Before and Beyond the Niihau Zero

On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a battle damaged Japanese Zero landed on a remote, privately owned Hawaiian island. The Zero pilot survived for almost a week on what locals call the "Forbidden Island", assisted by a local worker while terrorizing the island's population before being killed by a native Hawaiian. Though the air raid on December 7, 1941 caught many by surprise, the island's owner had actually begun preparations against the attack years earlier, inspired by a remarkably accurate prophecy. The wreckage of the Japanese plane was abandoned on the island, but it's legacy was not forgotten. Sixty five years later the Zero and the story surrounding it became part of a new aviation museum in Hawaii. The Zero display brought to the forefront what happened the day of the attack, the conflict that ensued on the island in the days that followed, while unexpectedly generating a modern controversy in the process. In researching the existence of the "Niihau Zero" the author was allowed unprecedented access to the "Forbidden Island", was able to interview its owners and inhabitants, and arrange for the Zero artifacts to be placed on public display. This book contains original reports as well as documents never before published that give unique perspectives into one of the most curious and thought provoking events of WWII.