Corporal Jacob Daniel DeShazer was peeling potatoes in a mess hall on Sunday, December 7, 1941, when he heard about the Japanese surprise attack against Pearl Harbor. Hurtling a potato against the wall he shouted, "The Japs are going to have to pay for this!"
DeShazer in the Doolittle Raid
Four months later, on April 18, 1942, Lt. Colonel James Doolittle led sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers from the aircraft carrier Hornet on a secret mission to bring the war home to the Japanese mainland. According to DoolittleRaider.com, DeShazer was the bombardier on the sixteenth B-25 as they flew across the Pacific Ocean toward their targets in Japan.
DeShazer's plane bombed oil storage tanks and an aircraft factory in Nagoya then headed toward China. Dense fog and low fuel hampered them but they managed to fly 200 miles inland before the pilot ordered the crew to bail out. Landing near Japanese-controlled Nanchang, all five men were captured by noon of the following day.
DeShazer as a Prisoner of War
The crew members of Plane Sixteen along with three survivors of Plane Six suffered terribly as POWs at the hands of their Japanese captors. DeShazer later wrote in "I Was a Prisoner of Japan" that, "we were imprisoned and beaten, half-starved, terribly tortured, and denied by solitary confinement even the comfort of association with one another." He added that his hatred of his captors nearly drove him crazy.
Three of the prisoners were executed on October 15, 1942, and another died of malnutrition in December, 1943. During all of this, DeShazer started to wonder what caused such hatred to exist between humans and then began examining his own feelings about what made him hate the Japanese.
He remembered hearing as a child that Christianity could change hatred into real brotherly love and he began begging his captors for a Bible. In May, 1944, a guard brought him a Bible but told him he could only have it for three weeks. DeShazer read the Bible constantly and was so fascinated by the Old Testament prophets that he read them over and over again. As he read, he became aware of a new attitude toward his captors and wrote that, "I found my bitter hatred for them changed to loving pity."
He decided that his captors were cruel because they did not know Jesus so he started praying for God to forgive his captors and then determined that, if he survived the war, he would do what he could to share the message of salvation with the Japanese.
On August 20, 1945, Allied forces parachuted in and freed the prison camp. During his 40 months of captivity DeShazer had served 34 in solitary confinement. The emaciated prisoners were flown back to the United States and hospitalized where they slowly regained their strength.
For his service, DeShazer received the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Purple Heart and Chinese Breast Order of Yung Hui.
DeShazer Returns to Japan as a Missionary
Less than a month after being freed, Jacob DeShazer started classes at Seattle Pacific, a Christian college in Seattle, Washington. There, he met Florence Matheny, whom he married, and eventually became a father to five children. Graduating in just three years, the former prisoner of war followed through on his promise and returned to Japan as a missionary, arriving in Yokohama on December 28, 1948.
When DeShazer had written "I Was a Prisoner of Japan" he started handing out the pamphlet to the Japanese. The document detailed his change from hate to love and he recalls that the Japanese were quite curious why he would return to a country which had caused him to suffer so much. He writes that, when they asked, "I started to tell them about Jesus."
In his first year, there were an estimated 30,000 conversions with one of those being the prison guard who had given DeShazer the Bible. The following year, DeShazer met Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese pilot who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fuchida himself converted to Christianity and became a minister, too.
In 1959, the DeShazers moved to Nagoya which is the city he had bombed on the Doolittle raid. He continued to live in Japan for nearly 30 years establishing several Free Methodist churches, traveling extensively and holding countless revivals. He finally retired in 1977 and moved back to Oregon with his wife.
He died in his sleep on March 15, 2008.
The story of Jacob Daniel DeShazer is truly a unique story and demonstrates in a real life example how hate can turn to love and ultimately prevail even in the most brutal of environments.
References:
- "DeShazer." Doolittle Raider.com (Jan. 29, 2012)
- DeShazer, Jacob Daniel. "I Was a Prisoner of Japan" (Self-produced pamphlet: 1950) (Jan. 29, 2012)
Ronald G Falconberry - Ron Falconberry is an IT professional and freelance writer who enjoys researching and writing articles on Bible topics, history, and ...
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