THE INVASION OF HAWAII!! (well, sorta)

[Major Major]

As part of the planning for the strike against Pearl Harbor, Genda and his staff carefully seek out advice. Among the people they go to for advice is a consular officer who was stationed in Honolulu until earlier that year.

He reports on one of his duties. Once a month, he would take the weekly boat to Niihau to speak with the Japanese there and make sure they were not mistreated.

An idea germinates.

Niihau is cut off; no radio or telephone line, just the weekly boat. Therefore:

1) On Friday before the strike goes in, a team of a dozen Special Naval Landing Force troops will be landed on the island from a submarine and take control.

2) All pilots will be briefed. If they have lost fuel over Pearl Harbor or have sustained battle damage, they are to fly to Niihau, land if possible, ditch off the coast if necessary.

3) The team and any rescued pilots will be withdrawn by submarine on Tuesday night, after the attack.


The United States will have Lost Face, in having an (even temporary) unresisted occupation of its territory. Valuable pilots will have been saved for the next battle.

(I am thinking of OTL's Niihau Incident, but more so.)

Honorable planners, how does this insignificant suggestion appeal to your superior intellects?

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Beats the system they did have.

 

[sloreck]

Too many thing that can go wrong, for little gain. Any of the locals who are "American" in their sympathies (Japanese included) have a good shot at getting in a fishing boat and somehow getting the word to American authorities. If the military authorities a twigged to the presence of Japanese military on Niihau even a few hours heads up will ruin the PH attack. Compared to the PH attack, the "loss of face" from a few days of occupation of Niihau is nothing, in fact an actual "invasion" of US territory in advance of the PH attack will add to the pissing off of the US population. The reality was the overwhelming majority of the Japanese in Hawaii and elsewhere in the USA were totally loyal to the USA - this means the Japanese military on Niihau is likely to take rather harsh measures against the local Japanese. This would actually be a good thing for the Japanese community as a whole, as their loyalty to the USA would be demonstrated from the get-go, especially if some Japanese fisherman gets the word about this before the attack.

The maximum upside for the Japanese is a few more aircrew are rescued than OTL, and the "face"/propaganda value. This is not much. The downside is that the submarine(s) inserting the force are located as they approach (not ASB) or the word about this results in the military in Hawaii going to war footing.

One of the discussions about PH alerted is that if the US fleet goes after the KB ships are sunk in deep water and lost permanently along with more sailors, so the BBs salvaged and used later primarily to support invasions and numerous trained sailors used for cadre are gone with minimal loss to the KB. In this scenario the fleet and defenses are alerted, a higher percentage are at sea. Since they won't know about the KB or where they are, the odds of the Japanese finding any US vessels at sea or a naval clash are minimal. Depending upon how much notice the US gets, the KB may be informed and decide not to strike. If the attack goes through, and the USA has had some warning of significant length, the cost to the Japanese will be much higher, the losses of the USA will be much less, and the net "pissed off" factor that galvanized the USA will be the same or worse.

Technically this is doable, with decent odds the Japanese get ashore in Niihau safely, and also decent odds they (and any aviators) get off safely. As I said, this does put the entire operation at risk, and the military calculus of saving a few (at most aviators) is simply not worth it.

 

[Shadow Master]

Honorable planners, how does this insignificant suggestion appeal to your superior intellects?

It's an idea.

I would have to agree that the risk of detecting would be real, and going in 2 days before, and heading out 2 days later, seems a bit too much. If you have the guy that currently holds that office arrange an unlikely infiltrator (Old couple, woman with a couple kids, posing as long lost relatives of some of the Japanese inhabitants) to get ashore and then pave the way for the SNLF fellows arrival Saturday night, and then have them and the downed aircrew taken out Sunday night, that might work better, as there would be no real way for word to reach the US forces in time.