Hope over hatred and despair

Remember Pearl Harbor!

Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Isaiah 2:4c

Sixty-nine years ago today the naval air forces of Japan launched a devastating surprise attack on United States naval ships and other military targets on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It was the worst defeat recorded for the United States Navy. Over 2700 lives were lost that December morning. Over 1100 men were killed when the battleship U.S.S. Arizona took a direct hit in its black powder magazines.

The attack was a complete success in the eyes of the Japanese airmen who flew in the raid, lead by Imperial Japanese Navy Commander Mitsuo Fuchida.

The attack by Japan forced the United States to declare war on the Japanese empire, as well as her allies Germany and Italy.

The battle cry “Remember Pearl Harbor” sent Americans by the millions to enlist in the war effort and support it with their flesh, blood, and treasure. The war was fought until August 1945 when Japan surrendered unconditionally to the United States and her allies.

The war in the Pacific was especially brutal, fueled by racism on both sides that dehumanized the foe and traumatized the combatants.

America would suffer a string of defeats from December 1941 until April 1942, when a retaliatory raid was launched against Japan by U.S. Army Air Corps bombers flown off a naval carrier.

An air man on that raid was Sgt. Jake DeShazer, who flew as a bombardier on Plane No. 16 that launched from the U.S.S. Hornet.

After the war, Commander Fuchida was despondent and out of work. He represented many of his fellow Japanese, a thoroughly defeated foe.

In 1950 Mr. Fuchida went to hear Mr. DeShazer speak at an evangelism rally in Japan. Mr. DeShazer had made a promise on April 18th, 1942 as he was bombing the empire of Japan, that if he survived the Doolittle Raid he would return to Japan as a Christian missionary.

Two old foes had a chance to meet, and Jake DeShazer brought Mitsuo Fuchida to accept Jesus Christ as his savior.

Both men endured ridicule and outright rejection by their former comrades in arms for befriending the enemy.

Later in his life, exactly twenty-five years after leading the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitsuo Fuchida presented the Pearl Harbor survivors association with a bible.

Fuchida and DeShazer remained close friends for the rest of their lives.

It is a miracle, that in the cauldron of human conflict played out in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WW2, two old foes found a common identity in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.