Today is the eighty-second anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The flight leader of this attack was Mitsuo Fuchida. He led that deadly force, damaging the US fleet at Pearl. As far as he was concerned, the US fleet was grass, would wither and fall. Fuchida and his bomber team took the US forces by surprise, winning the battle but eventually losing the war. Fuchida escaped many near-death experiences: radiation poisoning at Hiroshima, seppuku (the required ritual suicide for a failed mission). “The sword of death missed me by inches,” he remarked.
After the war, Fuchida met his former flight engineer who had been an American prisoner. Instead of sharing stories of torture, Fuchida was astounded to hear of the compassionate forgiveness of his flight officer by an American Christian caregiver whose missionary parents were killed by the Japanese, sparking an interest in Christianity. Fuchida became a Christian in 1949, discovering God’s reason for saving him. Becoming a minister, forming the Captain Fuchida Evangelistic Association, he toured the world telling his conversion story, paralleling Paul’s conversion. Fuchida heard “a voice of one calling,” changed his mission, went into the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. We should never underestimate God’s ability to create positive changes.
Jesus, please be my flight commander. Amen. — G/CW