Doolittle Raider meets Pearl Harbor Raider: a story about God’s love and forgiveness.
Over my last few posts, I have mentioned Mitsuo Fuchida. Who was he? He was not your average Japanese pilot. He was Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the infamous raid on Pearl Harbor. It was he who uttered the phrase “Tora-Tora-Tora, [i] launching the surprise attack against Pearl Harbor, propelling us into war with Japan.
America was his hated enemy. That hate grew after Japan was forced to surrender to America and its allies. He hoped to wreak revenge one day on America. After all, that’s what the Japanese warrior code required of him.
All that would change, however, when Fuchida met Jesus. Amazing right? His story is a testimony to the power of God’s love and forgiveness. Jacob DeShazer would play a key role in his finding Jesus.
Mitsuo Fuchida’s background.
Mitsuo Fuchida was born to Yazo and Shika Fuchida on December 3, 1902. He attended Eta Jima, Japan’s naval academy and initially aspired “to become an admiral like the great Heihachiro Togo.[ii] However, he changed his mind after graduation, choosing instead to become a pilot. He would become one of Japan’s top pilots. When Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor, he was the natural choice to lead the attack.
As we all know, his raid was a resounding success, catching America totally off guard. The Japanese initially had the Allies on the run, scoring victory after victory. However, their success was short-lived. Starting with the battle of Midway in June 1942, America began winning the Pacific War. Japan would ultimately be forced to surrender unconditionally to the Allies.
“I was bitter and disillusioned” ~ Mitsuo Fuchida
Fuchida, like many Japanese, was devastated after the war. He wholeheartedly believed Japan’s cause was “righteous.”[iii] His bitterness only grew as his life was totally upended after the war. He was no longer the famous pilot whom people admired. He was reduced to the status of a farmer, a poor one at that. There was nothing for him except to move back to his home province, Nara Prefecture, where he took up farming.
While he worked the land, he continually thought about Japan’s defeat, but he also thought about creation. As he witnessed the changing of the seasons and gazed at the night sky, he realized the universe was designed somehow by Someone.
“I began to realize slowly that all things were dependent upon a divine Creator, and that I was living under the grace of God. I could sow the seeds; I could plant the saplings; I could draw water with my hands. But they all came from the benevolence of a kind and far-seeing Creator.”[iv]
He also began reflecting on his wartime exploits and the many times he escaped death.
2. He later crashed at sea and was rescued.
3. He was ordered to lead a suicide attack team that never deployed.
4. He suffered no ill effects after visiting Hiroshima the day after America dropped the atomic bomb. On August 7, 1945, Fuchida accompanied an assessment team to view the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima. All members of the team reportedly died of radiation poisoning, except Fuchida, who never showed any symptoms of being exposed to the deadly radiation.
Realizing that he had been miraculously spared, not just once but several times, he came to believe that God had saved him for a purpose. He had no idea what, but he thought about it as he farmed.[v]
Fuchida’s first encounter with God’s love and forgiveness.
Fuchida participated in the war tribunals. Seeing his beloved country humiliated before the entire world did nothing to stem his bitterness. He also became convinced that the Japanese POWs had been treated just as badly by the Americans and set out to prove it. As “luck” would have it, he heard about 150 Japanese POWs being returned to Japan. Hoping to uncover America’s war crimes, he met them at the pier.
When they disembarked, he recognized someone he had served with, Sublieutenant Kazuo Kanegasaki. After he told Fuchida how he ended up in an American POW camp, Fuchida asked him how he had been treated. Kanegaskai told him,
“I never experienced nor saw atrocities in American camps. No, I wasn’t always treated kindly. But most of my suffering was mental and spiritual.”
The mental and spiritual suffering was related to being Japanese. In their culture, it was shameful for a warrior to surrender. A true warrior should commit suicide before surrendering. This was one reason the Japanese treated American POWs so cruelly. They saw them as cowards and thus had no respect for them.
Then he told Fuchida how the camp helped him mentally and spiritually.
“Something happened at my camp which made it possible for all of us interned there to stop nursing our resentment and to return to Japan with lightened hearts.”
Kanegasaki told him about Peggy Covell, who voluntarily worked among the POWs. Her sincere kindness touched them deeply. They asked her why she, an American, would help them after they committed so many atrocities against her countrymen.
She told them she was there because of her parents. After the war, she found out that the Japanese had murdered them at the start of the war. Initially, she hated the Japanese, but as she thought about her parents, “she became convinced that they had forgiven their executioners. Could she do less?”[vi] That’s how she came to help the former Japanese POWs.
“This beautiful story overwhelmed me and made me ashamed.” ~ Mitsuo Fuchida
Fuchida was shocked. He simply couldn’t understand Peggy and her parents not seeking revenge. Japanese culture considers revenge a beautiful moral. The Japanese word for revenge is katakiuchi, literally meaning “attack enemy.” Forgiveness is a foreign concept. Loving your enemies? That was beyond Fuchida’s comprehension.
After listening to the story about Peggy Covell, Fuchida continued to interview the POWs about their experiences. None had witnessed any atrocities or cruelty. Fuchida realized that even if they, Peggy’s love and kindness to her parents’ murderers far outweighed any of it.
More importantly, he realized that the goodness he saw in Peggy had a supernatural source, a source he would soon encounter himself.
Fuchida’s second encounter with God’s love and forgiveness.
Fuchida visited Tokyo frequently after the war to help Gordon Prange with a historical book about MacArthur.[vii] In early October 1948, an American stood on the street passing out Gospel tracts. He gave one to Fuchida. Though uninterested, he took it. Then he saw the title “I was a Prisoner of Japan.” Jacob DeShazer, a Doolittle Raider, wrote it. The tract told about his experience as a Japanese prisoner. That got his attention, so he read it. As he boarded the train, he saw ads for a book by DeShazer. Fuchida got off the train, located a bookstore, and bought the book. He read it during his stay in Tokyo.
DeShazer’s story of love and forgiveness spoke to him more deeply than Peggy’s. It’s one thing for a young woman to forgive her enemy. It’s quite another thing for a warrior to do so. Plus, DeShazer wasn’t just any airman. He was one of the Doolittle raiders whom Fuchida greatly admired.
God miraculously provides a Japanese Bible for Fuchida.
After reading DeShazer’s biography and learning the role the Bible played in his conversion, Fuchida set out to find one. Not knowing where to find one, he went back to find the man who gave him DeShazer’s tract. He wasn’t there. Instead, a different man was selling New Testaments in the same spot. Fuchida was surprised at the moderate price because everything was so expensive in Japan after the war. Yes, God had miraculously provided a Bible for him.
Ironically, Fuchida didn’t touch it for nine months. Then he ran across a newspaper article entitled “Heaven Voice Human Voice Told” written by Hakucho Masamune, a famous novelist and Christian. He challenged his fellow Japanese citizens to read any 30 pages in the Bible, assuring them that they would find something in those 30 pages that would move their hearts.
Convicted by Masamune’s words, Fuchida finally started reading the Bible. Luke 23, which recounted Jesus’ crucifixion, spoke to him. He knew about Jesus dying on the cross, but he had never read the story. Luke 23:24 opened his eyes.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
He realized this was the secret behind Peggy Covell and Jacob DeShazer’s love for their enemies. It dawned on him that Jesus not only died and prayed for his enemies but for all of mankind as well. That included him. He knew that Jesus died for his sins on the cross. At that moment, he bowed his head, confessed his sins, and trusted Jesus as his personal Savior. With that, Fuchida knew he had reached the end of his “long, long, wondering.”[viii]
At first, he kept his faith to himself, not telling anyone except for his mistress. Keeping a mistress was an acceptable practice in Japan. So at that time, he saw nothing wrong with it. Anyway, he knew he needed more guidance. He wrote to Timothy Pietsch, whose address was on the back of DeShazer’s tract, telling him he wanted to become a Christian.
Several months later, he met up with Timothy Pietsch and Glenn Wagner. Of course, by then, Fuchida was saved, reading his Bible and praying. He asked them what else he needed to do.
Wagner replied that Jesus called him to be His witness. Fuchida knew Wagner was right. He had been a coward in keeping his faith a secret. He was ready now to witness to others. Little did he know how fast that would happen.
Fuchida becomes the answer to Pietsch and Wagner’s prayers.
They had been asking God to send someone to help them reach the Japanese people. God answered by sending Mitsuo Fuchida to them. Being a war hero, they believed that the Japanese people would listen to him. He was still greatly admired by the Japanese people. They discovered very quickly that they were right about him.
Fuchida finds his God-given mission.
The same day they met with Fuchida, they asked him to accompany them to a planned event. He agreed to go. Pietsch and Wagner, along with a few others, spoke to the small crowd while others passed out New Testaments. The response was tepid at best. After an hour, they asked Fuchida to speak. Recognizing their war hero, the crowd suddenly became attentive. Moreover, the crowd kept growing.
They lingered even after he stopped speaking. Sensing their openness, they gave an encore performance. Fuchida felt totally in his element, and in that moment, he knew that this was the mission God had planned for him.
Fuchida next becomes the answer to DeShazer's prayers.
He had one request for his new friends: he wanted to meet Jacob DeShazer. They readily agreed and arranged the meeting.
About a month and a half before their meeting, DeShazer had become discouraged because so few were responding to his preaching. He decided to fast and pray for 40 days. At the end of his fast, who shows up? Mitsuo Fuchida. DeShazer immediately recognized that Fuchida was the answer to his prayers. He was right.
The two bonded and began preaching together to Japanese crowds. They were an instant sensation. The Japanese people wanted to hear what Mitsuo Fuchida, their national war hero, and Jacob DeShazer, the vaunted Doolittle Raider, had to say. Through their ministry, thousands heard of God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. However, this was only the beginning. Fuchida would later preach all over the world alongside other evangelists, including Billy Graham.
DeShazer and Fuchida’s story speaks to God’s desire to reach the Japanese people.
There were so many ways to go with ending this story. I wasn’t sure which way to go. Then I just “happened” to read a devotional about Francis Xavier, the first missionary to Japan, and how the Japanese ended up killing 30,000 Christians in 1637, effectively wiping out Christianity in Japan. After reading it, I gained a new perspective on their story and knew what I wanted to say.
Their story speaks to God’s love and the lengths he’s willing to go to reach lost sinners, even those who kill His people. Think about it. God could have walked away from Japan after they murdered those 30,000 Christians, but He didn’t. He could have walked away from them after they committed some of the most atrocious acts against humanity during WW2 and in particular against Christians, but he didn’t.
Instead, God sent men like Jacob DeShazer, General MacArthur, Timothy Pietsch, and Glenn Wagner to bring the gospel to Japan. To ensure they heard the gospel, He saved Mitsuo Fuchida, Japan’s national hero, and used him to reach his own people. What amazing love.
In pursuing the Japanese people for centuries despite their sins against Him, God showed the Japanese people, and us, what true forgiveness and love look like.
Fuchida saw it in Peggy Covell and Jacob DeShazer. Their testimonies brought him to Jesus. Love and forgiveness brought Jacob DeShazer to Jesus as well. Because Jesus forgave both of them, they could forgive each other even though they were bitter enemies.
And that’s what the story of these two raiders speaks to - the power of God’s love and forgiveness to transform a person and a society through Jesus. Make no mistake. It was Christianity that transformed a barbaric Western Europe into Western Civilization, but it didn’t start with human history.
But God commended His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God planned for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins long before He created Adam and Eve. He loved us that much. What amazing love, and the story of these two raiders speaks to His love and readiness to forgive each and every one of us. As such, their story is part of His story of redeeming mankind.
[i] “Tora, Tora, Tora!” in English means “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” It was the code word signifying that they had achieved surprise.
[ii] Goldstein, Donald M., and Carol Aiko Deshazer Dixion. Return of the Raider: A Doolittle Raider’s Story of War and Forgiveness. Charisma Media, 2010.
[iii] What did Imperial Japan believe? They believed that the Japanese people were superior to other races, especially the white race. Therefore, it was their divine destiny to rule over all others. Like the Nazis (the National Socialists) who believe the Aryan race was the superior race, they believed they were the superior. By the way, the Aryan race did not include all whites. They saw the Polish people as subhuman.
[iv] Prange, Gordon William, et al. God’s Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor. Potomac Books, Inc., 2004.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Gordon Prange would go on to write a book about Fuchida's life and his conversion to Christianity.
[viii] Ibid.