{"id":119161,"date":"2021-12-07T13:03:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T18:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=119161"},"modified":"2021-12-07T13:03:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T08:11:18","slug":"the-pearl-harbor-niihau-incident-a-tidy-little-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-pearl-harbor-niihau-incident-a-tidy-little-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pearl Harbor Ni\u2019ihau Incident: And Origins Of Ruger’s .22 Pistol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
On December 7, 1941, a Japanese Zero crash-landed on a remote island in the Hawaiian chain. The resulting conflict brought out both the best and worst in the islanders. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth McHutcheson was a hearty woman\nof Scottish descent cursed with a terminal case of wanderlust. She married a\nship\u2019s captain named Francis Sinclair and eventually produced six children.\nElizabeth moved her family to New Zealand and established a farm. However, her\nhusband and eldest son were later lost at sea along with most of the family\u2019s possessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Elizabeth Sinclair was a legendarily tough woman. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Down but not out, Elizabeth relocated to\nCanada and then Hawaii with the remains of her family. Once settled in she\nbought the Hawaiian island of Ni\u2019ihau for $10,000.\nTen grand was an astronomical sum in 1864, but it turned out to be a fairly prescient\ninvestment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Ni\u2019ihau is the 7th<\/sup> largest of the Hawaiian islands. Elizabeth Sinclair bought the island in 1864 for $10,000. I\u2019d give at least twice that for the place today. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ni\u2019ihau is the\nfurthest West and second smallest of the primary Hawaiian Islands. Ownership of\nthe island passed down through the family until 1941 when Elizabeth\u2019s great-grandson\nAylmer Robinson maintained possession. Aylmer was a Harvard graduate who spoke\nfluent Hawaiian. He was a benevolent landlord who lived on nearby Kaua\u2019i. His island was\naccessible by permission only which was seldom granted. Robinson made weekly\nvisits by boat to check on the native islanders who held him in high esteem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This photo was taken on Ni\u2019ihau in the late 19th<\/sup> century. The modest population of the island remains a repository of traditional Hawaiian language and culture even today. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1941 one hundred thirty-six native\nislanders called Ni\u2019ihau home. Among them were three\nindividuals with Japanese ancestry. Aylmer Robinson administered his idyllic\nlittle kingdom free from government interference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The small island of Ni\u2019ihau was an integral part of the Pearl Harbor attack plan. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the buildup to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese naval planners mistakenly assessed Ni\u2019ihau as uninhabited. As a result, they briefed their aviators to divert to Ni\u2019ihau in the event of battle damage preventing return to the carriers. The plan was for downed aircrew to survive on the island until they could be retrieved via submarine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Plot Thickens<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi was an elite Japanese Navy fighter pilot and an ideological zealot. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of December 7, 1941,\nAirman First Class Shigenori Nishikaichi launched his A6M2 Zero fighter B11-120\nfrom the carrier Hiryu as part of the second wave. Unlike the first attack that\nachieved complete tactical and strategic surprise, the second element flew into\na hornet\u2019s nest. American fighter resistance was negligible, but the warships\nanchored at Pearl bristled with antiaircraft guns. .50-caliber, 20mm, 40mm, and\n5-inch antiaircraft weapons filled the sky with steel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Nishikaichi launched that morning from the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu. The Hiryu was later lost at the Battle of Midway. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nishikaichi\u2019s Zero was badly\ndamaged during a strafing run on Wheeler Field and limped away trailing smoke.\nRealizing that there was no way his nimble Zero was going to make it home,\nNishikaichi diverted for Ni\u2019ihau. Crash-landing his crippled fighter\nin a field near a local named Hawila Kaleohano, Nishikaichi was briefly dazed\nbut otherwise unhurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chemical Formula for Awkward<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Nishikaichi\u2019s Zero crash-landed relatively intact and became an immediate spectacle. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The arrival of Nishikaichi\u2019s Zero was the\nbiggest event on Ni\u2019ihau in collective memory, and the\nislanders all came out to gawk. They knew that the relationship between the\nUnited States and the Empire of Japan was strained. However, the Hawaiians are\na naturally friendly people. Hawila Kaleohano relieved the young aviator of his\nhandgun and personal documents, and the rest of the islanders threw the lad a\nparty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The maps and mission documents that Petty Officer Nishikaichi had in his plane were considered classified and extremely sensitive. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only the three islanders with a Japanese\nnexus spoke Japanese, and the rest of the Ni\u2019ihau inhabitants were\nunable to communicate with their new guest. For ease of explanation we will\nrefer to these three individuals by their first names\u2014Ishimatsu, Yoshio,\nand Irene. However, the Japanese pilot was becoming ever more agitated about\nthe loss of his maps, weapon, and mission directives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The unannounced arrival of a Japanese military pilot transformed the pastoral island of Ni\u2019ihau into a war zone. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The island\u2019s residents caught\na report of the attack on a battery-powered radio and confronted the Japanese\npilot. Their intent was to send him back with Mr. Robinson when he arrived on\nhis next scheduled visit. Their guest now effectively became their prisoner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Not unlike the ban on aviation after 911, the military placed a moratorium on boat travel in the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aylmer Robinson failed to arrive on his appointed\nday, and this unsettled the islanders. Robinson was typically quite punctual. However,\nthe military had banned boat traffic, so Ni\u2019ihau was\neffectively isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The now captive Japanese airman was held in the home of two of the only three people on the island who spoke his language. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Petty Officer\nNishikaichi was remanded to the home of Yoshio and Irene, two of the islanders\nwith Japanese connections, to be overseen by four volunteer guards. Unbeknownst\nto the rest of the island\u2019s inhabitants, Yoshio and his wife were re-evaluating\ntheir loyalties. All the while the pilot\u2019s classified\ndocuments remained in the possession of Hawila Kaleohano, the man who had\noriginally encountered the pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Cold War Goes Hot<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Irene Harada covered the sounds of the fight by cranking up her phonograph. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These people were not soldiers, and three\nof the four guards eventually wandered off. Seeing their opportunity Irene\nturned her phonograph up to cover the sounds of the ensuing struggle, while her\nhusband and the pilot attacked the remaining guard. In short order the two had\nthe man secured in a warehouse and had retrieved Nishikaichi\u2019s pistol as well as\na shotgun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Hawila Kaleohano was fortuitously in the midst of his morning constitutional when the Japanese pilot and his co-conspirator approached. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two men then proceeded to Kaleohano\u2019s home in search of\nthe attack plans. They arrived during the man\u2019s quality time, so\nhe was serendipitously hidden unseen in his outhouse. When the moment was right\nKaleohano fled the privy and ran for his life, shotgun blasts chasing him down\nthe trail. Thusly alerted the islanders retreated to caves, thickets, and\ndistant beaches, unable to believe that these people with whom they had shared\nthe island were now actively firing upon their friend and neighbor.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
After harvesting a machinegun from the downed fighter plane the pilot set it ablaze. This is a shot of the plane after the fire burned itself out. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pilot and his compatriot then stripped\na 7.7mm machinegun and ammo from the plane, unsuccessfully attempted to use the\nradio to contact the Japanese fleet, and set the Zero alight. They then went to\nKaleohano\u2019s home and burned it to the ground in a further effort to destroy\nNishikaichi\u2019s classified documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It Gets Worse\u2026<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Petty Officer Nishikaichi was still rabid to retrieve his tactical maps and notes. At this point, he was growing quite desperate. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kaleohano, his home conflagrated, kept\nthe Japanese military documents in his possession and took to a boat to row to\nthe nearest nearby island. Not realizing he was gone, Nishikaichi and Toshio\npress-ganged a local couple named Ben Kanahale and his wife Ella into the hunt\nfor Kaleohano. The pair took Ella hostage to motivate her husband to stay on\ntask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Japanese aviators typically carried a sidearm with them on combat missions. Nishikaichi now decided it was time to use his. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ben wasted a little time pretended to search\nand returned to check on his wife. When Nishikaichi realized he was being\ndeceived he pulled his pistol and threatened to kill everyone in the village.\nAt this provocation Ben Kanahale went full Chuck Norris on the man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gun<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Type 14 was a serviceable if underpowered combat handgun for its era. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Type 94 was likely the worst combat pistol ever contrived by mankind. Pressure on the sear bar shown in the middle of the gun will cause it to fire independent of the trigger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Type 26 revolver was an exquisitely well-executed piece of crap. The cylinder spins freely, so you can never be completely sure there will be a live round underneath the hammer. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For reasons you will find out momentarily,\nthe exact model of the handgun has been lost to history. However, the three\nmost likely candidates are the 8mm Type 14 or Type 94 autoloaders or the Type\n26 revolver. Balance of probability suggests that at the beginning of the war\nin the hands of an elite Japanese Naval Aviator his handgun was likely a Type\n14 Nambu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This Glisenti Model 1910 likely served as inspiration for the Type 14 Nambu. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Type 14 is a recoil-operated,\nlocked-breech, semiautomatic handgun whose original mechanism dates back to the\nlate 19th<\/sup> century. LTG Kijiro Nambu designed the weapon along with an\narray of other Japanese military arms. The locked-breech mechanism favors and\nwas likely inspired by that of the Glisenti Model 1910.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The bottlenecked 8mm Nambu round is a nifty looking thing, but it remains a bit underpowered for serious social work. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Type 14 debuted in 1925 and fires the relatively anemic bottlenecked 8x22mm round common to all Japanese wartime autoloading handguns. Considerably less powerful than the 7.62x25mm, 9mm Parabellum, and .45ACP rounds used by other combatant nations, the 8mm Nambu was marginal at best. The Type 14 fed from an 8-round box magazine, sported a 4.6-inch barrel and weighed about 2 pounds. About 400,000 copies were produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Bill Ruger reverse-engineered the Type 14 Nambu to become the familiar Ruger Mk I .22 pistol. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Japanese officers were expected to buy\ntheir own handguns, and the Type 14 was a popular souvenir of combat in the\nPacific. As the war progressed and B29 attacks strangled the home islands the\nquality of these weapons declined precipitously. Bill Ruger bought a Type 14\nfrom a returning Marine in 1945 and used it as a basis for his Ruger Standard\npistol that eventually morphed into the Mk I, II, III, and IV .22 handguns so\ncommon today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Climax<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Always bring enough gun. It turned out Nishikaichi\u2019s Type 14 Nambu wasn\u2019t quite up to the task. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing an opportunity, Ben Kanahele and his wife Ella jumped the distracted Japanese pilot and his turncoat buddy. Ella grabbed his gun arm, but Yoshio Hamada peeled her off. Nishikaichi then shot Ben three times, striking him in the upper leg, groin, and abdomen. This turned out to be a grave mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Chuck Norris has got nothing on Ben and Ella Kanahele. When the moment was right they got absolutely medieval on Japanese Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kanahele was a sheep farmer and a powerful man. Despite his grievous injuries he took hold of the Japanese pilot, lifted him bodily, and threw him headlong into a stone wall. Ben and Ella then fell upon the dazed Japanese aviator with a vengeance. Ella smashed his head with a rock, and Ben cut the man\u2019s throat with his hunting knife. Overcome by events, Nishikaichi\u2019s ally Yoshio shot himself in the head with the shotgun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Petty Officer Nishikaichi\u2019s Type 14 is still buried out on that island someplace. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ella Kanahele snatched up the shotgun and\npistol and ran for help. Along the way she inadvertently dropped the weapons.\nThe pistol was never recovered, but the shotgun washed up in a flood some five\nyears later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This is all that remains of Nishikaichi\u2019s Zero today. It is currently on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yoshio\u2019s widow spent the\nnext 31 months in prison and was released in June of 1944 despite never being\nformally charged with a crime. Ben Kanahele was evacuated to a nearby island\nwith a hospital and ultimately recovered, being awarded the Medal for Merit and\nPurple Heart for killing the Japanese pilot in close combat. The remains of\nNishikaichi\u2019s Zero are on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor\ntoday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
On the very first day of American involvement in World War 2, a tragic little conflict played out on an otherwise peaceful remote island in Hawaii. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the very first day of American involvement in World War 2, a tragic little conflict played out on an otherwise peaceful remote island in Hawaii. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":119577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,257,772],"tags":[132,102,752,636,1323],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-119161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-historical-guns","9":"category-will-dabbs","10":"tag-buzz","11":"tag-feature-articles","12":"tag-historical-guns","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-world-war-ii"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Pearl Harbor Ni\u2019ihau Incident: And Origins Of Ruger's .22 Pistol<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pearl Harbor Ni\u2019ihau Incident: And Origins Of Ruger's .22 Pistol - 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However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A\\\/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o'clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times\u2026always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. 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