“Tora, Tora, Tora!”
A veteran Naval aviator with 10,000 flying hours, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida led 183 aircraft on the Pearl Harbor raid. His radioman signaled the famous coded message as bombs, torpedoes, and bullets devastated American naval and military forces in the Hawaiian Islands. The Japanese sunk 21 vessels including most of the battleships, killed 2400+ sailors, destroyed 188 aircraft, and damaged another 159. Fuchida’s squadrons experienced light losses, with only 29 aircraft shot down.
The Captain urged a second launch to hit vital American drydocks and oil storage facilities. Vice Admiral Nagumo refused, saying the audacious attack was a decisive victory. Japan’s audacious air attack was designed to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers, break America’s will to fight, remove U.S. economic sanctions, and secure a negotiated peace.
The Japanese had calculated wrong.
December seventh.
Nineteen forty one.
A date which will live — in infamy.
As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood before the combined U.S. Congress and Senate, he evoked uncanny resolve and unity among the assembled leaders. Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK8gYGg0dkE
But always, will our whole nation, remember the character of the onslaught against us! No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery will never again endanger us.
We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God!
Less than five months later, America launched its own daring attack. On April 18, 1942, sixteen U.S. Army bombers took off from the USS Hornet destined to bomb Japan. Corporal Jacob DeShazer served as bombardier on airplane number 16.
During preparation for the launch, DeShazer’s aircraft had sustained a damaged nose canopy leaving a large hole. Aircraft number 16 fell behind the formation but continued toward the objective, hitting Nagoya. Unable to sustain flight to friendly lines due to the drag from the shattered window, the crew parachuted in the fog over Japanese-occupied China.
DeShazer hated the Japanese, who had captured his crew and executed his pilot and engineer gunner after tying them to crosses. As guards slowly starved a fellow crew member who encouraged hope and faith, Jacob wondered if he would ever return home. In 1944, the Japanese emperor called for better treatment of prisoners. DeShazer received an English Bible from his captors, read the Gospel over a three week period, and gave his life to Christ. His bitter heart toward the Japanese turned toward pity and love. After the war, Jacob DeShazer attended seminary and returned to Japan as an evangelist.
Peggy Covell’s parents were missionaries in the Philippines. Upon their capture by the Japanese in December 1943, they asked for thirty minutes to pray before their execution by beheading. Undaunted by her parents’ death and empowered by a strong faith, Peggy ministered to Japanese prisoners in Colorado. When a boat returned 150 prisoners after the war to Yokosuka, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida saw a familiar face, flight engineer Kazuo Kanegasaki.
How did the Americans treat you, old friend?
With respect. I met a young American woman named Peggy whose missionary parents were beheaded. She treated us as a sister to relatives, telling us Jesus Christ loved us and died for us. We didn’t understand it.
Fuchida didn’t understand either. He wondered why his aircraft remained airborne over Pearl Harbor despite being hit 21 times by anti-aircraft fire, the rudder cable holding by a thread. Suffering from appendicitis six days before the Battle of Midway, Fuchida served on the bridge of the aircraft carrier Akagi when American bombers attacked. Both ankles broken in the destruction of his ship, Fuchida was evacuated to Japan and medically grounded.
Assigned near Guam on Vice Admiral Kakuta’s cadre, Fuchida was recalled from Tinian two weeks prior to the senior staff choosing seppuku, a samurai ritual of suicide by disembowelment rather than surrender to advancing U.S. forces. Next, Fuchida was detailed to organize the aerial defense of Hiroshima. On August 5, 1945, he was summoned for a briefing in Tokyo. The next day over breakfast, Fuchida learned his entire team and thousands of others had died in the massive blast that ushered in the nuclear era.
World War II had ended. However, Mitsuo struggled with lingering hate for the Americans. Why did he survive?
But God had a redemptive plan for Mitsuo Fuchida. Fuchida was given and read a pamphlet printed in Japanese about how Jacob DeShazer met Christ while in Japanese captivity. Mitsuo respected this American Doolittle Raider who had fought honorably and wondered why Jacob would preach the gospel in Japan. Fuchida was captivated by Kanegasaki’s story about Peggy Covell, who forgave, served, and loved the Japanese despite her parents’ violent death.
Fuchida bought a Bible, but continued to wonder what it all meant. Why would these people love and forgive their enemies? It didn’t make any sense. Fuchida found the answer in Luke 23:34 of the New Testament:
Father, forgive them.
They don’t know what they’re doing.
In 1950, Mitsuo prayed and came to know Jesus. Soon thereafter Fuchida knocked on the door of Jacob DeShazer’s residence to introduce himself.
Come in, come in!
Former enemies became brothers, preaching the Lord’s message of forgiveness and hope to thousands all over the world. The legacy and example of former enemies Mitsuo Fuchida and Jacob DeShazer continues today.
What about our circumstances now, 79 years later?
Is there someone (or something) in your life needing redemption and forgiveness?
How is God at work in you?
Sources:
(1) https://www.christiantreasury.org/content/mitsuo-fuchida-forgotten-story-faith
(2) https://www.stripes.com/news/pearl-harbor-pilot-became-evangelist-1.85934
(3) http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pearl2.htm
(4) https://spu.edu/depts/uc/response/spring2k4/eternity.html
(5) https://providencefoundation.com/baptism-by-fire-pearl-harbor-hand-of-god-mitsuo-fuchida/
(6) https://bulletininserts.org/the-strange-love-of-peggy-covell/
(7) http://www.doolittleraider.com/raiders/deshazer.htm