On the morning of December 7, 1941, Petty Officer 1st Class Norinobu Mizuki broadcast three code words across his radio: “Tora, Tora, Tora!” His broadcast was at the order of his pilot and the overall commander of the Japanese aerial strike force: Mitsuo Fuchida.
The attack on Pearl Harbor had begun.
By the time it was over, 2,400 Americans lost their lives and the US Pacific Fleet was devastated.
The successful attack on America’s military presence in Hawaii opened the door for more Japanese expansionism, and it made Fuchida a hero to his homeland.
For months, Japan dominated the Pacific and spread its imperial tentacles.
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the empire of the Rising Sun encompassed a wide swath of territory, including Manchuria in the north and much of New Guinea in the south. In the west, they touched India and reached out to the Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific. And of course they ruled the Philippines. They even flirted with the idea of invading Australia.
The American people on the West Coast were terrified at the prospect of Japanese troops landing on California. (Parts of Alaska would be attacked during the war).
Such fears were not unfounded. Few military forces in world history have committed as many human rights atrocities as the Japanese did in the Second World War.
A loyal soldier in Japan’s armed forces, Fuchida fully embraced the “War Catechism” of the military class in Imperial Japan. In his brief autobiography, written after the war, Fuchida wrote:
I had never been an atheist in the extreme use of the word, but religion had had little place in my thinking. In my early life, there was very little religious atmosphere. Consequently, I grew up to manhood without any formal religion. After I enlisted, the former “War Catechism” became the sum total of my ideology.
Fuchida, Mitsuo. From Pearl Harbor to Calvary, originally published in 1959
Yet even though he gave his whole heart and duty to the cause, he began to sense another dimension to his life and reality — and that he was being preserved for … something.
Fuchida explains how he survived several situations during the war — episodes that (humanly speaking) should have killed him. As but one example, Fuchida explains that, during the Battle of Midway, he was in sickbay on the carrier Akagi, recovering from an appendix operation.
I was confined to a hammock, having just undergone an appendectomy. The American planes began to rake our ship with fire. Two bombs hit the deck, which was filled with planes. They did terrible damage. Another bomb blew out the side of the ship where I was laying. I was blown out into the ocean! Both of my legs were broken, but I managed to somehow stay afloat. After about twenty minutes, one of the destroyers picked me up. The [Akagi] sank to the bottom of the Pacific. Had it not been for the grace of God, I would have been down there with the rest who sank.
Ibid
At the time, of course, Fuchida didn’t credit God because he didn’t (yet) believe in God. Nevertheless, this episode – along with several others – triggered some serious reflection.
“Gradually, I came to believe that I had been supported by some great, unseen power,” Fuchida explained. “My sullenness began to be diffused and dispelled by a sense of gratitude.”
After the war, and with the utter defeat of the Japanese Empire, Fuchida (like many) did some serious soul-searching. His reflection on the war led him to start writing a book that he planned to title No More Pearl Harbor.
“So long as the peoples of the world remained in opposition to one another,” remarked Fuchida, “the only ultimate consequence could be the destruction of human civilization.”
But how to avert this catastrophe? If peace is the answer, how can the human race achieve it? “Who, I asked myself, could accomplish the task of banishing suspicion and war?” wrote Fuchida in his autobiography. “My mind turned toward God, the Creator of all things.”
It was at this point in his search that Fuchida reconnected with a friend — a man who had been held as a prisoner of war by the Americans. In talking with his friend, Fuchida heard the story of a “certain American girl” who visited the camp and showed great kindness to the Japanese prisoners there.
One of the prisoners soon asked the girl why she showed such kindness to them — in the midst of a brutal war. And her response stunned Fuchida’s friend (and his fellow prisoners) to the core.
“Because my parents were killed by the Japanese Army,” she said.
This American girl, who Fuchida does not name in his autobiography, was none other than Peggy Covell – a woman worthy of tribute in her own right. (And I will probably do a write-up on her in a future post).
Covell’s parents were Christian missionaries in the Philippines. They were killed by the Japanese — one of many families impacted by Japan’s barbaric cruelty. And yet Covell chose forgiveness and love over hate and vengeance.
“I could not understand such enemy-forgiving love,” wrote Fuchida. “Where did man find such love?”
Months later, Fuchida was summoned to the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the Allies’ occupation of Japan. In his autobiography, he does not explain the nature of the summons, if he met with MacArthur, or what transpired in said meeting.
Instead, he focuses on receiving a leaflet from an American missionary outside of the Shibuya train station. That leaflet was titled “I Was a Prisoner of Japan,” and it was written by Sergeant Jacob DeShazer.
DeShazer was a part of General Jimmy Doolittle’s “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” raid and was taken captive by the Japanese after parachuting from his bomber when it ran of gas.
The tract detailed DeShazer’s testimony — how he bitterly hated the Japanese following Pearl Harbor. When he heard the news, while peeling potatoes, he hurled one of the potatoes and shouted: “Jap… Wait and see what we will do to you!”
His hatred intensified from there. He volunteered for the Doolittle raid and, at one point, allowed his bitterness to get the best of him — going so far as to fire on a Japanese fishing vessel during the bombing raid. Once captured, DeShazer was treated as a war criminal and experienced great hardship in captivity.
One night, he wondered why such hatred should exist between human beings and even in his own heart. He begged for a Bible, and was at first refused. Finally, his captors relented and loaned him a Bible, telling him he could have it for three weeks.
DeShazer spent hours reading through the Word of God and ultimately gave his heart to Jesus Christ.
His entire attitude changed toward the guards, who marveled how a religious book could make that much of a difference.
They let him keep the Bible.
After the war, DeShazer was returned to America, but he enrolled in Bible college, and soon came back to Japan – this time not with bombs but with Bibles. He became an American missionary spreading a message of love, forgiveness, and redemption.
“When I had finished reading Sergeant DeShazer’s story, I became more ashamed than ever of my own revengeful spirit,” wrote Fuchida. “If a Bible could change his life, it might change mine. I bought a Bible for myself.”
Fuchida dove into the Bible and came to the crucifixion of Jesus. The words of Jesus on the cross changed Fuchida’s life forever: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).
“Here was the source of this miracle of love that can forgive enemies!” he exclaimed. “I am not ashamed to say that my eyes filled with tears. Immediately, I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior.”
Mitsuo Fuchida had found his answer — his answer to the violence and hate that characterized so much of human history. “I firmly believe that Christ is the only answer and the only hope of this world.”
Fuchida reached out to the missionary who had given him the DeShazer tract. He soon became acquainted with an entire missionary network in Japan, and began sharing his story. And his story made the newspapers!
Soon, he was invited to the United States, where he toured much of the country, sharing his story and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
My first exposure to the story of Mitsuo Fuchida was through a comic book! Even as a kid, I was a history buff! And like many kids in my time, I enjoyed comic books. And when I saw a comic book with a picture of a Japanese Zero on it bombing Pearl Harbor, I had to buy it. And it was all about Fuchida’s story.
Fuchida died in 1976, but his legacy lives on.
One of the most heartwarming components of Fuchida’s incredible story is that he became good friends with Jacob DeShazer.
Think about it!
The man who, when he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor, shouted “Jap…. Wait and see what we will do to you!” became a brother in Christ and dear friend with the man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor!
Jesus Christ is indeed the Prince of Peace!
