Alymer Robinson met the the Rev. Paul Larimore Denise as youngsters, and met the minister again as an adult on Kaua‘i in 1978.
During the meeting, Denise acknowledged he saw the PBY plane attack the submarine, Keith Robinson said.
It was an admission he made only once, Robinson said, adding “As soon as he found out what I was beginning to get real interested in the whole thing, he really kind of clammed up.”
There were other circumstances that would support the theory that Japanese submarines operated off Ni‘ihau, Robinson said.
His uncle, who managed the Robinson Family operations on Ni‘ihau, was with the landing party on the fishing boats, Robinson said.
During the night, residents of Ni‘ihau would have reported the rescue of the PBY airmen, and “it is virtually certain” his uncle would have met with some of the survivors, Robinson said.
Other evidence has surfaced as well, Robinson said.
Denise met Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese commander who lead the air attack on Pearl Harbor and later became a Christian clergymen, at a ecumenical conference after World War II, according to the American Legion magazine article.
Fuchida told Denise aviators were told to fly to Ni‘ihau if they could not fly back to awaiting carriers in waters north of Oahu and Kaua‘i, according to Margaret A. Haapoja, the author’s article.
Based on interviews with Robinson, Haapoja also uncovered information by the UN Submarine Historical Society that a Japanese submarine, I-174, was assigned to rescue downed aviators from Ni’ihau from Dec. 7 to Dec. 17, 1941.
In the days after the Dec. 7 attack, island residents also could see blue lights flickering at sea, possibly Japanese submariners trying to get in touch with downed flyers on Kaua‘i or on Ni‘ihau, Robinson said.
Witnesses also reported that possibly three other Japanese aircraft flew toward Ni‘ihau after the Dec. 7 attack, but they either made it back to their aircraft carriers, or they crashed in the ocean, Robinson said.
More than 30 years after World War II ended, William Apelahama Nizo Jr., who was an apparent witness to the Dec. 16, 1941 incident, reluctantly corroborated stories that the PBY plane had attacked the submarine, Robinson said.
“He was still worried about retribution” if he spoke up, Robinson said.
He said he had an open relationship with his father, Lester Robinson, and his uncle, but neither men discussed the Dec. 16, 1941 incident.
Both men, now deceased, and Denise were patriotic and were willing to risk their lives for their country, but they were intimidated by the government, Robinson believes.
They kept their silence possibly because of the politics of that time, Robinson said.
Before the Dec. 7 attack, Americans were divided over the war, and then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed the impact of such an attack would not be significant, and could unify the American public in favor of war, Robinson contended.
But because the results were devastating and the number of deaths was high, Roosevelt had to engage in a “cover-up” to avoid impeachment, Robinson contended.
He believes his father, Denise and Ni‘ihau residents were caught up in a “cover-up.”
Eight years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Robinson family got a helping hand from the federal government.
His father and uncle were warned by a U.S. Air Corps major in 1933 that the Japanese Empire had planned to mount a Sunday surprise attack on military installations in Hawai‘i, Robinson said.
Robinson Family members, mindful of Japanese incursions in China and in other parts of Asia in the late 1930s, found the information creditable, Robinson said.
In response, they had furrows plowed on all flat surfaces of Ni‘ihau to prevent the landing of Japanese air planes, Robinson said.
This is the second, and concluding, section of an article about how Keith Robinson has compiled new information about the aftermath of the crash landing of a Japanese Zero fighter plane on Ni‘ihau following the attack on Pearl Harbor, an event known to military historians as the Ni‘ihau Incident.
