One of the men on that trip to Niihau Island was George Larsen, who wrote that the Army raiders went ashore and returned on the 14th of December with the pilot's belongings. The pilot was dead, having been killed by a 6 foot 6 inch Hawaiian who grappled with him. The Japanese pilot, Shigenori Nishikaichi shot the Hawaiian three times point-blank in the groin, but that didn't stop the Hawaiian.
They inspected the items brought back and was a synchronized machine gun from the planes which still had 20 bullets in its breech. Another was a fish skin water proof wrapping that had been around the pilot's waist which contained local maps, money and other things necessary if he had to bail out over Oahu.
George Larson pulled a bullet out of the machine gun as "an easy souvenir."
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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