How God used the Doolittle raiders to further the Gospel
So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important -- why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. ~ Ronald Reagan
Wow! Of all the historical figures to mention, Reagan mentions Jimmy Doolittle as the one we should teach our children about.[i] I agree with Reagan especially after reading numerous articles and a few books about the Dolittle Raiders. They undertook a real life mission impossible. Yet, they were not superheroes; they were just ordinary, imperfect people simply answering the call to defend their country. We live freely because of men like them. We should all know their story, not just our children.
The Doolittle Raiders should also be remembered for their role in reaching Japan for Christ.
Surprised? I was. Initially, I was looking for just one Christian who prayed for the wind to shift; instead I found four. What’s more, I suspect there were more. Two Christians survived; one was executed and one died in captivity.
The most well-known was Jacob DeShazer. Several books have been written about him because he went back to Japan as a missionary after being held captive by the Japanese for 40 months.[ii] He was born on November 15, 1912, in West Stayton, Oregon. He was raised in Christian home but he didn’t personally trust Jesus as his Lord and Savior as a child. It took being a Japanese POW to make him see his need of a savior.
He wrote a tract about how his experience led him to trust Jesus and gave him a love for the Japanese people.
I was a prisoner of war for 40 long months, 34 of them in solitary confinement.
Taken to prison with the survivors of another of our planes, we were imprisoned and beaten, half-starved, terribly tortured, and denied by solitary confinement even the comfort of association with one another. Three of my buddies were executed by a firing squad about six months after our capture and 14 months later, another one of them died of slow starvation. My hatred for the enemy nearly drove me crazy.
He hated the Japanese for Pearl Harbor and for executing three of his friends. When they let his friend, Lt. Robert Meder, a Christian, die of starvation,[iii] his hate grew to the point where it became unbearable. The sin of hate made him search something, anything to relieve it, eventually leading him back to Jesus.
It was soon after the latter's death that I began to ponder the cause of such hatred between members of the human race. I wondered what it was that made one people hate another people and what made me hate them.
God answered DeShazer longing to read the Bible. “Out of the blue,” the Japanese gave the captured raiders some books to read. One of them was a Bible. DeShazer devoured it when it was his turn to have it. In Romans, he found the solution to his hatred.
Once saved, God spoke to him about forgiving his enemies.
When DeShazer first arrived at the prison, he witnessed a prison guard beating a woman. He had never seen anyone treated so cruelly in America. He realized that it was Christianity that made the difference between American and Japanese societies.
Forgiving your enemies is a foreign concept in many cultures and religions. Over the years, I’ve met many people who told me how the verses about forgiving and loving their enemies eventually led them to Jesus. I couldn’t understand why. After reading DeShazer’ testimony, I began to wonder if the sin of hate became too heavy a burden for them to carry as it did with DeShazer, causing them to look for a solution as well. Then, like DeShazer, they found Jesus was the answer.
DeShazer realized that the Japanese people needed Jesus and committed his life to reaching them with the gospel.
Upon returning to the U.S. after the war, he enrolled in Bible college and then returned to Japan with his wife. Many Japanese came to the Lord as a result of their ministry, including the lead pilot of the Pearl Harbor attack, Mitsuo Fuchida. Yes, he was saved and DeShazer was a big part of that. It is an amazing story but I’ll save that for another time.
The Japanese thought Americans would hate them. Why? Because they had been taught to hate their enemies. They were completely undone by his forgiveness and love which was demonstrated by his returning to Japan. His actions made them open to the Gospel.
Seeing how DeShazer’s story fits in with God’s story of redemption.
I struggled with where to go with this story. There is so much to it! I thought about blogging more about DeShazer’s amazing ministry. However, I decided on a different direction. As I read about the Doolittle Raiders, I saw the bigger picture, how DeShazer’s story and that of the Doolittle Raiders show the great lengths God went to reach the Japanese people.
God worked behind the scenes to save the captured Doolittle Raiders.
At last freedom came. On August 20, 1945 parachutists dropped onto the prison grounds and released us from our cells. ~ Jacob DeShazer
Unless you know the history behind the captured Doolittle Raiders, you probably wouldn’t give their rescue a second thought. After all, we rescued thousands of POWS but most of the time we liberated them with ground forces. Whereas with the Doolittle Raiders troops parachuted. Why? The answer to that question shows how God ensured their rescue.
After the raid, the Japanese claimed that they had executed all 8 of the captured Doolittle Raiders. In reality, they had executed only three. No one knew that, however, because they kept their capture a secret by isolating them from other American POWs. Why? That allowed them the freedom to kill the raiders at any time during or after the war. However, a few Americans just “happened” to pass through the same prison.
Seven U.S. marines showed up one day during their captivity. Even though they were kept apart, the Japanese used the same metal teacups to feed them all. One day, Lt. Nielson, a Doolittle Raider noticed someone had scratched “U.S. Marines” on the bottom of one of the cups. The raiders sharpened some nails and began corresponding with the marines. The Japanese were oblivious to their “correspondence” for two months. However, it was long enough for the Doolittle Raiders to make themselves known to the marines.
When the marines were released at the end of the war, they told the American rescue team about the four raiders. The team immediately demanded the release of the raiders. The Japanese initially denied they were alive but finally admitted they were and gave up their location. The OSS parachuted in near the prison as quickly as possible and rescued them.
Think about it. Who made sure the encounter with the marines happened and blinded the eyes of the Japanese to their communication with the raiders? Only One Person could have done that, the God of the universe. Yes, God made sure they were rescued.
DeShazer’s mission becomes the mission of the Doolittle Raiders.
Every year until 2013 the Doolittle Raiders held a reunion. At the sixth reunion in 1950, they voted to support DeShazer’s mission in Japan. In fact, that was the main objective at the 1950 reunion. What led to that decision?
At one of the reunions, De Shazer was seated next to Colonel Ross Greening, pilot of the 11th bomber. Greening noticed DeShazer didn’t drink his champagne and asked him why. DeShazer told how God saved him and called him to be a missionary to the Japanese people. Afterwar, DeShazer and Greening continued to talking about DeShazer’s missionary call. Their conversations became known to the other raiders and led them to financially support DeShazer’s ministry.[iv]
When I read this, I was stunned. The Doolittle Raiders supported DeShazer’s missionary efforts to the Japanese people? Incredible. That made me wonder how many of them were Christians before the raid? Moreover, I wondered how many were saved after the raid because of DeShazer’s testimony? I don’t have answers to those questions – yet. Then I had a lightbulb moment.
Is it possible that the Doolittle Raid was part of God’s plan to reach the Japanese people?
Think about it. The raid led to DeShazer’s imprisonment. It was in that prison that he found Jesus and God called him to reach the Japanese.
Then think about why the Raid happened in the first place. It was our response to the Pearl Harbor attack. God took "a date which will live in infamy," and turned what man meant for evil into good.
The Doolittle Raiders’ mission was to show the Japanese, our enemy, that we could physically reach them, but God had another mission for them as well, to reach the Japanese spiritually.
When we see the Doolittle Raiders’ story in its entirety, we see God’s hand in it. That should not surprise us since their story is part of His story to redeem mankind.
[i] Under Reagan’s presidency, Congress advanced Doolittle to full general on the Air Force retired list, making him the first person in Air Force history to wear four stars.
[ii] I could find much on the other three. Still, their stories are worth telling and I plan to blog about them later.
[iii] Watson, Charles Hoyt. De Shazer: The Doolittle Raider Who Turned Missionary. 2011.
[iv] Watson, Charles Hoyt. De Shazer: The Doolittle Raider Who Turned Missionary. 2011.