A SHORT
AMERICAN HISTORY QUIZ ~ Can you name the two most horrendous
occurrences of mass murder of Americans in the past 100 years?
Two events which brought all Americans together in patriotic
fervor?
No? Are you familiar with the Japanese naval attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which took 2403 American lives, destroyed much of our Pacific Naval Fleet, and left large portions of our military bases in Hawaii in shambles? About half of those deaths were on the American battleship, the Arizona.
One of my high school teachers, Ms. Sherrod, lost her foster son, Thomas Steger Sanford, who perished on the Arizona, the first man from our Alabama county, maybe from all Alabama, to die in World War 2.
Yes, 2403 American lives were cut short in just a matter of hours by the Japanese naval air attack, December 7, 1941. That brought patriotic fervor to Americans and put America right in the middle of World War 2, costing America another 420,000 lives in the next four years.
The man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor was Mitsuo Fuchida (1902-1976), Commander of the Japanese Naval Air Group. He was responsible for the co-ordination of the aerial attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and personally led that devastating air attack on Pearl Harbor. It was he who gave the "ATTACK" order which rained death and destruction upon 2403 American military and civilian lives that December 7, 1941.
Or how about the attack against America on September 11, 2001 - which killed 2996 people? That attack was planned and put into motion by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian-born militant, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, and founder of the Pan-Islamic militant organization, al-Qaeda.
In the early 1990s bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network began to formulate an agenda of violent struggle against his perceived threat of U.S. dominance in the Muslim world. And this eventually led to the September 11, 2001, attack on America, killing 2996 people, destroying the World Trade Center towers, and parts of the United States Pentagon, symbol of our American military power.
Those two men, considered mass murderers by all Americans, who together, in just two days (Dec 7 and Sept 11) took almost 6500 American lives. Now picture yourself as a Christian missionary, would you approach either of these two men and tell them, "Jesus loves you. You need Jesus"?
About 20 years ago I met an ex-White Supremacist in California who had become a devout Christian - because a believer met him on the street of Riverside, California, and told him, "Jesus loves you. You need Jesus." He and I sat and talked for several hours - and compared our Christian tract writings. But that is a story for another blog.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches, in Matthew 5:43-44, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
America's response to the December 7,1941, naval air attack on Pearl Harbor was the Doolittle Tokyo Raid on April 18, 1942. Although the raid was called the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, their targets included multiple areas of Tokyo as well as other major cities, such as Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. Primary targets included military facilities, factories, and other industrial centers.
On that April 1942 day America launched 16 B25 bombers from an aircraft carrier and struck Japan in retaliation. Of the 16 USAAF B25 crews involved, 14 crews of five airmen each returned to the United States or to US forces elsewhere – one crew was killed in the attack. Eight U.S. aviators were captured when their planes ran out of fuel and they had to parachute into Japanese held Eastern China. Three of them were later executed.
Among the five surviving POWs, one was Staff Sergeant Jacob DeShazer who had participated in the retaliation strike by the Doolittle Raiders. But after the war he became a Christian missionary in Japan.
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Corporal Jacob DeShazer, 17th Bomb Group, heard news of the attack on Pearl Harbor over the radio. He became enraged, shouting, "Japan is going to have to pay for this!" At that time, he was also an atheist.
How did Commander Mitsuo Fuchida hear about Jesus Christ and the precious gift of eternal life He purchased for all mankind, for all who will believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior? From two very unlikely sources - Peggy Covell, who on December 19, 1943, as a teenager in the Philippines, witnessed as the Japanese soldiers beheaded both her missionary parents.
To Mitsuo Fuchida, this love for one’s enemies was inexplicable, as the Bushido Code required revenge against those who murder one’s parents, to restore honor. He became obsessed with trying to understand why anyone would treat such enemies with kindness and forgiveness.
The extraordinary examples of Peggy Covell, missionary kid orphaned by the Japanese soldiers - and Sergeant Jacob DeShazer, bombardier on a Doolittle Raider B25 sent to revenge Pearl Harbor, to pay back the Japanese - inspired Fuchida to know more about the God of the Christians.
When Japanese Prisoners of War asked the young 18-year-old Peggy Covell why she volunteered to help them, her reply was, “Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents.” Does that make sense? To a Christian believer who knows and follows Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, it does (Matthew 5:43-4).
When Peggy remembered her parents' missionary dedication and service for the Kingdom of God - and their love for the Japanese people, she was convinced that she must continue their Mission, reaching the Japanese people for Christ. As Fuchida researched from every available source in the Philippines who knew the Covells - he learned that her parents had been forced to their knees by their captives and, as they awaited their imminent death - they were praying together, praying for the Japanese!
Jacob DeShazer, I would imagine was a typical American military man who, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, hated the Japanese and gladly participated in the America's revenge attack on Tokyo just 5 months later. Then to be captured along with 7 fellow American aviators and watch as 3 of those brothers-in-arms were executed. That had to really hurt - only months after the devastating attack in Hawaii which took 2403 American lives - then to watch as 3 close friends were executed.
The Doolittle Raid was conceived, planned and executed within five months of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which brought the U.S. into World War 2. It was a large morale boost to the American public and a shock to the Japanese, who had not anticipated that U.S. bombers could reach mainland Japan. On the ground the raid killed only about 50 people and injured 400. Damage to Japanese military and industrial targets was slight - but the raid had major psychological effects. In the United States, it raised patriotic morale.
What happens when we pass out Christian tracts? Since becoming a believer in 1987, one of my writing ministries has been writing and sharing Christian tracts. But, to the best of my knowledge, I have never had one as effective and which had such an impact as the tract titled "I Was A Prisoner Of Japan" the story of Staff Sergeant Jacob DeShazer's capture and imprisonment following the Doolittle Tokyo Raid.
In 1948, after the war, as Mitsuo Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko at the Shibuya station (another interesting story - google "Hachiko Statue in Shibuya") - he was handed a Christian tract about the life of Jacob DeShazer, a member of the Doolittle Raiders, who was captured when his B25 bomber ran out of fuel in a portion of China occupied by the Japanese.
DeShazer was imprisoned for 40 months, 34 of these months in solitary confinement. He was beaten, malnourished, and 3 of his crew were executed by firing squad. A fourth member, Lt. Bob Meder, died of starvation. In the pamphlet: “I Was A Prisoner Of Japan,” DeShazer, a former US Army Air Force staff sergeant and bombardier, related his testimony of imprisonment, torture, and awakening to God.
After 25 months of hating his captors, a Bible came into his possession (not sure of the source), but for only three weeks. But it changed his life completely. He began to learn Japanese and to treat his captors with respect. He resolved to bring the Message of Christ to Japan. After returning to the U.S., DeShazer attended Seattle Pacific College and returned to Japan to preach the Gospel. He established a church in Nagoya, the very city he had bombed years before.
After reading about DeShazer, Mitsuo Fuchida became intrigued with the Christian Faith. The shocking examples of Christians able to forgive their enemies staggered Fuchida. “That’s when I met Jesus. Looking back I can see now that the Lord had laid His Hand upon me so that I might serve Him.”
Bill Gray side note: In April 1962 I was blessed and honored to have been able to attend the 20th Reunion of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders at the Del Mar Beach Club in Santa Monica, California. At that time most of the raiders were still alive and at the reunion. That week I met and talk with many of them, so there is a very good possibility that I met and talked with Jacob DeShazer, but not being a Christian then myself, it would not have meant much to me at that time.
The one person I definitely recall talking with was the one crew chief who had snuck an extra can of fuel on board their B25, which could have caused a crash on take-off, but did not. Those planes, to be able to take off from an aircraft carrier, had very strict weight limits - the fuel, the crew, the bombs - all carefully determined to do what the B25 had not been designed to do, take off from an aircraft carrier.
Because of the fuel allocations, the crews knew that after their attack on Tokyo, they had to crash in China and the Chinese had been organized to recover the crews - and that is how so many came home safely. The one crew who had an extra can of fuel made it back to what they thought was an allied base, in Russia. The Russians kept that crew as "guests" for a year - and never returned our plane.
True stories, the moral of these stories is that no one is so far from God that He cannot reach them - some for eternal life, others for destruction. In 1946 God, through Peggy Covell and Staff Sergeant Jacob DeShazer, reached Commander Mitsuo Fuchida and he became a powerful disciple, sharing his testimony and the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the rest of his life.
And God, on May 2, 2011, through SEAL Team Six, reached Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. In a raid by SEAL Team Six, bin Laden was shot and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the sin penalty for all who will believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior (John 1:12, John 3:16, Ephesians 1:13, etc.). Those who do receive Him, like Mitsuo Fuchida, will live eternally with Him. Those who don't believe, well you know their destiny - and for Osama bin Laden SEAL Team Six was sent to hurry him along. Not being nasty, just Biblical.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
No? Are you familiar with the Japanese naval attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which took 2403 American lives, destroyed much of our Pacific Naval Fleet, and left large portions of our military bases in Hawaii in shambles? About half of those deaths were on the American battleship, the Arizona.
One of my high school teachers, Ms. Sherrod, lost her foster son, Thomas Steger Sanford, who perished on the Arizona, the first man from our Alabama county, maybe from all Alabama, to die in World War 2.
Yes, 2403 American lives were cut short in just a matter of hours by the Japanese naval air attack, December 7, 1941. That brought patriotic fervor to Americans and put America right in the middle of World War 2, costing America another 420,000 lives in the next four years.
The man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor was Mitsuo Fuchida (1902-1976), Commander of the Japanese Naval Air Group. He was responsible for the co-ordination of the aerial attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and personally led that devastating air attack on Pearl Harbor. It was he who gave the "ATTACK" order which rained death and destruction upon 2403 American military and civilian lives that December 7, 1941.
Or how about the attack against America on September 11, 2001 - which killed 2996 people? That attack was planned and put into motion by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian-born militant, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, and founder of the Pan-Islamic militant organization, al-Qaeda.
In the early 1990s bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network began to formulate an agenda of violent struggle against his perceived threat of U.S. dominance in the Muslim world. And this eventually led to the September 11, 2001, attack on America, killing 2996 people, destroying the World Trade Center towers, and parts of the United States Pentagon, symbol of our American military power.
Those two men, considered mass murderers by all Americans, who together, in just two days (Dec 7 and Sept 11) took almost 6500 American lives. Now picture yourself as a Christian missionary, would you approach either of these two men and tell them, "Jesus loves you. You need Jesus"?
About 20 years ago I met an ex-White Supremacist in California who had become a devout Christian - because a believer met him on the street of Riverside, California, and told him, "Jesus loves you. You need Jesus." He and I sat and talked for several hours - and compared our Christian tract writings. But that is a story for another blog.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches, in Matthew 5:43-44, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
America's response to the December 7,1941, naval air attack on Pearl Harbor was the Doolittle Tokyo Raid on April 18, 1942. Although the raid was called the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, their targets included multiple areas of Tokyo as well as other major cities, such as Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. Primary targets included military facilities, factories, and other industrial centers.
On that April 1942 day America launched 16 B25 bombers from an aircraft carrier and struck Japan in retaliation. Of the 16 USAAF B25 crews involved, 14 crews of five airmen each returned to the United States or to US forces elsewhere – one crew was killed in the attack. Eight U.S. aviators were captured when their planes ran out of fuel and they had to parachute into Japanese held Eastern China. Three of them were later executed.
Among the five surviving POWs, one was Staff Sergeant Jacob DeShazer who had participated in the retaliation strike by the Doolittle Raiders. But after the war he became a Christian missionary in Japan.
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Corporal Jacob DeShazer, 17th Bomb Group, heard news of the attack on Pearl Harbor over the radio. He became enraged, shouting, "Japan is going to have to pay for this!" At that time, he was also an atheist.
How did Commander Mitsuo Fuchida hear about Jesus Christ and the precious gift of eternal life He purchased for all mankind, for all who will believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior? From two very unlikely sources - Peggy Covell, who on December 19, 1943, as a teenager in the Philippines, witnessed as the Japanese soldiers beheaded both her missionary parents.
To Mitsuo Fuchida, this love for one’s enemies was inexplicable, as the Bushido Code required revenge against those who murder one’s parents, to restore honor. He became obsessed with trying to understand why anyone would treat such enemies with kindness and forgiveness.
The extraordinary examples of Peggy Covell, missionary kid orphaned by the Japanese soldiers - and Sergeant Jacob DeShazer, bombardier on a Doolittle Raider B25 sent to revenge Pearl Harbor, to pay back the Japanese - inspired Fuchida to know more about the God of the Christians.
When Japanese Prisoners of War asked the young 18-year-old Peggy Covell why she volunteered to help them, her reply was, “Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents.” Does that make sense? To a Christian believer who knows and follows Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, it does (Matthew 5:43-4).
When Peggy remembered her parents' missionary dedication and service for the Kingdom of God - and their love for the Japanese people, she was convinced that she must continue their Mission, reaching the Japanese people for Christ. As Fuchida researched from every available source in the Philippines who knew the Covells - he learned that her parents had been forced to their knees by their captives and, as they awaited their imminent death - they were praying together, praying for the Japanese!
Jacob DeShazer, I would imagine was a typical American military man who, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, hated the Japanese and gladly participated in the America's revenge attack on Tokyo just 5 months later. Then to be captured along with 7 fellow American aviators and watch as 3 of those brothers-in-arms were executed. That had to really hurt - only months after the devastating attack in Hawaii which took 2403 American lives - then to watch as 3 close friends were executed.
The Doolittle Raid was conceived, planned and executed within five months of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which brought the U.S. into World War 2. It was a large morale boost to the American public and a shock to the Japanese, who had not anticipated that U.S. bombers could reach mainland Japan. On the ground the raid killed only about 50 people and injured 400. Damage to Japanese military and industrial targets was slight - but the raid had major psychological effects. In the United States, it raised patriotic morale.
What happens when we pass out Christian tracts? Since becoming a believer in 1987, one of my writing ministries has been writing and sharing Christian tracts. But, to the best of my knowledge, I have never had one as effective and which had such an impact as the tract titled "I Was A Prisoner Of Japan" the story of Staff Sergeant Jacob DeShazer's capture and imprisonment following the Doolittle Tokyo Raid.
In 1948, after the war, as Mitsuo Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko at the Shibuya station (another interesting story - google "Hachiko Statue in Shibuya") - he was handed a Christian tract about the life of Jacob DeShazer, a member of the Doolittle Raiders, who was captured when his B25 bomber ran out of fuel in a portion of China occupied by the Japanese.
DeShazer was imprisoned for 40 months, 34 of these months in solitary confinement. He was beaten, malnourished, and 3 of his crew were executed by firing squad. A fourth member, Lt. Bob Meder, died of starvation. In the pamphlet: “I Was A Prisoner Of Japan,” DeShazer, a former US Army Air Force staff sergeant and bombardier, related his testimony of imprisonment, torture, and awakening to God.
After 25 months of hating his captors, a Bible came into his possession (not sure of the source), but for only three weeks. But it changed his life completely. He began to learn Japanese and to treat his captors with respect. He resolved to bring the Message of Christ to Japan. After returning to the U.S., DeShazer attended Seattle Pacific College and returned to Japan to preach the Gospel. He established a church in Nagoya, the very city he had bombed years before.
After reading about DeShazer, Mitsuo Fuchida became intrigued with the Christian Faith. The shocking examples of Christians able to forgive their enemies staggered Fuchida. “That’s when I met Jesus. Looking back I can see now that the Lord had laid His Hand upon me so that I might serve Him.”
Bill Gray side note: In April 1962 I was blessed and honored to have been able to attend the 20th Reunion of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders at the Del Mar Beach Club in Santa Monica, California. At that time most of the raiders were still alive and at the reunion. That week I met and talk with many of them, so there is a very good possibility that I met and talked with Jacob DeShazer, but not being a Christian then myself, it would not have meant much to me at that time.
The one person I definitely recall talking with was the one crew chief who had snuck an extra can of fuel on board their B25, which could have caused a crash on take-off, but did not. Those planes, to be able to take off from an aircraft carrier, had very strict weight limits - the fuel, the crew, the bombs - all carefully determined to do what the B25 had not been designed to do, take off from an aircraft carrier.
Because of the fuel allocations, the crews knew that after their attack on Tokyo, they had to crash in China and the Chinese had been organized to recover the crews - and that is how so many came home safely. The one crew who had an extra can of fuel made it back to what they thought was an allied base, in Russia. The Russians kept that crew as "guests" for a year - and never returned our plane.
True stories, the moral of these stories is that no one is so far from God that He cannot reach them - some for eternal life, others for destruction. In 1946 God, through Peggy Covell and Staff Sergeant Jacob DeShazer, reached Commander Mitsuo Fuchida and he became a powerful disciple, sharing his testimony and the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the rest of his life.
And God, on May 2, 2011, through SEAL Team Six, reached Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. In a raid by SEAL Team Six, bin Laden was shot and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the sin penalty for all who will believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior (John 1:12, John 3:16, Ephesians 1:13, etc.). Those who do receive Him, like Mitsuo Fuchida, will live eternally with Him. Those who don't believe, well you know their destiny - and for Osama bin Laden SEAL Team Six was sent to hurry him along. Not being nasty, just Biblical.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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