December 18, 2025 • 43 mins
(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) On December 7, 1941, pilots from the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. After strafing Pearl Harbor in the second wave of the attack, Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi was in dire straits—his plane was too damaged to make it back to his aircraft carrier.
If necessary, all Imperial Japanese pilots were instructed to crash land on Ni'ihau, a small Hawaiian island they were certain was "uninhabited."
They were wrong.
This is the story of the Battle of Ni'ihau—One pilot, one remote island, 136 Ni'ihauans, and a declaration of war only the enemy pilot knew about.
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