5 August 2014 Last updated at 20:36 ET Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

ShareFacebookTwitter.The Solomon Islanders who saved JFKBy Rob Brown

BBC World Service

"Words can't really describe what a remarkable man he was," says local historian and dive school owner Danny Kennedy, an American now living in the Solomon Islands - and no relation to JFK.

"Every time we saw him, he was just the most animated, energetic little guy - bouncing around with all this energy, even at 93 years old. But I still don't think he ever realised what a brave guy he was."

Kumana's grandson, Rellysdom Malakana, says: "He did not feel like he was someone special. But people from overseas, people from America, they are the ones who told my grandfather that he was a special man - that he was the hero who rescued John F Kennedy."

In the early hours of 2 August 1943 several US Navy "patrol torpedo" boats were positioned off the coast of the Solomon Islands - then known as the British Solomon Islands Protectorate - not far from Papua New Guinea. Their mission was to intercept a convoy of Japanese ships that were regularly transporting soldiers further south to join the fight against US forces in the Pacific.
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