VOICE OF GEORGE KAHANU SINGING:  “The moon on Jarvis Island just makes me long for you.

Each lonely night as I sit in my shack, it brings memories of you.

I am waiting for my ship to come in to take me back to you, but until that day, my heart aches and prays; Jarvis moon makes me long for you.

GEORGE KAHANU: When we had a full moon, uh, it … was a time when you more or less felt uh, homesick for being—because we were away from home, and we … thought about our family, friends, girlfriend.

And uh … Freddy Lee, my partner, said, George, we should uh, compose a song about Jarvis.

And I said, Okay, that sounds like a good idea.

And uh … so he brought out his guitar, and he started to play.

NOELLE KAHANU: I first really heard about the colonization project when an archivist at Bishop Museum asked me if I was related to a George Kahanu.

And George is my grandfather.

And she said that the museum had a log book that, um, belonged to him from when he was living on Jarvis Island in the 1930s.

So I went up to the archives, and she pulled out this old log book.

And I opened it up, and there was the handwriting of my grandfather when he was seventeen, eighteen years old.

These were things that he wrote as a young man when he was living on this desert island, fifteen-hundred miles from home.

MARCH OF TIMES: At Washington, the Department of Commerce, presiding over aviation affairs, sits able director Eugene Vidal.

Of an assistant William T Miller, director Vidal makes a curious request.

“Do you think you can dig up 12 young men who are willing to go out 3,000 miles in the Pacific and live on a desert island, maybe for months?” There, Mr. Miller calls on the principal of a school where boys of royal Hawaiian blood are educated.

From among these young American citizens, U.S.

Agent Miller enlists volunteers for a secret adventure.

Waiting in Honolulu’s Pearl Harbor is a coast guard cutter under sealed orders to take the 12 young volunteers to their unknown destination.

JANET ZISK: The whole story started for Kamehameha Schools with the arrival of a complement of people from Washington, DC who were here to find out how to go about colonizing three tiny, little islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

One of the places that these people first went was the Bishop Museum.

While at the museum, Lt. Meyer, who was to set up the whole operation, met Albert Judd.

Now at that time the trustees of Schools were also the trustees of the Bishop Museum.

Lt. Meyer and one of his assistants and Mr. Judd got to talking about how to go about settling these islands and Mr. Judd volunteered Kamehameha students.

SPEAKER: Do you remember what they told you about the project?

KENNETH BELL: “Absolutely nothing.

They just said You going on an island they didn’t say why, what or where!” GEORGE KAHANU: Well, I was still as student at Kamehameha Schools, in fact, I was a junior, so I got a notice from the principal of the school, Dr. Homer Barnes, that I should report to his office ... he told me that they were on a project with the government of colonizing these islands, so would I be interested in making a trip?

I say, “By all means, I’m ready to go right now.” GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT VO: January 16, 1935.

The Navy Department advises that Navy personnel cannot be used to inhabit Baker, Holland and Jarvis Islands.

It is therefore suggested that native Hawaiians be used for this purpose JAMES CAROLL: They looked for someone that had some Hawaiian background and that’s why they came to Kamehameha Schools.

They came to Kamehameha Schoos, to see if they could get someone to participate because of our decendants as part Hawaiians.

We would be used to the South Pacific or whereever.

JANET ZISK: When they were asked to do something, for the schools, and they were appealed to on that basis, this would be a good thing for the reputation of Hawaiians and the schools, and of course they would consent.

They were paid three dollars a day, and this was excellent pay in the depression times.

NARRATOR: February 27, 1935.

A mission to convey certain people and material to subject name Islands has been authorized by the President of the United States, attention is invited to the confidential nature of this order and the mission.

On March 20, 1935, the Itasca set sail from Honolulu under great secrecy, beginning a five day journey southward.

Aboard were a dozen furloughed army personnel and six young Hawaiians.

EMANUEL SPROAT: When we went aboard, the first thing they did was make us work.

They put us all to work, mostly in the mess hall – clean the mess hall and serve the sailors...they were rough on us – the sailors, but the highlight of the trip was when we crossed the equator, they had a big ceremony.

Davey Jones came up the gangplank all dressed up.

They had a big, canvas chute, 50 feet long, and two fire hoses one on each end and you had to crawl through that.

NARRATOR: Their mission was to occupy the islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis in teams of five.

Each team would have two Hawaiians – who could help maintain the camp, fish in the native manner, handle a boat, swim execellently, and be disciplined and unattached.

All recent graduates of Kamehameha schools, they were among the best and the brightest, resourceful and resilient, qualities that would soon be put to the test.

GEORGE KAHANU: We couldn’t have had a very good navigator because we spent half the morning looking for Jarvis.

We were going all over the ocean, back and forth, trying to find Jarvis.. You know, and uh… So it gives you an idea that these islands were so small in the Pacific that it was very easy not to find it.

PAUL PHILLIPS: The islands did not look like posters of tropical islands with lush vegetation and waterfalls.

They were flat -- barren.

On Jarvis, the highest point on the island was 20 feet above sea level.

And then it tapered off to about 5 feet above sea level for the entire rest of the island.

That’s where the camp was located.

Just scrub brush and birds.

That’s all.

MANNY SPROAT: Desert Island.

There was nothing.

No trees on the island, nothing would grow there.

And we took some coconuts down and planted some on the island but we had to water it all the time and after a while we quit watering.

It didn’t grow well and finally died.

HENRY KNELL: What I saw was four black spots on the island as we came over the horizon, and I said “oh boy, I don’t want to stay over here.” Then we got to Howland, I got off.

Boom they gone.

I tell you, I was 19, I cried.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: All we could do was watch with longing eyes, paying tribute to the ship that had been our home for the past five days.

We watched in silence for several moments then we all looked at each other with a mixture of sadness and happiness in our eyes.

– sad to see our only contact with the world, our homes, and friends, getting farther away, yet happy to be left by ourselves on this little atoll that we hope will be of great importance some day.

Abraham Piʻianaia, Baker Island, June 18, 1936 NARRATOR: This was not the first time the islands had hosted Native Hawaiians.

In the mid-1800s, Native Hawaiians labored for American Guano companies, harvesting the phosphorous-rich droppings of seabirds used to make fertilizer.

Later, the British moved in, but when the guano was depleted, they too left.

Abandoned for decades, the islands became the focus of renewed attention in the 1930’s.

Midway between Australia and California, they were considered key landing spots for commercial aviation, but ownership of the islands remained unclear.

DESOTO BROWN: United States was trying to establish its power in the Pacific internationally, because Japan was becoming very expansionist during this period in the 1930s in the Pacific as well.

So to counteract that, the undercurrent of this entire project was for the United States to be able to claim more territory, other islands in the Pacific.

And the public justification was commercial aviation could possibly use these islands.

LOG BOOK ENTRY: At 1:25 PM the American flag was hoisted by Collins and Ahia while Aune, Toomey and Graf stood at attention, and members of the official party watched the ceremony.

– Jarvis Island Log, March 26, 1935 JANET ZISK: This first time around, there were no means of communication, no radios of any sort.

Just the three military personnel and the two Hawaiians.

And the three military personnel on each island can hardly wait to get off.

They practically swam out to the Itasca to get off, and our students, two of them on each island, said “Oh we had such a good time, can we stay?” (laughs).

GEORGE KAHANU: We had, uh, at the beginning, the military people.

They weren’t accustomed to uh living in the ocean, and so they had problems with trying to find things to do to keep occupied.

With us, the local boys, the Kamehameha boys, we had something to do right away.

We could go right away and say, okay, I’m going fishing today.

And so you went right to the ocean and enjoyed yourself swimming, uh, catching fish, looking for coral, looking for seashells.

TY TENGAN: The report coming back from this first trip is that these Hawaiians performed extremely well, all of their duties.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT VO: October 12 1935.

My dear Mr. Judd, the duties performed by these men are severe.

Neither I nor any of the people associated with me have any criticism of the performance of their duty.

For their loyalty, I commend them most highly.

Sincerely yours, H.A.

Meyer, Captain Infantry.

TY TENGAN: The subsequent three expeditions are then completely manned by native Hawaiians, all of whom are coming from Kamehameha Schools.

JANET ZISK: The first four cruises constituted the year that was necessary for the islands to be settled every day, every week, every month, for one full year by people who actually lived there, really lived there twenty-four hours a day, before President Roosevelt could say to the world, “These three islands—Jarvis, Howland, and Baker—are now US territory.” NARRATOR: In May of 1936, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7368, placing these three islands under the control and jurisdiction of the US Secretary of the Interior.

Although the Navy department remained vitally interested, the government did not want to draw undo attention to the potential military significance of these islands.

Yet questions persisted, especially when two more islands, Canton and Enderbury, were also colonized and claimed two years later.

VICTOR KIM: They kept us out of the politics, you know, we’re just there to do that and that’s it.

We found out later, the following year, when the new maps came out, then we see “U.S.” on the island.

JANET ZISK: President Roosevelt had declared that the islands now belonged to the United States, there was a pause of a couple of months when President Roosevelt was given information that uh, there were still other countries who had their eye on these islands, and if there wasn’t a population kept on the islands of United States citizens, there was no doubt that others would make approaches on the islands.

So President Roosevelt ordered that immediately, more settlement take place on these islands.

GEORGE KAHANU: The feeling was the British were in the process of colonizing, taking over these islands, so time was of essence.

VICTOR KIM: And some of the boys, after they came back here, they joined up and went back again, eh?

So in other words, they liked the place.

They liked it.

ARTHUR HARRIS: On Baker, there was one sand beach and when the storms came.

The huge waves, they were huge.

The island was 15 or 20 feet above sea level.

The waves were higher than that.

Fortunately they would break outside of the reef and by the time they got in, they were about half the size as they originally were, but they would come right up to the top where the tent was.

We slept on these cots there and the waves would go right into and seep into the sand and wash out again.

But Baker was a very dangerous landing there, even with the coast guard.

JAMES CARROL: My being on the ship as a spare, I wasn’t assigned to be on a particular island, in a sense I was able to see each of the islands and to have different experiences on each island in terms of how you land and what’s there to see and what’s there to do and whatever responsibilities that were involved.

The things that we unloaded were canned goods, things that they are not able to get right there on an isolated island… But to me, this was very idyllic because this was nature in the raw.

GEORGE KAHANU: When we arrived on Jarvis Island, and we had off-loaded all of our provisions.

You know, looking at the beach, the fish were so plentiful, you could see the tail above the water, you know floating, and we were ready to run out and catch a fish, forget about everything else.

HENRY KNELL: Howland Island, you go over there, you wave, the guy wave back at you.

You across the island.

No matter where you go on the island, you wave, the guy wave.

One black spot wave.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT VO: Department of Interior, special instructions from Richard E. Black to James Kamakaiwi.

You are directed to be in charge of the personnel and activities on the island of Howland.

The duties and occupations of your party, as far as practicable, will be as follows: (a) Keep a daily weather log (b) Farming – plant and cultivate coconuts, vegetables and flower seeds.

(c) Study bird life on the island and record the information in the daily log.

(d) Collect insects, plant life, and other such specimens that are desired by the Bernice P. Bishop Museum.

(e) Fishing.

Record daily, all types of fish caught in the daily log.

(f) Keep the daily log, recording everything of importance and interest.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: The first night on Jarvis was a frightening experience.

We had no radio.

No means of communication with the rest of the world.

It was exile.

As we sat down for dinner, hundreds of hungry mice scampered around us.

We heard them as we slept.

George West, Jarvis Island, June 15th, 1935.

KENNETH BELL: We kept accurate everything.

Everything what we did.

I told Jacob when you put that stuff, put it down accurately.

Everything we did.

No added stuff.

And try keep the thing as pinpoint as you can.

HENRY KNELL: And what they writing there oh my God.

And what I write?

I did the same thing yesterday, today and tomorrow I am going do the same thing.

What am I going do?

Write what?

I went out looking for shells, today I’m looking for shells, tomorrow I’m looking for shells.

So what I’m going write, boy, in the log?

I get all jam up on the log.

Not only me.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: This evening after dinner, the full moon glided over the horizon in all its splendor and beauty, making all other stars and constellations in the heavens seem insignificant.

As we watched in silence, the panorama continually changes.. everything is as it was, never as it is.

We see the moon as it was one, two, or three mintues ago.

I glance at Young, and he seems to be in deep reverie.

Suddenly, he says, “I’m just wondering how many other people are watching the same moon?” Abraham Piʻianaia, Baker Island, July 3, 1936.

NOELLE KAHANU: To be able to open up a sixty-year-old book, and open up its pages, and read from the handwriting of really, some illustrious people.

These were men who went on to become professors and mayors, police officers and ship fitters; and yet, here was this moment in time when they were just starting out, and they were poetic and eloquent, and even funny.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: Charlie almost died from laughter this afternoon when he was given the pleasure of cutting the hair off a door knob, said door knob being Lum’s head.

After cutting a relay of nicks and various grotesque shapes, and not counting time outs to gain back strength lost from laughing, Charlie finally finished.

Not having a barber’s license, Charlie let the hairless one go free of charge.

Solomon Kalama, Jarvis Island, Nov. 22, 1936.

NARRATOR: As the project continued, the Department of the Interior created more permanent homes for the colonists.

Tents gave way to wooden cabins, and home-made ovens were replaced by kerosene stoves.

Evening talks continued around the kitchen table, but now the colonists could radio home to loved ones.

The project also expanded beyond Kamehameha Schools.

TY TENGAN: …Eventually start to bring in both non-Kamehameha alunists and students, as well as non-Hawaiians.

You have a number of Asians who are recruited to be student aerologists and radiomen, a few Chinese, and one Korean.

You also have local and Hawaiian students being drawn from other schools.

VICTOR KIM: After I graduated McKinley High School, well, I got a job as a radio technician in one of the radio stores in Honolulu.

After that the Deparment of Interior approached me and asked if I was interested in being the radio man for an expedition down to the South Pacific.

GEORGE KAHANU: One of the objectives of this project was supposed to be to get weather reports to supposedly support the starting of air routes from California all the way down to Australia.

VICTOR KIM: I had to take some reports and radio to Palmyra Island, to the Pan American ship Northwind.

Northwind would take my report and in turn radio to Captain Musik at the Pan American survey flight in Auckland, New Zealand.

KENNETH BELL: Clouds.

Type of clouds.

What we get was a real crash course on clouds.

Distinguish the different clouds.

Rain.

And stuff like that.

That’s the one we turn back to them.

ELVIN MATTSON: The number one was the weather; the weather reports they had to make.

They had to make one at six, midnight, sometime you break in two, sometimes they want four, but that was the six in the morning, noon time, six in the evening, and midnight.

And it was sent to the station in Wailupe.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: After an early breakfast this morning, Anakalea went out on the north end of the island to fish.

Killarney and Folinga combed the island for insect and plant life.

I remained in camp to take weather reports and in between the hours, I constructed an oven using two old hard tac cans.

James Kamakaiwi, Howland Island, November 9, 1935.

KENNETH BELL: All four of us went take turns doing the cooking.

So if your guy don’t like what the other guy cook you going cook two days in a row.

GEORGE KAHANU: We had one person to be the cook.

We had cook’s assistant.

A person take the weather reports and one person to be the floater who had no responsibilities and these duties were assigned for a week at a time.

And then after a week, we rotated.

ELVIN MATTSON: When we cook and stuff like that was either corn beef, we had tons of corn beef, corn beef and onions.

Bags of onions, we had that.

We had pork and beans, we had macaroni.

Um, you name it, we had oodles of can food.

We caught an ulua that was close to 80-90 lbs.

Big ulua.

All the fish we got, we cooked it all up, we dried it.

MANNY SPOAT: I didn’t take long for fish to dry over there.

Aholehole, they dried up like toast after one or two days.

ELVIN MATTSON: We had a throw net that my dad had sent down, we get mullet by the tons and everything.

I hated that.

I was never a fish eater anyway.

I like fish but not when you get tons of it.

You go one time with the net and you drag it in than you have about 50-75 pounds of mullet.

And these are not small mullet, huge mullet.

PAUL PHILLIPS: The staple there was aholehole.

The water would be black with aholehole.

Papio – abundant and of course, lobster.

Absolutely unbelievable.

You walked out when the tide was low, gotta be a real calm season.

And you’re inside a barrier reef, And you could walk out with a glass lantern and a glove, and the lobster would just sit there.

They wouldn’t move.

You reached down with your glove and picked them up.

KENNETH BELL: The place is loaded with sharks.

Every morning that’s all you see is sharks all over the doggone place.

But the real beautiful site is, when its low tide early in the morning, you go out, you stand up on the high point, and you look over the cliff you see all the uhu tails up in the air like that.

They eating cause shallow water, so when they come in to eat the tails are out of the water.

You spot them all over the doggone place.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: The birds on the island are numerous and as we walked past they would fly in the air making the sky above us seem dark.

Not giving the birds a thought, we wlked as though nothing was above us.

Suddenly I felt a wet slimy substance drop on my head while another grazed my cheek.

Joe, wearing his helmet, began laughing.

It was something like an air raid by bombing planes and we were caught helpless.

Henry Ohumukini, Howland Island, Jan. 29, 1936.

GEORGE KAHANU: The frigate bird we tried was kind of tough and kind of a strong smell.

PAUL PHILLIPS: Of course, there’s nothing really to eat on.

There’s just feathers and bone and skin, really.

They were skinny things.

But they tasted horrible.

GEORGE KAHANU: But the booby bird, tasted like chicken, tasted real good, and if you had shoyu and sugar and stir fried, taste real ‘ono.

PAUL PHILLIPS: Now the egg of the sooty tern – excellent, excellent.

Comprable to a good chicken egg.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: For dinner, we had rice, poi, shredded lobster with sliced ham, beets, olives and coffee.

We kept reminding Ken Bell of the beard shaving episode this morning.

We kidded him until he was so groggy that he finally admitted that he cut his beard because for the past several nights the rats have been chewing on it Abraham Piʻianaia, Baker Island, July 17, 1936.

ARTHUR HARRIS: On Jarvis they had a shipwreck they called the Amaranth.

And the boys would go down and take planks off the ship and make surfboards.

KENNETH BELL: We use to have alot of fun going surfing over there in between the sharks.

In them days no more skeg you use your feet.

Olden days you drag your feet for skegs.

ELVIN MATTSON: The other thing, we go down and look for shells when they come in….

They had some beautiful shells.

Red color, orange, all different colors… Joe had these boxes, carboard boxes, he must have had about a ton of those shells in there.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: Some of us will be left here to spend the lonely Christmas and a quiet New Year far from civilization and a rating good time.

Haili has already spent last Christmas here and will probably do the same this year.

Who knows but the creator, it may probably be for the best – we’re not the masters of our fate.

After a hearty supper, we chatted on our scene favored porch longer than usual, our vision drawn by the flaming sunset that no mortal eye can resist.

Manny Sproat, Tuesday, October 21, 1936.

ELVIN MATTSON: At first you get homesick because you go out, you say, “what the hell did I come out here for?” There’s nothing there – you know you don’t see anything and the ship comes in and drops you off and then the ship goes off and you wave and you say “ay, ay, what the hell, I wish I was aboard that ship so I could go with them.” But you get used to it.

You get used to that type of living.

PAUL PHILLIPS: Now, water was extremely critical on the island.

It was brought in fifty-five-gallon drums, and only used for brushing your teeth and drinking.

So the entire time you were there, there was no fresh water showers at all.

You lived with salt.

On occasions during the night, close to winter, we’d get a rain squall that would come through.

And or course, at this time, didn’t matter whether it was one or two o’clock in the morning; you’d get out and bathe.

Now, I was [CHUCKLE] out there with a bar of soap, really soaped down; boy, I was gonna get a good washing.

And of course, the rain stopped (laughs).

GEORGE KAHANU: One of the things that limited whatever we did was water.

We took down only three fifty-five gallons of water … And that was three quarters full water because when we off loaded the drum in the water, the had to float so if you had clothes to wear, then that meant you had to wash the clothes, and water was limited, so like Arthur said, ‘it’s reasonable that we became a nudist colony… HENRY KNELL: As soon as the ship left over there, when was sailing away, them guys, the shorts come right off, because they used to it – nude, eh?

It took me two weeks for my shorts to come off!

GEORGE KAHANU: There were times where we were uh, were not too happy, maybe, what was being done by the two uh, senior members.

And so we’d say, Well, you know, we’re kinda getting frustrated; let’s take our frustration out.

And uh, we’d say, Okay, we challenge, and we’d play football.

And uh, uh, two-man team, and uh, you know, you—after the day was over, after the game was over, you felt, okay, uh, we got over that frustration.

PAUL PHILLIPS: Being stuck on an island, you’re talking three, three and a half months, you know, with just three other guys to look at, but oddly enough I can’t recall a time that we got on each other’s nerves to a point there was violence.

Never.

And I think this is wonderful.

KENNETH BELL: Cause you know, local boys get together, that’s no problem, they all eat the same foods and stuff like that.

That was no problem.

The group we got all understood each other, and every afternoon we get our exercings session.

I made barbells out of blocks.

Also the hike across the islands every chance you get go out and get some exercise.

LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: Joe and Alex have become my daily guitar pupils and have shown improvement.

Not satisfied with being only a guitar pupil, Joe wanted to learn a little voice… After his third lesson, Joe thought he had improved very much so he intended to give us something like a concert.

The audience had no rotten tomatoes or onions but Boobie eggs were plentiful.

Henry Ohumukini, Howland Island, January 27, 1936.

JANET ZISK: They loved singing, even though, as one of them said in his journal, it made him feel really homesick when they sang their Hawaiian songs, but they sang them anyway (laughs).

And they had a wonderful sense of humor, wonderful Hawaiian sense of humor, kolohe, playing tricks on each other, laughing.

They used everything about them that was Hawaiian because they not only survived, they survived with grace and elegance and skill.

VICTOR KIM: We didn’t have any agruement or fight to make it unpleasant.

It was congenial and we got along.

It showed me how to get along with people.

So when you are on a lonely island with only four boys you either get along or else you be an outcast.

So we all got together, and we all got good feeling to each other.

No hard feelings at all.

DANIEL MARTINEZ: There was a degree of innocence in those that were recruited.

They weren’t fully told of the dangers that could occur – not only what happens to them during perhaps a war, but there was also catastrophic weather conditions out there.

There was no way to really rescue those folks, they were isolated… They were young men and they probably didn’t even think about questioning how things were done.

To some of them, it was an adventure.

DESOTO BROWN: In 1937, it was announced that Amelia was going to undertake a flight all the way around the entire world.

I strongly suspect that behind the scenes, however, there was also not just covert, but fairly open assistance from the US government partly as a justification for the claimed necessity of using these Line Islands for aviation.

Because her route was planned to take her to Howland Island, where she would use an airfield which was built just for her.

PAUL PHILLIPS: Howland was pretty well developed.

They had nice buildings ground and things here because of the preparations for Amelia Earhart.

LOG EXCERPT VO: One of the mothers sent us some curtains.

We put them up in the window of the bedroom where Amelia was going to sleep.

They were the first curtains on Howland.

We also fixed up a shower for her.

It was made out of a 52 gallon oil drum raised up with a pipe leading to a number 10 tomato can with nail holes bunched in the bottom.

That was the shower head.

Solomon Kalama, May 5, 1981.

NARRATOR: The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Itasca – the ship used to transport and supply the colonists – had been assigned to communicate with Earhart to guide her to Howland.

Her second around-the-world attempt ended somewhere in the Pacific on July 3, 1937.

And while the Itasca spent the next several weeks searching for her, the colonsts and their needs were put on hold.

VICTOR KIM: Water came in 50 gallon drums and it was enough for three months, but because of the Amelia Earhart search, we were delayed three months.

So we stayed there for six months, over six months.

DESOTO BROWN: They did a lot of preparations, and for them or course, being right on the scene, that she never made it, and that she disappeared, it was really a wrench for them, and it was very emotional.

TELEX VO:  Departed about TANEY three ayem for Jarvis Island.

Carl Kahalewai colonist seriously ill. Public Health doctors after radiophone conversation with Jarvis diagnose as probable ruptured appendix.

Proceeding all speed with two doctors expect arrival daylight Friday.

TY TENGAN: Carl Kahalewai, who was a colonist from McKinley High School, is on the island of Jarvis, and his appendix ruptures.

Being so far away from Honolulu, it takes quite a long time before a ship is deployed to retrieve him.

By the time they do have him and bring him en route to Honolulu, he died.

MANNY SPROAT: There was always the possibility of getting sick or getting an infection of some sort and you just had to take it.

No rescue.

If you go down, you get sick, too bad… LOG BOOK ENTRY VO: At 3:30 pm the ceremony of dedication was held at Jarvis Light.

Sam Kahalewai, Jr., Carl’s brother, cut the cords unveiling the tablet.

Henry Medeiros placed a wreath of green ground-runner and yellow wild ʻilima flowers of Jarvis over the plaque and all the Hawaiian boys led by James Kinney sang a song of farewell.

Richard Black, December 11, 1938, Jarvis Island.

DANIEL MARTINEZ: It became increasingly important to the federal government to have these islands claimed by the United States so that they could be communication stations, weather stations; kind of the eyes and ears of the federal government.

Because the Pacific was becoming more and more volatile.

Keeping an eye on the Japanese was important, because their ships also plied those waters, and it was extremely important as the tensions increased that those eyes and ears were out there actively.

NAVY DEPARTMENT MEMO VO: 24th of June, 1940.

I believe it should be remembered that any or all of these islands, though probably worthless to commercial aviation and unsuitable for patrol plane operations could be used by cruiser and battleship aircraft… Believe we should consider these bases from a military standpoint rather than Commercial.

If the State Department feels that there would be any question of sovereignty in case of the Colonists removal, I believe the Navy should hold out for their continued occupation… NARRATOR: By June 1941, Germany had conquered much of Europe, and the invasion of the Soviet Union was underway.

Japan was eyeing American and European holdings in the Pacific.

The commandant of the 14th Naval district recommended that the colonists be evacuated but his request was denied.

On July 23, 1941, the 22nd expedition to the islands proceeded as planned.

HENRY KNELL: It was that night for me to tie the lantern – it burst.

I got burned here and here and on my face.

And some of my hair and my nice beard that I was trying to save although get little patches here and there.

Now before that, the government said, “Anything happen, don’t contact the ship.” And I slept that night with castor oil, the blue bottle.

But in a couple of days, I woke up, look outside, we saw the ship all covered up in war colors, camouflage.

Oh we got all excited.

But I think Bederman took a good look, he say’s that’s the Roger B.

And that was lucky.

So doctor came, checked me and Zagara, and said we’d better go home… TY TENGAN: At this point, its import lies in its strategic position in the Pacific, and in preparation with, for the upcoming war with Japan.

PAUL PHILLIPS: In experiencing the December 7th attack, we were unaware that the attack had taken place.

Our radios had gone out.

So it wasn’t until two or three days after the attacks that we found out we were at war with Japan.

Um, we found out by when we were transmitting weather reports to the Coast Guard’s radio station here, we were told to get off the air and stay off the air, that we were at war with Japan.

Very little else was said um, except that uh, Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

And of course, this uh, great concern to all of us, not knowing what happened uh, to our families, the conditions of the island.

DANIEL MARTINEZ: Howland Island became a focal point of the Pacific war within the first few hours of, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In the afternoon of December 8th, flights of planes in two waves came over the island and dropped bombs.

ELVIN MATTSON: We decided if the planes came over to bomb Howland Island we’d run to the middle of the island.

Wrong decision.

When the planes came over there was a formation of four, eight, twelve planes.

They had this cluster bombs that drop one bomb everything scattered all over the place.

They had this big bombs that left craters about ten feet deep.

Dickey and Joe were like 15 feet away from us and look it says all mounds and stuff like that.

Though apparently they got up, they must have gotten up to get up when they were dropping all the bombs because they had shrapnel on their chests that went right through, both of them had these wounds… So anyway, what we did, we went back and got some blankets and got them anything we could do, picked them up and carried them back.

And uh like I said the… We took them out both back… And we took them, put them in a bomb crater and covered them up, made a little cross for them and that was the end of those two boys.

NARRATOR: Over the course of the next several weeks, Howland was repeatedly attacked.

Jarvis and Baker were also targeted.

Alone in the Pacific, the weeks stretched into months.

Food and water was running out and time was their new enemy.

PAUL PHILLIPS: Now we were concerned about water because this was about the time that the coast guard cutter would be coming by for resupply, but now, knowing there was a war on, we know we’re not going to get any resupply.

ELVIN MATTSON: Obviously, we were stranded there.

We were supposed to be picked up before Christmas, that never happened.

Then it was after the new year, still nobody came.

How bad the war was going, what the conditions were, we had no idea, so we were kind of resigned to spend alot of time there on that island.

Why would the United States risk a ship to go down there and pick up four Native Hawaiians.

NARRATOR:  Washington was unaware that the islands had been attacked.

Distracted by America’s entry into World War II, the retrieval of the colonists was not a high priority.

PAUL PHILLIPS: We were rescued in the island on February 9, 1942.

I think I have the distinction of being the very, very last colonist to take a foot off of the islands.

Our arrival in Honolulu, there were no big ceremonies of any kind.

After going ashore, we were told, “get yourself a job within a week to ten days, or you’ll be inducted into the military.

Good luck.” ELVIN MATTSON: We came back, and we were at Pearl Harbor for about three or four days, and when they did release us, it was don’t say anything, don’t say this, don’t say that.

What the hell you going to say then?

So anyway, actually we’re not going to say anything except to friends and family and stuff like that.

But that’s the way it went.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT VO: My Dear Mr. Keliʻihananui, My Dear Mr. Whaley… In behalf of the Department and the Federal Government I take this occasion to express profound regret that your brother, was a victim of the outrageous attack on Howland Island by Japanese planes and submarine.

In your bereavement it must be considerable satisfaction to know that he died in the service of his country.

Sincerely yours, Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior.

NARRATOR: Military service brings with it the certain risk of danger, even death.

But these young men, civilian employees of the Department of the Interior, found themselves sharing the same fate.

For the families of Joseph Keliʻihananui and Richard Whaley, there was no resolution or compensation.

For the government determined that the young men had left behind no qualified dependants.

TY TENGAN: The remains of Keliʻihananui and Whaley stayed on the island until 1954.

And it was only retrieved by the military because a group of former colonists who had by now established an association called Hui Panalaʻau, they had been petitioning the government since um, ’41 to bring these remains back, and the bodies were then buried at Schofield Barracks, a military army base in Central Oahu.

ORNETTA KAAA: I remember I was young; I was in school, and I remember going to the grave at Schofiled, you know, and attending the burial of these two men; my uncle, his friend Dick, Dickie Whaley.

And I remember always going to the graveyard with my mom, mostly my mom, my dad had a hard time, you know.

And my father was angry about what had happened.

Because he thinks – he always thought that they really didn’t know why they were sent there.

JANET ZISK: This was a story that was lost for several decades; several decades.

And it was only discovered sort of like accidentally.

ORNETTA KAAA: I remember getting this invitation to come to the exhibition at the Bishop Museum.

And it was there that I had learned, I mean I had seen pictures that I had never seen.

And for the first time in my life, I realized, what they were there for.

NOELLE KAHANU: And after the exhibit opened, two nieces came forward, Ornetta Kaaa, who was the niece of Joe Keliʻihananui, and Moana Espinda, who was the niece of Dickie Whaley.

And as a result of the exhibit, they were able to meet with Elvin Matson, who had cradled their uncles in his arms.

And they were able to hear from him firsthand not just about how they died, but now they lived, you know, and all the wonderful times that they shared together.

TY TENGAN: It wasn’t until, of course, the new episode that was brought back to life in terms of the museum’s project and oral histories, where the government finally listened to the descendants and had them moved to uh, a place of honor in 2003, buried at the State Veterans Cemetery.

PAUL PHILLIPS: We finally got the State of Hawaiʻi to concede and honor our two fallen comrades.

ORNETTA KAAA: I think there is some closure.

I don’t know about the healing because it’s always there.

It’s sad because a lot of people don’t know what happened.

It will always be important for my generation for the generations after us to know what happened.

NOELLE KAHANU: We're finally ready after sixty or seventy years to really understand the colonization project.

But it's bittersweet because only a handful of those young men who were living on these islands are left.

But I'm really grateful.

I'm grateful that one of them is my grandfather and that we've had this opportunity to spend time together.

GEORGE KAHANU: I feel it in my own heart that we did contribute.

That what we did there had a bearing on how the war went in the Pacific for the US forces.

VICTOR KIM: I feel good that we’re doing something.

You cannot put your finger on it, but it’s a feeling.

So they call us colonists.

Outside of that, I thought we were just occupying an island.

PAUL PHILLIPS: I hope I live to see the day that the Panalaʻau get the recognition they so honorably deserve.

CHOIR SINGING:  “The moon on Jarvis Island just makes me long for you.

Each lonely night as I sit in my shack, it brings memories of you.

I am waiting for my ship to come in to take me back to you, but until that day, my heart aches and prays; Jarvis moon makes me long for you.