The Niihau incident - how comes they never made a movie about that?!

[Fishbed]

Didn't know anything about that affair, it's a truly amazing story...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niihau_Incident
http://www.damninteresting.com/incident ... hau-island
http://www.historynet.com/the-niihau-incident.htm

Really one wonders why no-one made a movie about this, the setting seems perfect for a very special kind of thriller...

[spence]

Maybe just because it would open up old wounds. The official Navy report on the incident apparently figured in the decision to intern the Japanese-Americans on the mainland.

[Twotribes]

Given the conditions and the actions I would suggest that prudent people would take some action. The manner in which the internments were handled is a disgrace, but something had to be done after so obvious a risk was seen.

[Torplexed]

Really one wonders why no-one made a movie about this, the setting seems perfect for a very special kind of thriller...

Knowing Hollywood, since all the principal characters in this drama were either native Hawaiian or Japanese, they would probably be spooked away by thinking potential audiences would view it as a foreign film. Probably not enough gun play to satisfy them either. [8|] Seems like an ideal subject for a cable movie though.

Interesting incident. I recall reading about it years ago. Too bad the Zero got torched. We could have started research on the plane about six months earlier than the one found crash-landed in the Aleutians.

[mike scholl 1]

ORIGINAL: Fishbed

Really one wonders why no-one made a movie about this, the setting seems perfect for a very special kind of thriller...

Actually, I believe it has been made. For TV anyway..., as I remember seeing a dramatazation of this event somewhere.

[spence]

I was on Kauai recently and read a little about the incident while I was there. I think that the remains of the Zero are at Pearl Harbor (perhaps in the Naval Aviation Museum there).

Also this incident includes the only mention I have ever heard of the Japanese using their submarines to (potentially) rescue/recover their airmen. Were there any others? The island/islet of Kure West of Midway comes to mind as having potential as a place to crash land a plane to await a later rescue. All the IJN subs were off looking for the USN (in the wrong place except for one) but I wonder if their OPPLAN included using Kure in a manner akin to Niihau. Anybody know?

Oh yeah congrats to our Canadian brothers/sisters for the Hockey Gold.

[Torplexed]

ORIGINAL: spence
Also this incident includes the only mention I have ever heard of the Japanese using their submarines to (potentially) rescue/recover their airmen. Were there any others?

Akutan Island in the Aleutians was also designated as pick-up point for crashed Japanese aviators during the Dutch Harbor Raid in June 1942. That netted the US Navy a relatively intact Zero for study.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutan_Zero

[crsutton]

Reminds me of Ken Follet's "Eye of the Needle."

[bush]

For a different perspective on the internments, read Dunnigan/Nofi's book - it is titled either Victory at Sea, or Victory in the Pacific.