Niihau Island - "Forbidden Island" of the Hawaiian archipelago (USA). Forbidden Islands Niihau and Kahoolawe News of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Basic moments

Niihau is called the "Forbidden Island". Since 1864, it has been privately owned by the Robinson family, and for a long time it was possible to get here only by invitation. It is curious that these restrictions even extended to relatives of the native islanders.

Since 1987 the situation has changed. Now, expensive safari tours and helicopter trips are carried out on Niihau. Helicopter tours are designed for half a day. During them, tourists are transported over the island, told about its history and landed on one of the beaches. Here travelers relax and swim in clear waters Pacific Ocean. On the coast, you can watch flocks of colorful tropical fish and disappearing monk seals.

Safari tours are carried out for those who are not indifferent to hunting. Tourists are offered to hunt maned boars, wild sheep, antelopes - oryx and eland living on the island of Niihau. The islanders sell beautiful necklaces and shell crafts to all guests.

Geographic features, climate and nature

Niihau Island is the seventh largest island in Hawaii. It was formed about 4.9 million years ago. The landmass is 30 km long and 10 km wide. Himself high point top is considered extinct volcano, rising to 381 meters above sea level. Near Niihau, 1.1 km to the north, is the small uninhabited island of Lehua.

Lake Halulu is located on Niihau - the only freshwater body of water Hawaiian archipelago. Its water supply is replenished by rain.

The island does not high mountains, which are able to stop the movement of rainy trade wind clouds, so droughts often occur here. When this happens, the few inhabitants of Niihau leave their homes. They move to other islands in the archipelago and live there until the weather changes.

Near freshwater lake Hawaiian ducks and stilts live. In addition, many other birds live on Niihau, some of which are endangered and rare species. In this regard, the United States has endowed the island with the status of a seabird sanctuary.

Population

By nationality, the islanders are Hawaiians. They communicate in a language that is slightly different from literary Hawaiian, so it can be said that the inhabitants of the island of Niihau speak their own dialect. Some of them speak English quite well as a second language.

All the islanders live in a single village - Puuvai. Some residents receive benefits, while others earn by catching mullet, raising cattle, farming and serving tourists. The main means of transportation is horses. Many use solar panels and have televisions. But their operation is difficult, because the island of Niihau is in the zone of poor coverage of the television signal.

For drinking, washing and irrigating the fields, the islanders use rainwater. All necessary goods are delivered here by ships from the island of Kauai. The island has a permanent school with a 12-year cycle of study, the number of students in which ranges from 25 to 50 people.

military incident

The life of the people living on Niihau is very far from the events taking place in the world. The only case when they took part in hostilities, remained in the history of World War II as the "Ni'ihau incident".

Although the island was permanently inhabited by Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians, Japanese generals considered it uninhabited. When developing plans for the bombing of the American base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese command decided that Niihau could be useful as an alternate airfield. The pilots were ordered to land heavily damaged aircraft on the island, and the pilots were to be taken from Niihau by a submarine.

On December 7, 1941, a Japanese military plane landed here. The islanders received the pilot of the plane with respect, since he, not knowing the Hawaiian language, could not explain to them who he was and where he came from. When everything turned out, the Japanese pilot was killed. At the same time, a resident of Niihau, who took part in the shootout, was wounded and later received an award.

How to get there

Niihau Island is located 28 km southwest of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Tourists fly to Kauai by plane, and from there to Nihau they sail across the sea by ship.

About the Hawaiian Islands, I know no more than you - Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, volcanoes: Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Kilauea, and something else on the little things. It turned out that there is one very interesting island in the Hawaiian archipelago - Niihau. I found out about him quite by accident, after reading the material about the Japanese military pilots during the attack on the United States.
It turns out that the island has been a private property for many decades. Owned by the Robinson family. The area of ​​the island is 179.9 sq. km. The island is about 30 km long and about 10 km wide; its maximum height above sea level is 381 m. It is the seventh largest island in the archipelago.
In 1863, King Kamehameha IV sold the island for $10,000 to Elizabeth Sinclair Robinson. She hails from Scotland. This energetic captain's widow successfully raised sheep. After the death of her husband, Elizabeth loaded everything she had on the sailboat "Betsy": children, grandchildren, sheep and goats, as well as a piano - a memory of her parents! - and a chest with gold coins. Mrs. Sinclair took the helm of the sailboat and set off on her journey. From cold Scotland she headed for the distant warm seas Oceania. First, "Betsy" anchored off the coast of New Zealand, but Mrs. Sinclair decided to overcome the entire Pacific Ocean. In 1863, the Betsy arrived in Honolulu. The widow of the captain liked the Hawaiian Islands at first sight. In turn, she immediately endeared herself to the then ruler of the archipelago. Deep mutual sympathy formed the basis of the sale of Niihau. Moreover, the king offered her the southern coast of Oahu, including the port areas of Honolulu and Waikiki, in addition. However, for this vast territory, the ruler, despite his sympathy for the Scottish woman, demanded fifty thousand dollars. But, the price seemed too high to Mrs. Sinclair, and the deal did not take place.
The island is a closed territory and only representatives of the US administration, the Ministry of Defense and Health can visit it. Even the governor of the Hawaiian Islands cannot visit the island without the permission of the owners!
Only those born on it can live on the island. Population in this moment is 250 people who cannot leave the island without the permission of the owners, again. Movement is allowed either on foot or by bicycle. fresh water is obtained by harvesting rainwater, and electricity - from solar panels.
Recently, safari tours have been organized on the island. True, the latter are not cheap - $ 1,750 per hunter, $ 500-1,300 for everyone else.
The US government offered to buy the island for 1 billion (!) dollars, but the current owners refused this offer.

Niihau… Forbidden Hawaiian Island… Or Silent… second name… The smallest of inhabited islands Hawaiian archipelago. Niihau is one of the main eight Hawaiian islands belonging to the southeast.
This wonderful island is available for visiting only to native Hawaiians (relatives of those living on this island) or personal guests of the Robinson family.
On this island, you can only move by bicycle or on foot. Its area is almost 180 km2.
This forbidden island is home to Hawaii's only lake, Halulu.
Only 250 indigenous people who speak exclusively Hawaiian among themselves (moreover, their way of life has not changed significantly over the past century)
There are no shops, no restaurants, no paved roads, no electricity, no medical care on the island, the only thing is = a harbor, a small school and bamboo huts.
Niihau is the driest island in the Hawaiian Islands. This is the only island where the Lei flower does not grow (remember, in the films, Hawaiian beauties always meet tourists wearing necklaces of these flowers?)
And, if a guest arrives on the island (strictly at the invitation of the inhabitants of the island or members of the Robinson family), then he is met with a shell Ley (made from special shells that can only be found on the beaches of this island), and since these are very rare shells, then collectors willing to pay thousands of dollars for these shell flowers.
The only job available on the island is at the Robinson family's ranch (raising cattle).
The residents themselves are actively engaged in agriculture, fishing and hunting (moreover, they use only nets, spears, knives and ropes)

By the way, in principle, you can sail to the island by boat from the neighboring island of Kauai, but you won’t be able to moor, and even more so, go ashore.
You can only admire the bewitching views, you can also swim with a mask, but it is strictly forbidden to go ashore (((
Do you know how much a woman named Elizabeth Sinclair, who lives on the neighboring island of Kauai in 1863, bought this wonderful island at one time? For 10 000 dollars!!! It was for this amount that King Kamehameha IV sold him
Now, her heirs, the Robinson family, own this tiny island of paradise and are trying to preserve the primitive Hawaiian culture on it.
And, as I read in one of the magazines, an almost slave-owning system flourishes there:
Mr. Robinson was a peculiar kind. He bought all the land on the island in order to keep this tropical paradise for himself and his family. In addition to animal husbandry, he was not interested in anything. He wouldn't let Niihau have a telephone, and he didn't want to hear about the radio. In addition, he did not allow weapons to be brought to Niihau. As a result, he remained there the sole owner of a hunting rifle and two pistols.
There have never been strangers on Niihau. Tourists were not allowed on the island. Only once a week a boat came from Kauai, the nearest major island Hawaiian archipelago. She delivered groceries and left mail and newspapers.
Today, three representatives of the Robinson family live on the island: the ruler and owner of all things Helen and her two sons - Bruce and Kate, obedient executors of the mother's will. In addition to them, 250 Hawaiians live here.
Of these, only two people enjoy relative freedom and independence. These are teachers from a tiny local school who teach children to read, write and count.
They cannot give great knowledge - there is no corresponding qualification. All other residents are in the position of the Robinsons ... no, not friendly assistants of Fridays, but disenfranchised servants - maybe even slaves. Someone takes care of the cattle; others take care of the fuel for the Robinson house; still others provide the family of rulers with fresh honey from wild bees all year round; the fourth collect the largest and most beautiful shells on the coast; the fifth make necklaces from them, which the owner's sons Bruce and Kate personally sell to tourists at the market in the capital of Hawaii, Honolulu; sixth, seventh...
In a word, Lady Robinson "took care" of all her subjects and found a useful - for her own family - occupation for everyone. Maybe the islanders are allowed to leave Niihau? No. This is "illegal". For every more or less important business, either the mistress herself or her children go to the neighboring islands. It only happens - but extremely rarely - that one of the subjects is sent to Honolulu on an errand. In this case, he is obliged to return and report on the execution. And God forbid, if in the capital he tells about the conditions of life and the order prevailing on Niihau: the violator of the ban will face severe punishment. Therefore, in Hawaii, Niihau is also known under a different name: "the island of the Silent."
By the way, when the governor of the Hawaiian Islands decided to visit the island, the Robinsons refused him a visa and he could not do it!!! Also, journalists repeatedly tried to penetrate the island. And, the maximum that they managed to do was to hold out there for one day, and then they were always opened and sent to Kauai ...
Yes! In addition to the Hawaiians, two Japanese lived on the island. One of them looked after the apiary of the Robinson family.
The Robinsons took care of the adoption of Christianity on the island
One day, a defective Japanese military plane landed on the island. And the inhabitants of the island took the pilot prisoner. (this was during the attack on Pearl Harbor) The pilot informed the inhabitants of the island that their land now belongs to the Japanese (((Of course, he was bluffing!
By the way, every evening we met the sunset, seeing off the sun. Moreover, one could always see people who turned their faces to the ocean and carefully watched the luminary entering the water. Usually, I got bored with this activity for the second week, and I tried to return to regular activities, to which they began to shush me and say that I should definitely try to see a green flush.
I still couldn’t understand what it is, what all the inhabitants are fascinated waiting for every evening. Only once I managed to contemplate this miracle. It lasted only a moment. As I later found out on the Internet, this phenomenon is called the "green beam". At some point, when the sun goes completely into the ocean, you can see a beam of green light, as if emerging from the waves. I will not go into details of the origin of this miracle, I will only say that this phenomenon occurs for the same reasons as the rainbow, due to the dispersion of light. At such times there should be no clouds in the sky. The flash itself occurs at lightning speed and can be seen only if you carefully observe the sun.
I did not succeed in photographing this miracle of nature, no matter how hard I tried (((
Well, how do you, dear Gossips?! Socialism, slavery or something else reigns on this paradise island?! Robins...Robinson...Robinsons are all about the same people. Various sources. Photos are not mine. My husband and I decided to definitely go to Hawaii in the summer and try to take pictures of this island, at least "outside". So, it is very possible that the end of this topic is not set ... Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Good luck to you all!!!

background

The Japanese command mistakenly considered the island of Niihau, located near Pearl Harbor, to be uninhabited and identified it as the place where pilots of aircraft seriously damaged during the attack would have to fly. The pilots were told that a submarine would then take them off the island.

In reality, Niihau has been privately owned since 1864 and belonged to the Robinson family. One of them, who lived on a neighboring island but regularly visited his property, still ruled Niihau in 1941, making decisions about who was allowed on the island and who was not. It was permanently inhabited by Hawaiians, as well as a small number of non-Hawaiians, including three Japanese, all of whom would be implicated in the incident.

Incident

Emergency landing

Shigenori Nichekaichi

On December 7, 1941, Japanese pilot Shigenori Nichekaichi (c. 1919 - December 13, 1941), who had taken part in the second wave of the Pearl Harbor raid and whose Mitsubishi A6M Zero had been damaged, directed him to Niihau. During an emergency landing, the aircraft was damaged additionally. Near the landing site was a local resident - Hawaiian Kaleohano. He did not know about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but from the newspapers he was aware of the deterioration in relations between the United States and Japan. Caleojano took the gun and papers from the pilot. At the same time, he and other Hawaiians treated Nichekaichi with respect and showed him traditional Hawaiian hospitality by throwing a party in honor of the downed pilot.

However, they could not understand him, as Shigenori only spoke Japanese, with very limited knowledge of English. So they sent for Ishimatsu Shintani (he was issei, that is, a first-generation immigrant born in Japan), a man of Japanese descent, married to a Hawaiian, to become an interpreter between them. Shintani, however, was unenthusiastic about the task and, after exchanging only a few phrases with the pilot, left without explaining anything. Then the Hawaiians sent for two other inhabitants of the island of Japanese origin (in fact, there were three of them in total) - Yoshio and Iren Harada (both Nisei, that is, second-generation emigrants born outside of Japan, in the country of arrival).

Nichekaichi informed Harada of the attack on Pearl Harbor, knowledge they chose not to share with the non-Japanese-speaking Hawaiians. He also demanded the return of his papers, which, as the pilots had been instructed before the mission, were not to fall into the hands of the Americans. However, Kaleohano refused to hand over the documents. The Harada family decided to help Nichekaichi get them back and escape.

News of the attack on Pearl Harbor

There was no electricity or telephone on Niihau. However, the islanders learned about the Japanese attack on the American fleet by listening to the battery-powered radio. They turned to Nichekaichi, and this time the Haradas were forced to translate his words about the attack. It was decided that the Japanese pilot would leave Niihau when the owner of the island, Aylmer Robinson, visited him on his next weekly visit, but for now he would remain under guard and live in Harada's house.

However, Robinson, usually punctual and reliable, did not arrive on a normal day and the next - the American authorities banned the movement between the islands by boat immediately after the attack, which the inhabitants of Niihau, isolated from the outside world, could not know about. This caused concern among the islanders. Meanwhile, the island's inhabitants of Japanese origin colluded with Nichekaichi.

They sent Cintani to buy the pilot's papers from Kaleohano. However, despite the offer of a large sum by the standards of the islanders, he refused. At the same time, Irene Harada turned up the music and her husband and the pilot attacked the guard. Armed and taking a hostage, they went to the house of Caleohano. He, however, was able to hide and escape when the conspirators were distracted by Nishikaichi's plane, from which one of the machine guns was removed. Kaleohano was shot at, but he was able to warn local residents in the village so they can hide.

Night Escape Kaleohano

Under the cover of darkness, Caleohano returned to his house, took out the hidden papers and handed them over to a relative for safekeeping. Then he, along with other Hawaiians in a small boat, rowed for many hours towards Kawai Island to warn Robinson of the incident. He already knew that something had happened on Niihau, as the islanders were signaling with kerosene and fires. Robinson asked the authorities to let him go to the island, but they remained adamant.

At this time, on Niihau, the Japanese pilot, with the help of Harada and one of the Hawaiian hostages, removed one of the machine guns from the plane and made some manipulations with it. He also attempted to contact the Japanese forces using the aircraft's radio, but was unsuccessful. They then burned Caleohano's house in a final attempt to destroy documents that might have been hidden inside, including radio codes, maps, and the plan to attack Pearl Harbor.

denouement

During the night, the hostage Hawaiians, men and women, were able to attack Nichekaichi and Harada. The first was disarmed and killed, the second committed suicide by shooting himself. Killed by Nichekaichi Ben Kanahele and his wife. Ben received state awards after an incident in which he himself was injured

In the middle of the day on December 14, the Hawaiians, Robinson, and government officials who had sailed earlier for help landed on the island.

Consequences

Widowed Irene Harada and Ishimatsu Shintani were taken into custody. The first of them was sent to an internment camp, and then returned to the island and by 1960 received American citizenship.

Irene was imprisoned for 31 months and was released in June . She was not convicted of treason or other crimes committed on the island, and insisted on her innocence, but in a 1992 interview she confirmed her desire to help the pilot. She moved to the island of Kauai, where the woman was once visited by a Japanese officer who became an American evangelist after the war. .

The rusty wreckage of Zero in the museum

Impact on public opinion

Historian Gordon Prange noted that the help of Japanese-born residents to the Japanese pilot undermined the confidence of the Hawaiians in all the Japanese who lived on the islands.

Novelist William Hallstead believes that the incident contributed to the internment of Japanese living in the United States.

Memorialization, museumification and controversy surrounding the incident

The Japanese coastal city of Hashihama commemorated Nichekaichi, who hailed from there, with a 12-foot granite cenotaph. This happened at a time when the circumstances of his death were not known and he was believed to have died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The pilot's family found out the truth about his family and received the remains only in 1956.

The remains of Nichekaichi's plane and the tractor that he used to move around the island are in the museum. There is controversy as to whether the exposition should be about the role of the Harada family in the story.

Notes

Literature

• Beekman, Allan. The Niihau Incident. - Honolulu, HI: Heritage Press of Pacific, 1998. - ISBN 0-9609132-0-3.
• Clark, Blake. Remember Pearl Harbor! . - New York: Modern Age Books, 1942.
• Jones, Syd."Niihau Zero: The Unlikely Drama of Hawaii"s Forbidden Island Prior to, During, and After the Pearl Harbor Attack. - Merritt Island, Florida: JBJ Delta Charlie LC/Signum Ops, 2014.
• Prange, Gordon W. December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor. - New York: McGraw Hill, 1962.
• Shinsato, Douglas T. and Tadanori Urabe, For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor," eXperience, inc., Kamuela, Hawaii, 2011.