75 Years Ago -- Pearl Harbor

Seventy-five years ago today, bombs began falling on the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet moored at Pearl Harbor. I first visited Pearl in 1994. A ferryboat took us across the harbor to the Arizona Memorial, but we were not allowed to board. The wind has come up; the waves were too choppy. It was a crushing disappointment in what was supposed to be a highlight of my trip.

Four years later, I returned. Perfect weather allowed me to stand over the sunken battleship, where so many American sailors remain entombed. Drops of oil still leak from the Arizona's fuel tanks and rise to the surface. The Missouri arrived in Pearl Harbor that year. It did not open to visitors until the following year.

From the Visitors Center, looking across the harbor to the USS Missouri and Arizona Memorial, the beginning and the end of World War II for the United States.

 

So many men, gone. RIP Arizona

The First Shot of the War in the Pacific

The first shot of the war in the Pacific on December 7, 1941, may not have been fired at Pearl Harbor. A new book, Dawn of Infamy, traces the history of a lumber transport ship that may have been the first ship fired on by the Japanese. The Cynthia Olson was leased to the Army Transport Service to haul lumber to Hawaii for the military build-up in response to the threat of war with Japan.

A Japanese submarine spotted the freighter on December 6 and followed it, waiting to hear the attack on Pearl Harbor had begun before firing on it. Because the transport was unarmed, the Japanese commander made the humanitarian gesture of firing across its bow and allowing the 35 men to abandon ship into their lifeboats.

The men, mostly Scandinavian-born, naturalized Americans officers and Filipino merchant mariners, were never seen again.

The radio operator, Private Sam Ziskind, an enlisted army man, sent out a distress signal and communicated with a passenger liner, the Lurline, heading for the West Coast. The Lurline radio operator asked for their position and Ziskind responded, adding in a “steady hand” that they were being attacked by a surfaced sub. Their news was flashed to San Francisco and on to Washington, but the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor quickly eclipsed their ordeal. A Canadian coastal passenger liner requisitioned by the military did search for them, but found no trace of the ship, flotsam, or the two lifeboats.

It was a case of bad luck that the Cynthia Olson was found by the enemy. Nineteen other US-flagged ships were underway between the West Coast and Hawaii that day. Four were heavily laden troopships. Cynthia Olson made the least rewarding target. The ship, built by the Manitowoc Shipyard in Wisconsin, proved to be a rugged freighter that remained afloat for a few hours, despite having 40 rounds of high explosives fired on it.

Eleanor Roosevelt commented on the lumber ship in her regular Sunday evening radio address, and FDR made a veiled reference to it in his Day of Infamy address to congress. It received much coverage in the press, possibly because it occurred within three or four days steaming of the West Coast, but soon faded from attention and is today barely known.

Determining whether the Cynthia Olson was fired upon before bombs fell at Pearl Harbor is made difficult because of the variety of time zones. Besides Greenwich Mean Time, which the radio operators were to log their messages, the Japanese sub followed Japan’s time, the Lurline advanced its clock one half hour at midnight while underway, and Hawaii at the time was at the half hour when the mainland was on the hour.

Speculation on what happened to the crew settles on them being adrift until they starved or swamped. They are now counted among the more than 73,000 service personnel not recovered following World War II. The two soldiers, Private Ziskind and Private Davenport, the medic, are listed among service member killed at Pearl Harbor and memorialized at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl.

Hawaiian Island Seized Following Pearl Harbor Attack

One of the lesser known incidents of World War II occurred during the week of the Pearl Harbor attack on Sunday, December 7, 1941.

In their briefing before they attacked the American naval base, Japanese pilots were told to head for the westernmost Hawaiian Island, Niihau, if they had airplane trouble. A submarine assigned to rescue duty would pick them up.

Twenty-two year old Zero fighter pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi flew escort of a flight of bombers during the attack. During an aerial dogfight with a flight of obsolete Curtiss P-36A fighters, Nishikaichi’s gas tank was punctured. He wouldn’t make it make to his carrier, the Hiryu. Niihau lay 130 miles to the west. Along with another damaged Zero, he headed for the island.

When they reached the eighteen-mile-long, six-mile-wide island, they discovered Japanese intelligence was wrong. The island of Niihau, owned by the Robinson family since 1864, was home to 136 residents, mostly native Hawaiians whose primary language was Hawaiian.

Unsure what to do, they turned away. The other pilot suddenly dove into the sea. Nishikaichi headed back to the island and made a rough landing in a pasture near a lone house. The plane’s wheel hit a fence, causing the plane to nose in. His safety harness broke free and Nishikaichi slammed into the instrument panel.

The home’s occupant, Howard Kaleohano, pulled the pilot out of his plane, along with his gun and official-looking papers. He took him to his house, where his wife served him breakfast. Since Nishikaichi spoke limited English, the Kaleohanos summoned 60-year-old Ishimatsu Shintani, who was born in Japan but had lived in Hawaii for over forty years.

Shintani was reluctant to get involved. After a brief conversation with the pilot, he looked shocked and left without telling the Kaleohanos what was said.

Next they brought Yoshio and Irene Harada, Japanese Americans whom the Niihauans considered more Japanese than Hawaiian. Nishikaichi informed them of the attack on Pearl, but the Haradas did not relay that crucial information to their neighbors.

The rescue sub never came; it had been ordered to proceed toward Oahu in the early afternoon.

Niihau had no electricity or telephones. Unaware of the attack, the islanders held a luau for the pilot. That night, the islanders heard a report of the attack on a battery-operated radio.

The next morning, they took Nishikaichi to the dock where Aylmer Robinson was expected to arrive for his weekly visit. Unknown to them, in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, all boat traffic had been banned in the channel between Niihau and Kauai, where Robinson lived. Robinson didn’t come.

While they waited, Nishikaichi and Harada spoke privately. The pilot told Harada that Japan would surely win the war if Pearl’s lack of defense was any indication. He lured Harada into treason.

A stone column was erected in Shigenori Nishikaichi’s honor in his hometown in Japan. He died in battle over Oahu, claims the inscription. “His meritorious deed will live forever.”

By Thursday, they’d gotten Shintani involved. They sent him to the home of Howard Kaleohano to demand the return of Nishikaichi’s documents, which the pilot had been told should not fall into American possession. Kaleohano refused to return them.

Harada stole a pistol and a shotgun from the Robinson’s unused ranch house. He and the pilot overpowered the Niihauan guard assigned to watch Nishikaichi while Irene Harada played a phonograph record to drown any sounds of struggle.

Harada and Nishikaichi went to Kaleohano’s house for the papers. When they didn’t find him at home, they went to the crashed plane, apparently to try to use its radio. They forced the 16-year-old guarding the plane to accompany them back to Kaleohano’s house. This time they found him there. Harada fired at him, but missed. Kaleohano escaped, and warned the islanders before heading to the northern tip of the island to build a signal fire.

The overpowered guard escaped from the warehouse he’d been locked in, and added his own warning. The Niihauans scattered to remote parts of the island.

That night, Kaleohano and five other men rowed against the wind on a ten-hour journey to Kauai. With Kaleohano’s report, Aylmer Robinson was finally allowed to mount a rescue mission. It would arrive too late.

Meanwhile, Nishikaichi and Harada captured Kaahakila Kalima, whom Harada sent to inform his wife that he would not be returning home that night. Nishikaichi and Harada walked through the deserted village, firing their weapons and yelling for Kaleohano.

After delivering the message, Kalima had joined his wife and Ben and Ella Kanahele on the beach. When the men went back to the village looking for food, they were captured by the enemy duo. After searching Kaleohano’s house for Nishikaichi’s papers to no avail, they burned the house down. They forced Ben Kanahele, a powerful, six-foot, forty-nine-year-old, to find Kaleohano. Ben knew Howard had gone to Kauai, but pretended to search.

Nishikaichi threatened to murder all the islanders if Kaleohano wasn’t found. Ben demanded in Hawaiian that Harada take away Nishikaichi’s pistol. Harada refused, but asked the pilot for the shotgun.

By this time, Friday night, Nishikaichi was exhausted. As he handed the shotgun to Harada, Ben lunged for him. Nishikaichi managed to pull his pistol from his boot and shot Ben in the chest, groin, and hip. Undaunted, Ben grabbed him and threw him against a stone wall. Ella bashed his head with a rock. Ben then slit Nishikaichi’s throat with a knife.

Harada rammed the shotgun into his mouth and killed himself. The hostile takeover ended.

Ben Kanahehe recovered from his wounds and received the Medal of Merit and the Purple Heart. His wife received no official recognition. Ishimatsu Shintani spent the war years interned on the mainland. Irene Harada was imprisoned until late 1944.

Benehakaka (Ben) Kanahele holds his Medal of Merit and Purple Heart.

The actions of the three Japanese Hawaiians, according to a Navy report in January, 1942, indicated “the likelihood that Japanese residents previously believed loyal to the United States may aid Japan.” There’s a good chance the Niihau incident helped persuade the government to intern over 100,000 people with Japanese ancestry away from the West Coast.

For further reading:

The Niihau Incident: The True Story of the Japanese Fighter Pilot Who, After the Pearl Harbor Attack, Crash-Landed on the Hawaiian Island of Niihau and Terrorized the Residents  by Allan Beekman