Allan Beekman

Allan Beekman (b. January 16, 1913, d. October 29, 2001) was the author of "The Niihau Incident", "

Born in Utica, New York, Beekman moved to Hawaii as a young man in the early 1930s and, feeling it was paradise on earth, lived there the remainder of his life. He became fluent in the Japanese language, enabling him to write about the Japanese experience from Japanese language sources not available in English. He also became a scholar in Japanese immigrant history.

He was a reporter for the "Honolulu Star-Bulletin,"and, later, wrote features and a weekly book review for more than 20 years at "Pacific Citizen," a weekly newspaper directed to Americans of Japanese descent.

Several of the stories in "Hawaiian Tales," published in 1972, dealt with pre-, post-, and wartime experiences of Japanese immigrants.

"The Niihau Incident" was a nonfiction account of the crash-landing of a Japanese Zero on the Hawaiian island of Niihau immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Beekman was the first to uncover some important details, until then unavailable in English, of the story of the Japanese fighter pilot, Shiegenori Nishikaichi. Nishikaichi, unable to return to his carrier after the attack, crashed on the American island of Niihau and terrorized its residents for seven days. During this time the U.S. government was completely unaware of his presence there. After many years of original and in-depth research, Beekman grew to be the world authority on this incident.

The pilot's Zero had been on Niihau, left where it crashed, up to November 2006. It has since been transported to the Pacific Aviation Museum, where it is on exhibit. A world-class, US. military aviation museum, the Pacific Aviation Museum held its grand opening on December 7, 2006. The museum is on Ford Island, a small U.S. Navy island in Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona Memorial and the USS MIssouri are both berthed on Ford Island, just a short distance from the museum.

"Study is my hobby," Beekman told the Star-Bulletin in an interview. Though an excellent student, severe deafness, which began its onset at the age of 16, and the Great Depression kept him from going to college as a young man. Nevertheless, he was a voracious reader, a diligent and conscientious researcher, and a competent student of the Japanese language.

Beekman married Take Okawa, a former Japanese-language schoolteacher educated in Tokyo and Hawaii, who collaborated with her husband on several Japanese immigrant stories.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Beekman also worked as a security guard at Queen's Medical Center.

"I enjoy talking to all the different people," Beekman told the Star-Bulletin in 1974. "A writer shouldn't isolate himself from people, but be where people are."

Beekman championed the rights of Japanese Americans with articles and letters to the editor of Honolulu dailies, along with local political commentaries. He died in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 29, 2001.

References

* "The Niihau Incident" (ISBN 0-9609132-0-3)
* "Crisis: The Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor and Southeast Asia" (ISBN 0-9609132-3-8)