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Today in History, The Road To Victory Begins!
I found this in a guide book while on vacation in Hawaii, and today it might be of interest to rantburgers.The Battle Of Niihau Sunday, December 7, 1941, was like any other Sunday on Niihau (Nee-ee-hau), the oldest and farthest northwest of the major Hawaiian islands. Niihau had no radios then. Even if they had had them, the English-language broadcasts from Oahu would have been meaningless to most Niihauans, who spoke Hawaiian, not English. Niihau's owners the Robinsons, made weekly visits by sampan from Kauai. It was Niihau's only connection with the outside world. And after the Japanese attack, the Army forbade the weekly sampan visit -- all of which was unknown to the isolated Niihauans. One Japanese plane, damaged and unable to return to its carrier, landed in a plowed field on Niihau. The pilot gave his papers to a Niihauan, Hawila Kaleohano --in effect surrendering. And then it seemed, there was nothing else to do except to wait for the sampan to come. A week passed. No sampan. No news. The pilot went on the offensive. There were two other Japanese people on Niihau. The pilot appealed to their patriotism, sure that they would help him. One refused, the other, Yoshio Harada, agreed and helped the pilot take the machine guns from the crippled plane so the guns could be used to control the island. But he never got to use the guns because Benehakaka ("Benny") Kanahele stole the guns' ammunition, rendering them useless. Now the pilot wanted his papers back, but Hawila Kaleohano had disappeared with them. So the pilot burned down his house, took Benny Kanahele and his wife hostage, and sent Benny to look for Hawila. When Benny returned without Hawila, the pilot tried to shoot Benny and his wife. Benny, then fifty-one, jumped the pilot, taking three bullets in the stomach as he seized the pilot and dashed his brains out against a stone wall. Yoshio Harada shot himself. The Battle of Niihau was over. The indestructible Benny Kanahele became one of Hawaii's heroes. Many years later, our friend Dan Masaki, then a kid, worked in a grocery store with Benny. He remembers Benny as a cheerful, hardworking, massive man with a huge bald head and huge hands. Benny would say of the Battle Of Niihau, "When he shot me the second time, I got really angry!" And then he got even. From: Oahu Trails, by Kathy Morey Posted by: bruce 2007-12-07 |
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