pitzerwm
Active member
It was a near suicide mission in April of 1942 when a bombing raid was launched over Japan just a few months after Pearl Harbor. It achieved very little but was a tremendous morale boost for the people of America because finally we had struck back. Most of the crew members of that raid were killed and captured, and many died in captivity. The man speaking was a survivor. There I saw and met Jacob DeShazer.
Young Jake DeShazer was a gunner and crew member on one of the Doolittle raid planes. After the mission it crash landed in occupied China and DeShazer was captured. He spent nearly the next four years in brutal captivity, tortured beyond measure, and watched as friends and mates were executed. But he survived and was released in August of ?45 when the war ended.
But now the rest of the story. He returned to America and went to school to study theology, and in 1948 returned to Japan as a Christian missionary. There he shared his deep God-given love for the Japanese people and his message of forgiveness from him to them; and the message of forgiveness all. I sat there entranced.
But there is more. He then said that at one of his meetings in Japan a man came to him and asked forgiveness too. The man?s name was Mitsuo Fuchida. My mouth dropped open. I was a young student of history even then, and knew that Mitsuo Fuchida was the brilliant young commander of the raid on Pearl Harbor. The one who shouted ?Tora, Tora, Tora!? Was it the same one I thought in surprise!
Today as I write, I still remember the feelings when I remember how Jake DeShazer then told how he and Mitsuo were now loving brothers in faith, and loved each other deeply. The Pearl Harbor bomber and the Doolittle raider; brothers in faith.
The Wall Street Journal article was about Jake DeShazer and his recent death this month at age 95. Here is the article, and the story of Mitsuo Fuchida.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120640512680161037.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuo_Fuchida
Young Jake DeShazer was a gunner and crew member on one of the Doolittle raid planes. After the mission it crash landed in occupied China and DeShazer was captured. He spent nearly the next four years in brutal captivity, tortured beyond measure, and watched as friends and mates were executed. But he survived and was released in August of ?45 when the war ended.
But now the rest of the story. He returned to America and went to school to study theology, and in 1948 returned to Japan as a Christian missionary. There he shared his deep God-given love for the Japanese people and his message of forgiveness from him to them; and the message of forgiveness all. I sat there entranced.
But there is more. He then said that at one of his meetings in Japan a man came to him and asked forgiveness too. The man?s name was Mitsuo Fuchida. My mouth dropped open. I was a young student of history even then, and knew that Mitsuo Fuchida was the brilliant young commander of the raid on Pearl Harbor. The one who shouted ?Tora, Tora, Tora!? Was it the same one I thought in surprise!
Today as I write, I still remember the feelings when I remember how Jake DeShazer then told how he and Mitsuo were now loving brothers in faith, and loved each other deeply. The Pearl Harbor bomber and the Doolittle raider; brothers in faith.
The Wall Street Journal article was about Jake DeShazer and his recent death this month at age 95. Here is the article, and the story of Mitsuo Fuchida.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120640512680161037.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuo_Fuchida