.   

The obsolete Curtiss P-36A. 

     Nevertheless, this particular Jap Pilot caught a round in his fuel tank; causing him to lose fuel at an excessive rate.

The Jap Zero shot up by the P-36As.

     Strangely, that single bullet would cause 120,000 Japanese-Americans to be rounded up by the U.S. Government, who confiscated their property, and imprisoned them at “Internment Camps” for the war’s duration; eighty thousands of them being legitimate U.S. Citizens.

     Realizing he couldn’t make it back to his carrier, the Jap Pilot crash-landed on Niihau.  The island’s isolation prevented word, on the Pearl Harbor attack, from reaching them as yet. So naturally the hospitable Hawaiians threw their crash-landed “guest” a luau.  Afterwards the Hawaiians learned of the attack, by radio broadcast, and incarcerated the Jap Pilot.  Who later escaped with the help of the single Japanese-American on the entire island.

The Japanese Naval Pilot, Shigenori Nishikaichi, who "invaded" Niihau.

     Five days after the attack, on the night of 12th December 1941, armed with a shotgun and pistol, the Jap Pilot and his Japanese-American ally stormed the town; taking the island in the name of the Emperor.

The Jap Pilot's Zero which he later set on fire; attempting to destroy it.

     Next day, one ginormous Hawaiian, Ben Kanahele, didn’t cotton to the idea of becoming an Imperial Japanese subject; so he rushed the Jap Pilot.  Who in turn pulled the pistol from his boot and shot Ben in the chest, hip and groin!  It didn’t even slow this enormous pineapple-head down; it only made him angrier!  Ben picked the little Nip Pilot up and slammed him head first against a lava-stone wall!  Ben’s wife, Ella, then grabbed a rock and began cracking open the Jap’s coconut, until Ben could get a knife and finish the fighter pilot off!

     As for the Japanese-American, he shoved the shotgun’s barrel in his gut, pulled the trigger, and committed seppuku.

     Thus an Hawaiian couple ended the Imperial Japanese Navy’s invasion of Niihau.

     Ben Kanahele recovered from his wounds and, in August 1945, was awarded the Medal of Merit and the Purple Heart.

Ben Kanahele receiving his citation and medals.

     Unfortunately this incident gave birth to Washington’s “Executive Order 9066,” rounding up all Japanese-Americans and dumping them into “Internment Camps.”

     The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was made up of volunteers from these Japanese-American Internment Camps.  

     Their famous unofficial motto was: “Go For Broke!”  And that’s exactly what they did, becoming the most highly decorated unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients.  

     In so doing they also achieved the highest number of casualties.

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