Niihau Incident : When a Japanese Pilot After Pearl Harbor Attack Crash-Landed on a Hawaiian Island (ePub)

On December 7th, 1941, Ni'ihau faced the most unexpected event. Among the 137 islands in Hawaii, Ni'ihau was known as the forbidden, which was owned by the Robinson family. The military forces enlisted for the Pearl Harbour attack chose Ni'ihau since they believed that the island was uninhabited. Shigenori Nishikaichi was flying over the Pacific Ocean in his A6M2 Zero. The 22-year-old was accompanying the bomber planes of the second wave of the Pearl Harbour attack, which targeted the Army airfield of Bellows Field. He used his 20mm cannon and 7.7 machine guns for this. The USS Arizona was sunk. The Japanese detachment was caught by a squadron of American P-36 Hawks on their way back to the aircraft ship.However, the Japanese pilot crash landed due to the damaged fuel tank as a part of the attack. Hawila Kaleohano, discovering the Japanese plane, collected the documents from the plane and saved the pilot. As he was not very proficient in English, three of the Japanese residing there were approached. The natives were unaware of what was happening between the countries and the three Japanese people hid what they knew from the pilot. They devised a scheme to save the pilot. It all culminated in a major onslaught. Shintani and the Harada couple suffered after trying to execute their plan. Eventually, Nishikaichi was killed by Ben and his wife. Read the story of attack and betrayal.