Originally posted by M©+square:
I rest my case after this story.
For the benefit of Nic and your post. I reply on the basis on why i
find that Personal interpretation is [b]NOT totally
fallible. There is power and life in the Word. Power of
Transformation is unimaginable. [/b]
Come, let me help you (I'm following the example of vince who
often adds or clarifies what I say)
http://www.doolittleraider.com/raiders/deshazer.htm
DeShazer was subjected to unbelievable cruelty, including being
forced to watch helplessly while one of his friends died of slow
starvation. "My hatred for the enemy nearly drove me
crazy," he said. "My thoughts turned toward what I had heard about
Christianity changing hatred between human beings into real
brotherly love. I begged my captors to get me a Bible, and when the
emperor of Japan told them to treat us better, I got
one."
"I begged my captors to get me a Bible, and when the emperor of
Japan told them to treat us better, I got one."
The sentence that changed DeShazer's world was "Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do."
"I realized that these people did not know anything about my Savior
and that if Christ is not in a heart, it is natural to be cruel,"
says DeShazer.
DeShazer was liberated in August 1944 by the 442nd Regiment Combat
Team when they parachuted into China. One of his liberators, Dick
Hamada, joined DeShazer at the chapel service.
"They were emaciated," recalled Hamada, now 79. "The Japanese
didn't even consider them prisoners of war. They were 'war
criminals."
DeShazer returned to the United States where Gen. Hap Arnold
promoted him to staff sergeant. "General Arnold said I became a
sergeant the moment the wheels left the deck [before the raid],"
DeShazer recalled.
His experiences as a prisoner of war influenced him to go to Japan
as a missionary.
"When I was a prisoner, I was afraid I was going to die and
I told God 'I don't want to go up there with empty hands; I want to
do something for Jesus." He attended college, then
seminary to prepare for his new mission as an ambassador for
Christ.
Before he arrived in Japan, DeShazer wrote a tract entitled "I Was
a Prisoner of Japan," that was widely distributed throughout Japan.
One person who read this tract was an embittered Japanese ex-pilot,
Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. The
message was completely different from anything the officer had ever
heard. All of his dreams had been shattered, and he was ready to
consider the claims of Christ.
In one of the strangest and most inspiring stories to come out of
World War II, Fuchida, the Japanese pilot who bombed Pearl Harbor,
and DeShazer, the Doolittle Raider who bombed Tokyo, became close
friends. Fuchida became a Christian in 1950 and, like DeShazer,
spent the rest of his life as a missionary in Asia.
When DeShazer and his wife Florence went to Japan in 1948, they
found a fertile field for missionary work. "MacArthur told them
[Japanese] that they ought to be Christians," DeShazer recalled.
"They wanted to find out what was right. A lot of the young people
committed suicide when the emperor told them he was just another
human being. They had been brought up to believe the emperor was a
divine person. When we told them about the Lord, they said 'We
never heard anything like this before!"
Hamada recalled the first time he and DeShazer met since the rescue
over half a century ago. Hamada wanted to find out what became of
the men he rescued.
"My daughter got on the internet and found Jacob DeShazer of the
Free Methodist Church in Salem, Oregon. I called, told Mrs.
DeShazer who I was, and she shouted 'Jacob! Jacob!"
Hamada and DeShazer saw each other again after 55 years at a
reunion of the Doolittle Raiders in Fresno, Calif., three weeks
before the movie premiere. They had corresponded, but never
expected to meet. The chapel service marked only the second time
the two men have met since 1944.
While the movie "Pearl Harbor" introduces a new generation to the
events that led America on a journey from defeat to victory,
DeShazer's message focuses on a personal journey from hatred to
love and how that experience turned him from an agent of revenge
into an ambassador of reconciliation.
