“The Niʻihau Incident (or Battle of Niʻihau) occurred on December 7, 1941, when Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi crash-landed his Zero on the Hawaiian island of Niʻihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was killed in a struggle with people on the island.
The island’s Native Hawaiian residents were initially unaware of the attack, but apprehended Nishikaichi when the gravity of the situation became apparent. Nishikaichi then sought and received the assistance of three locals of Japanese descent in overcoming his captors, finding weapons, and taking several hostages. In the end Nishikaichi was killed by the wife of Niʻihauan Ben Kanahele, (who was wounded in the process), and one of Nishikaichi’s confederates, Yoshio Harada, (a Japanese American) committed suicide.
The incident and the actions of Nishikaichi’s abettors contributed to a sense in the American military that every Japanese, even those who were American citizens or otherwise thought loyal to the United States, might aid Japan, and ultimately may have influenced the decision to intern Japanese Americans during World War II. Ben Kanahele was decorated for his part in stopping the incident.” Click here for the full story.
My parents knew about this incident and they said it made Americans angry and distrustful against Japanese Americans. Imagine how you might have felt back then, the war was only hours old and suddenly you have Japanese-Americans coming to the aid of the enemy at the very first opportunity! Our liberals would prefer you not know about this incident and believe that white Americans acted with pure prejudice and no other reason for interring citizens of Japanese ancestry.
My father was good friends with a Japanese-American in Sacramento at this time and that man was later arrested for spying. My Dad said he was a really nice guy and you would never have suspected he was a spy, but he truly was and this added even more concern that some Japanese-Americans might turn against their new country, if the opportunity presented itself as it did in Hawaii. While I don’t think internment was right for Japanese-Americans, it was absolutely not without some reason.
At that time in our history many in the Japanese community did not interact well with anglos, they were more like a sub-culture, and no doubt this created some suspicions too. Another reason to be sure the great American melting pot does it job – subcultures don’t make us stronger. And sometimes it can lead to unfortunate events for those who for whatever reasons failed to amalgamate into American society, as it happened during WWII.
German-Americans did not have this problem in part because of the long shared history the USA had with Germany and German immigrants. There was a time when it was debated if German shouldn’t be our national language, the influence of German speaking Americans was that great. However, during WWII there were some instances of pro-Nazi sympathizers and even spies in the German-American community, it did not result in internment that was taken against those of Japanese ancestry.
Geez.
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/german.asp
Geez. We’re resurrecting the “yellow peril” now?
So much for any positive resolving you were going to do.
Balance Libby…it’s called balance. I’m refusing to give history over to the lefistist revisionists and instead tell the whole story for better or worse! This is very positive, although looking at it through the eyes of Joe Stalin it might not appear so. : )
No, it’s you who are revising. Nobody’s denying the incident, but by no stretch of the imagination did it justify the internment of Japanese Americans … unless … and I may seem to contradict myself here … you are an imaginative moron and start howling “yellow peril” with an eye to somebody’s agricultural acreage you can pick up cheap.
It was disgusting and inexcusable … and what Joey Stalin down the block was getting up to is entirely beside the point.
I’m not revising history Libs, I am reporting it. And I said even this action did not justify the internment. So what are you so mad at me for, we basically agree?
Well if we agree, what was all the “leftist revisionist” about?
What was all that nonsense about how German Americans were not interned because they were somehow more American than the Japanese? I’ll tell you what: racist horsepucky. And wrong, too.
I know I read something about the degree to which Nazi spies were in ensconsced in German-American communities around the country, which you would expect. The creepy part was how they were allowed to remain at large, live out their lives, after the end of the war.
I’ve got relatives of German descent who will tell you, today, that Hitler didn’t have it all wrong. (And it’s soooo embarrassing.)
So just take your “white Americanness” and put it … no … you just have to realize it’s no better than anybody else’s Americanness.
Libby you are doing it again…you’re saying things I didn’t say.
(L) “What was all that nonsense about how German Americans were not interned because they were somehow more American than the Japanese?
(J ) I didn’t say that! Here it is in context and I hope you re-read what I said: “At that time in our history many in the Japanese community did not interact well with anglos, they were more like a sub-culture, and no doubt this created some suspicions too. Another reason to be sure the great American melting pot does it job – sub-cultures don’t make us stronger. And sometimes it can lead to unfortunate events for those who for whatever reasons failed to amalgamate into American society, as it happened during WWII.
German-Americans did not have this problem, in part because of the long shared history the USA had with Germany and German immigrants. There was a time when it was debated if German shouldn’t be our national language, the influence of German speaking Americans was that great. However, during WWII there were some instances of pro-Nazi sympathizers and even spies in the German-American community, it did not result in internment that was taken against those of Japanese ancestry.” END
Libby if you leave out your prejudice and just read what I wrote, you will clearly see that I never fault Japanese-Americans, I’m just pointing out that at that time in the USA Japanese did not amalgamate as well as some other cultures (regardless of the reasons) and this was another reason for having the great melting pot work as it should. That is the opposite of exclusion as found in prejudice, it is a call for more INCLUSION. And I go so far as the underscore this inclusion by saying sub-cultures don’t make us stronger. This is why we need to be one culture, united despite our race or ethnic diversity. How much more inclusive can you get? So, you see Libby, once again you got it all wrong and spanked me for something you thought I said, not for what I really said. I do not want or expect an apology, because that would probably cause me to pass out.