The True Story of Downed Dakota

Fly Dakota,Fly


Five months after the World war two an incident happened in Sado Island where a British military plane made an emergence landing in the island. This incident was never reported due to the time it occurred after the worst war of mankind history where millions of people died. The villager helped to rebuild the plane till its take off.

Dakota was a Royal airplane carrying British soldiers which landed in a village of Takachi of Sado Island on January 14, 1996, only five months after the end of world war two. The name Dakota was used by Britain and Australian aircraft which means Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft, nippon.om reports. The villagers were confused due to arrival of soldiers from a country that was their enemy during the war since Japan belonged to Axis while British were in alliance.

Dakota airplane

The people in that village believed that it was sadonmon spirit to help anyone who needed their help which made them help the soldier remove the airplane from the sea by pulling it with ropes to avoid windstorms from destroying the plane. They also helped in creation of a run way of about 500m which helped the aircraft personnel to take off successfully. It is believed that some of the villagers are still alive at their late seventies living in the island. This incident was not brought to light at that time because it was just after the war and Sado was the place where Japanese and British soldiers dispatched.

The village consisted of older people and women since many soldiers had not returned from the war and many others had died during the war which made it kind of hard for people to say that they had done a good thing in helping other people, ”Dakota people”.

The passengers of Dakota stayed in an inn called Hattori Ryokan owned by the elder of the village for the 40 days they stayed there. The third daughter of the family who is 87 years of age now played a role in the creation of a movie “Fly Dakota, Fly” that explain all the incidents that happened there.

 

Steve Khalif

Steve Khalif is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE