Japanese Fighter Pilot
Mitsuo Fuchida |
Baptist Preacher
Preaching from the King James Bible Saved and became an American citizen 1960 |
" I would give anything to retract my actions at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941, but it is impossible, ” said Mitsuo Fuchida, former General Commander of the Japanese air squadron that destroyed most of the American Pacific Fleet peacefully anchored in Honolulu, Hawaii. Instead, I now work at striking a death blow to the basic hatred which infests the human heart and causes such tragedies. And that hatred cannot be uprooted without assistance from Jesus Christ "
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Mitsuo Fuchida's biography
by Mitsuo Fuchida, Tom McMullen, and Others
The high point of Mitsuo Fuchida's military career was leading the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor. He providentially survived the war and became a Christian as a result of reading the Bible. He purchased that Bible because he had been given a pamphlet written by Jacob DeShazer, a participant in the Doolittle raid. DeShazer had been captured and tortured by the Japanese. He became a Christian as a result of reading the Bible while in prison. He as Fuchida, returned to Japan as missionaries. The high point of their spiritual careers was becoming evangelists. Mitsuo Fuchida, became an American citizen in 1960. It has been told that in trying to make restitution to the people of Oahu, that he gave the civil government of Honolulu, Hawaii. One Million Dollars every year until his death.
I was told further that he owned the local newspaper in Honolulu, named the 'Honolulu Advertiser'and every day one whole page was dedicated to printing the gospel tract "God's Simple Plan of Salvation." This I verified myself. For excitedly, every day, while serving the Lord in the Islands. I picked up the Honolulu Advertiser, the afternoon newspaper, and turned and read, 'God's Simple Plan of Salvation' myself. There in bold print spread across the entire page!!! Del Wray
From Pearl Harbour...
From Rags |
to CALVARY
To Riches |
I must admit I was more excited than usual as I awoke that morning at 3:00 a.m., Hawaii time, four days past my thirty-ninthbirthday. Our six aircraft carriers were positioned 230 miles north of Oahu Island. As general commander of the air squadron,I made last-minute checks on the intelligence information reports in the operations room before going to warm up my single-engine, three-seater "97-type" plane used for level bombing and torpedo flying.
The sunrise in the east was magnificent above the white clouds as I led 360 planes towards Hawaii at an altitude of 3,000 meters. I knew my objective: to surprise and cripple the American naval force in the Pacific. But I fretted about beingthwarted should some of the U.S. battleships not be there. I gave no thought of the possibility of this attack breaking open amortal confrontation with the United States. I was only concerned about making a military success. We neared the HawaiianIslands that bright Sunday morning, I made a preliminary check of the harbor, nearby Hickam Field and the otherinstallations surrounding Honolulu. Viewing the entire American Pacific Fleet peacefully at anchor in the inlet below, I smiled as I reached for the mike and ordered, "All squadrons, plunge in to attack!" The time was 7:49 a.m. Like a hurricane out ofnowhere, my torpedo planes, dive bombers and fighters struck suddenly with indescribable fury. As smoke began to billow and the proud battleships, one by one, started tilting, my heart was almost ablaze with joy. During the next three hours, I directly commanded the fifty level bombers as they pelted not only Pearl Harbor, but the airfields, barracks and dry docks nearby. Then I circled at a higher altitude to accurately assess the damage and report it to my superiors.
Jet Attack
Of the eight battleships in the harbor, five were mauled into total inactivity for the time being. The Arizona was scrapped for good; the Oklahoma,California and West Virginia were sunk. The Nevada was beached in a sinking condition; only the Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee were able to be repaired. Of the eight, the California, West Virginia and Nevada were salvaged much later, but the Oklahoma, after being raised, was resunk as worthless.Other smaller ships were damaged, but the sting of 3,077 U.S. Navy personnel killed or missing and 876 plus wounded 226 Army killed and 396 wounded, was something which could never be repaired.
It was the most thrilling exploit of my career. Ever since I had heard of my country's winning the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, I had dreamed of becoming an admiral like Admiral Togo, our commander-in-chief in the decisive Battle of the Japan Sea.
Because my father was a primary school principal and a very patriotic nationalist, I was able to enroll in the Naval Academy when I was eighteen. Upon graduation three years later, I joined the Japanese Naval Air Force, and served mostly as an aircraft carrier pilot for the next fifteen years. So when the time came to choose the chief commander for the Pearl Harbor mission, I had logged over 10,000 hours, making me the most experienced pilot in the Japanese Navy. During the next four years, I was determined to improve upon my Pearl Harbor feat. I saw action in the Solomon Islands, Java, the Indian Ocean; just before the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, I came down with an attack of appendicitis and was unable to fly. Lying in my bed, I grimaced at the sounds of the firing all about me. By the end of that day, we had suffered our first major defeat, losing ten warships altogether.
From that time on, things got worse. I did not want to surrender. I would rather have fought to the last man. However, when the Emperor announced that we would surrender, I acquiesced. I was in Hiroshima the day before the atom bomb wasdropped, attending a week long military conference with the Army. Fortunately, I received a long distance call from my Navy Headquarters, asking me to return to Tokyo.
It was the most thrilling exploit of my career. Ever since I had heard of my country's winning the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, I had dreamed of becoming an admiral like Admiral Togo, our commander-in-chief in the decisive Battle of the Japan Sea.
Because my father was a primary school principal and a very patriotic nationalist, I was able to enroll in the Naval Academy when I was eighteen. Upon graduation three years later, I joined the Japanese Naval Air Force, and served mostly as an aircraft carrier pilot for the next fifteen years. So when the time came to choose the chief commander for the Pearl Harbor mission, I had logged over 10,000 hours, making me the most experienced pilot in the Japanese Navy. During the next four years, I was determined to improve upon my Pearl Harbor feat. I saw action in the Solomon Islands, Java, the Indian Ocean; just before the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, I came down with an attack of appendicitis and was unable to fly. Lying in my bed, I grimaced at the sounds of the firing all about me. By the end of that day, we had suffered our first major defeat, losing ten warships altogether.
From that time on, things got worse. I did not want to surrender. I would rather have fought to the last man. However, when the Emperor announced that we would surrender, I acquiesced. I was in Hiroshima the day before the atom bomb wasdropped, attending a week long military conference with the Army. Fortunately, I received a long distance call from my Navy Headquarters, asking me to return to Tokyo.
With the end of the war, my military career was over, since all Japanese forces were disbanded. I returned to my home village near Osaka and began farming, but it was a discouraging life. I became more and more unhappy, especially when the war crime trials opened in Tokyo. Though I was never accused, Gen. Douglas MacArthur summoned me to testify on several occasions. As I got off the train one day in Tokyo's Shibuya Station, I saw an American distributing literature. When I passed him, he handed me a pamphlet entitled I Was a Prisoner of Japan. (Published by Bible Literature International, known then as the Bible Meditation League). Involved right then with the trials on atrocities committed against war prisoners, I took it. What I read was the fascinating episode which eventually changed my life. On that Sunday while I was in the air over Pearl Harbor, an American soldier named Jake DeShazer had been on K.P. duty in an Army camp in California. When the radio announced the sneak demolishing of Pearl Harbor, he hurled a potato at the wall and shouted, "Jap, just wait and see what we'll do to you!"
One month later he volunteered for a secret mission with the Jimmy Doolittle Squadron - a surprise raid on Tokyo from the carrier Hornet. On April 18,1942, DeShazer was one of the bombardiers, and was filled with elation at getting his revenge. -After the bombing raid, they flew on towards China, but ran out of fuel and were forced to parachute into Japanese-held territory. The next morning, DeShazer found himself a prisoner of Japan. During the next forty long months in confinement, DeShazer was cruelly treated. He recalls that his violent hatred for the maltreating Japanese guards almost drove him insane at one point. But after twenty-five months there in Nanking, China, the U.S. prisoners were given a Bible to read. DeShazer, not being an officer, had to let the others use it first. Finally, it came his turn -for three weeks. There in the Japanese P.O.W. camp, he read and read and eventually came to understand that the book was more than an historical classic. Its message became relevant to him right there in his cell.
The dynamic power of Christ which Jake DeShazer accepted into his life changed his entire attitude toward his captors. His hatred turned to love and concern, and he resolved that should his country win the war and he be liberated, he would someday return to Japan to introduce others to this life-changing book.
DeShazer did just that. after some training at Seattle Pacific College, he returned to Japan as a missionary. And his story, printed in pamphlet form, was something I could not explain. Neither could I forget it. The peaceful motivation I had read about was exactly what I was seeking. Since the American had found it in the Bible, I decided to purchase one myself, despite my traditionally Buddhist heritage. In the ensuing weeks, I read this book eagerly. I came to the climactic drama - the Crucifixion. I read in Luke 23:34 the prayer of Jesus Christ at His death: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." I was impressed that I was certainly one of those for whom He had prayed. The many men I had killed had been slaughtered in the name of patriotism, for I did not understand the love which Christ wishes to implant within every heart.
Right at that moment, I seemed to meet Jesus for the first time. I understood the meaning of His death as a substitute for my wickedness, and so in prayer, I requested Him to forgive my sins and change me from a bitter, disillusioned ex-pilot into a well-balanced Christian with purpose in living.
That date, April 14, 1950 - became the second "day to remember" of my life. On that day, I became a new person. My complete view on life was changed by the intervention of the Christ I had always hated and ignored before. Soon other friends beyond my close family learned of my decision to be a follower of Christ, and they could hardly understand it.
Big headlines appeared in the papers: "Pearl Harbor Hero Converts to Christianity." Old war buddies came to visit me, trying to persuade me to discard "this crazy idea." Others accused me of being an opportunist, embracing Christianity only for how it might impress our American victors.
But time has proven them wrong. As an evangelist, I have traveled across Japan and the Orient introducing others to the One Who changed my life. I believe with all my heart that those who will direct Japan - and all other nations - in the decades to come must not ignore the message of Jesus Christ. Youth must realize that He is the only hope for this troubled world.
Though my country has the highest literacy rate in the world, education has not brought salvation. Peace and freedom - both national and personal -come only through an encounter with Jesus Christ.
One month later he volunteered for a secret mission with the Jimmy Doolittle Squadron - a surprise raid on Tokyo from the carrier Hornet. On April 18,1942, DeShazer was one of the bombardiers, and was filled with elation at getting his revenge. -After the bombing raid, they flew on towards China, but ran out of fuel and were forced to parachute into Japanese-held territory. The next morning, DeShazer found himself a prisoner of Japan. During the next forty long months in confinement, DeShazer was cruelly treated. He recalls that his violent hatred for the maltreating Japanese guards almost drove him insane at one point. But after twenty-five months there in Nanking, China, the U.S. prisoners were given a Bible to read. DeShazer, not being an officer, had to let the others use it first. Finally, it came his turn -for three weeks. There in the Japanese P.O.W. camp, he read and read and eventually came to understand that the book was more than an historical classic. Its message became relevant to him right there in his cell.
The dynamic power of Christ which Jake DeShazer accepted into his life changed his entire attitude toward his captors. His hatred turned to love and concern, and he resolved that should his country win the war and he be liberated, he would someday return to Japan to introduce others to this life-changing book.
DeShazer did just that. after some training at Seattle Pacific College, he returned to Japan as a missionary. And his story, printed in pamphlet form, was something I could not explain. Neither could I forget it. The peaceful motivation I had read about was exactly what I was seeking. Since the American had found it in the Bible, I decided to purchase one myself, despite my traditionally Buddhist heritage. In the ensuing weeks, I read this book eagerly. I came to the climactic drama - the Crucifixion. I read in Luke 23:34 the prayer of Jesus Christ at His death: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." I was impressed that I was certainly one of those for whom He had prayed. The many men I had killed had been slaughtered in the name of patriotism, for I did not understand the love which Christ wishes to implant within every heart.
Right at that moment, I seemed to meet Jesus for the first time. I understood the meaning of His death as a substitute for my wickedness, and so in prayer, I requested Him to forgive my sins and change me from a bitter, disillusioned ex-pilot into a well-balanced Christian with purpose in living.
That date, April 14, 1950 - became the second "day to remember" of my life. On that day, I became a new person. My complete view on life was changed by the intervention of the Christ I had always hated and ignored before. Soon other friends beyond my close family learned of my decision to be a follower of Christ, and they could hardly understand it.
Big headlines appeared in the papers: "Pearl Harbor Hero Converts to Christianity." Old war buddies came to visit me, trying to persuade me to discard "this crazy idea." Others accused me of being an opportunist, embracing Christianity only for how it might impress our American victors.
But time has proven them wrong. As an evangelist, I have traveled across Japan and the Orient introducing others to the One Who changed my life. I believe with all my heart that those who will direct Japan - and all other nations - in the decades to come must not ignore the message of Jesus Christ. Youth must realize that He is the only hope for this troubled world.
Though my country has the highest literacy rate in the world, education has not brought salvation. Peace and freedom - both national and personal -come only through an encounter with Jesus Christ.
"I would give anything to retract my actions of twenty-nine years ago at Pearl Harbor, but it is impossible. Instead, I now work at striking the death-blow to the basic hatred which infests the human heart and causes such tragedies. And that hatred cannot be uprooted without assistance from Jesus Christ." He is the only One Who was powerful enough to change my life and inspire it with His thoughts. He was the only answer to Jake DeShazer's tormented life. He is the only answer for young people today. [This ends Fuchida's account.]
Providence
Fuchida wrote above that "fortunately" he was called away from Hiroshima the day before the atom bomb was dropped. For a Christian like Fuchida, "providentially" would have been a better term, because he had encountered God's providence several times in his life. One was in November, 1929, flying in the South China Sea. It was foggy and he and his subordinate became lost. They circled aimlessly at 1,500 feet, looking for their aircraft carrier. With ten minutes of fuel left, Fuchida heard an inner voice which seemed to say "Climb up!" They did so and ran out of gas at 8,000 feet. Through a break in the clouds, Fuchida, scanning the ocean with his binoculars, spotted a Chinese junk on the horizon. They glided toward it and splashed down along side. The plane flipped over on its nose, and Fuchida gashed his right cheek, but he and his flying companion were saved.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Fuchida found twenty-one large holes in his plane and the control wire was held together by a whisker-thin thread. His plane was hit worse in a later attack in the Celebes and he and his crew crashed trying to get home. Again Fuchida survived, but this time his radio operator died instantly. For three days he and another crewman were lost in the jungle and actually wandered in a circle, ending up at their crash site. Discouraged, starved, maddened by the insects, it looked like the end. Fuchida carefully surveyed the terrain, and when he saw a certain valley, he heard an inner voice say "Come," and the voice seemed to come from the direction of the valley. As earlier, this voice led him to safety. His comrades were being killed as the war progressed, but Fuchida continued to survive in one way or another. Against all reason, he left sick bay and struggled topside during the Battle of Midway. Otherwise he would have been trapped below decks when his carrier went up in flames (Picture #16). Another time two end-of-the-war operations that amounted to suicide missions were canceled, probably saving his life. Finally, he had been ordered to inspect the atom bomb damage at Hiroshima. One by one, members of his inspection team sickened and died. But in spite of walking among the radioactive rubble of Hiroshima for three days, he was one of the few that survived. Fuchida considered this miraculous. (For another miraculous story, see the Appendix.)
Providence
Fuchida wrote above that "fortunately" he was called away from Hiroshima the day before the atom bomb was dropped. For a Christian like Fuchida, "providentially" would have been a better term, because he had encountered God's providence several times in his life. One was in November, 1929, flying in the South China Sea. It was foggy and he and his subordinate became lost. They circled aimlessly at 1,500 feet, looking for their aircraft carrier. With ten minutes of fuel left, Fuchida heard an inner voice which seemed to say "Climb up!" They did so and ran out of gas at 8,000 feet. Through a break in the clouds, Fuchida, scanning the ocean with his binoculars, spotted a Chinese junk on the horizon. They glided toward it and splashed down along side. The plane flipped over on its nose, and Fuchida gashed his right cheek, but he and his flying companion were saved.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Fuchida found twenty-one large holes in his plane and the control wire was held together by a whisker-thin thread. His plane was hit worse in a later attack in the Celebes and he and his crew crashed trying to get home. Again Fuchida survived, but this time his radio operator died instantly. For three days he and another crewman were lost in the jungle and actually wandered in a circle, ending up at their crash site. Discouraged, starved, maddened by the insects, it looked like the end. Fuchida carefully surveyed the terrain, and when he saw a certain valley, he heard an inner voice say "Come," and the voice seemed to come from the direction of the valley. As earlier, this voice led him to safety. His comrades were being killed as the war progressed, but Fuchida continued to survive in one way or another. Against all reason, he left sick bay and struggled topside during the Battle of Midway. Otherwise he would have been trapped below decks when his carrier went up in flames (Picture #16). Another time two end-of-the-war operations that amounted to suicide missions were canceled, probably saving his life. Finally, he had been ordered to inspect the atom bomb damage at Hiroshima. One by one, members of his inspection team sickened and died. But in spite of walking among the radioactive rubble of Hiroshima for three days, he was one of the few that survived. Fuchida considered this miraculous. (For another miraculous story, see the Appendix.)
Peggy Covell
The war-crime trials bothered Fuchida. He was certain the Americans were as guilty as the Japanese concerning treatment of prisoners of war (P.O.W.'s). He met a boat of returning Japanese P.O.W.'s to get the dirt. The next time he was called to testify, his plan was to throw it in the judges' faces. He saw a person he knew and questioned him. Yes, it had been no bed of roses, but there had been no atrocities, either. As a matter of fact, a young woman, Margaret, "Peggy" Covell, lovingly ministered to the Japanese P.O.W.'s as a volunteer social worker. When one of them asked her why she was so kind to them, she answered "Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents." She explained to the astonished P.O.W.'s that her parents were missionaries in Japan before the war, and then moved to the Philippines after hostilities broke out. There they were eventually captured by the Japanese, tried as spies and beheaded. Peggy was stateside when she received the news. At first she hated the Japanese. Then she realized that her parents had forgiven their executioners and that she could do no less. Upon hearing Peggy's beautiful story, Fuchida was dumbfounded for two reasons. First, he had come hoping to find out evil, but instead had found good. He was ashamed at himself. The second reason is that Japanese consider revenge a great moral, Katakiuchi. A captive awaiting death never forgives his executioners, but instead prays to be born again seven times to exact revenge in each life. Also, his sons and daughters lived to take revenge. Some Japanese might think Peggy Covell was weak and lacking in filial duty. But Fuchida came to realize that Peggy was right and Katakiuchi was wrong. He also realized that Peggy's love had to have a supernatural source.
Conversion
One day Fuchida arrived at Shibuya train station in downtown Tokyo to visit G.W. Prange, a member of GeneralMacArthur's staff. An American was handing out a pamphlet, I was a Prisoner of Japan. The war crimes trials had been going on and Japanese treatment of P.O.W.'s was very much in the news. As Fuchida related above, he took one and read it. The story had similarities to Peggy Covell's, except that DeShazer was a tough airman. Intrigued, Fuchida bought a Bible but delayed reading it. He was prompted to begin in earnest by Hakucho Masamune, a Christian and a famous novelist. In a newspaper column, Masamune had challenged his countrymen to read the Bible, even just 30 pages anywhere in it; he said there was no book in the world to compare with it. As a result of reading the Bible, Fuchida committed his life to Jesus Christ. Eventually he met DeShazer.
Epilogue
After becoming a Christian, Fuchida became an evangelist and traveled the world. He visited my hometown of Spokane, Washington four times (probably because of the large Japanese-American community there). On one visit he spoke in the auditorium of my high school - on Pearl Harbor Day, no less! He died of diabetes on 30 May 1976, at the age of 73.
A MIRACULOUS FIND
Howard Hamlin, M.D., a WWII veteran and then a Christian missionary doctor, visited Hiroshima soon after the atomic blast as part of the U.S. Military Occupation of Japan following the surrender. He was Chief Orthopedic Surgeon and Consultant for the Public Health and Welfare Department for Gen. MacArthur's Headquarters in Tokyo, 1946-48. When he went to Hiroshima, he was amazed at finding the sole remaining identifiable book in the great Asano Library - a Bible translated into Japanese. Overcome with emotion, he wrote this prayer in his journal:
"I don't know God, whether it was accidental or providential, but I do know that here today I have before me the concrete tangible evidence that the only thing here which withstood the atomic bomb is the Word of God. Out of thousands of volumes in this great heathen library ... [only] the gospel of Jesus Christ [survived].
"Oh Lord, forgive me for worrying. For why should I fret, even though we are in a new era? The blessed Rock upon which my faith is built is all the defense I need for even the atomic age. Not even a deluge of atomic bombs, yea not even the falling of stars from their place in the firmament can change the permancy of that precious Book. "I shall go out of this place today knowing that the Word of God is the only sure foundation in the age when all else is transient and unstable. It is the message of hope which we need to give to a frustrated and frightened world. Amen."
(from The Challenge of the Orient, by Howard Hamlin. As quoted from the cabinet display in the First Church of the Nazarene of Kansas City. Among the artifacts in the display are the Bible pages that Dr. Hamlin found and writes about. Dr. Craig Roell saw this display on a visit to Kansas City.)
Acknowledgments
The first picture and picture #16 are courtesy of Stan Stokes. pictures of the Pearl Harbor attack are from the U.S. Navy. The picture of Fuchida and DeShazer and From Pearl Harbor to Calvary are from Bible Literature International. For further reading, I recommend God's Samurai by G.W. Prange (1990). Dr. Craig Roell supplied the information on A Miraculous Find.
The war-crime trials bothered Fuchida. He was certain the Americans were as guilty as the Japanese concerning treatment of prisoners of war (P.O.W.'s). He met a boat of returning Japanese P.O.W.'s to get the dirt. The next time he was called to testify, his plan was to throw it in the judges' faces. He saw a person he knew and questioned him. Yes, it had been no bed of roses, but there had been no atrocities, either. As a matter of fact, a young woman, Margaret, "Peggy" Covell, lovingly ministered to the Japanese P.O.W.'s as a volunteer social worker. When one of them asked her why she was so kind to them, she answered "Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents." She explained to the astonished P.O.W.'s that her parents were missionaries in Japan before the war, and then moved to the Philippines after hostilities broke out. There they were eventually captured by the Japanese, tried as spies and beheaded. Peggy was stateside when she received the news. At first she hated the Japanese. Then she realized that her parents had forgiven their executioners and that she could do no less. Upon hearing Peggy's beautiful story, Fuchida was dumbfounded for two reasons. First, he had come hoping to find out evil, but instead had found good. He was ashamed at himself. The second reason is that Japanese consider revenge a great moral, Katakiuchi. A captive awaiting death never forgives his executioners, but instead prays to be born again seven times to exact revenge in each life. Also, his sons and daughters lived to take revenge. Some Japanese might think Peggy Covell was weak and lacking in filial duty. But Fuchida came to realize that Peggy was right and Katakiuchi was wrong. He also realized that Peggy's love had to have a supernatural source.
Conversion
One day Fuchida arrived at Shibuya train station in downtown Tokyo to visit G.W. Prange, a member of GeneralMacArthur's staff. An American was handing out a pamphlet, I was a Prisoner of Japan. The war crimes trials had been going on and Japanese treatment of P.O.W.'s was very much in the news. As Fuchida related above, he took one and read it. The story had similarities to Peggy Covell's, except that DeShazer was a tough airman. Intrigued, Fuchida bought a Bible but delayed reading it. He was prompted to begin in earnest by Hakucho Masamune, a Christian and a famous novelist. In a newspaper column, Masamune had challenged his countrymen to read the Bible, even just 30 pages anywhere in it; he said there was no book in the world to compare with it. As a result of reading the Bible, Fuchida committed his life to Jesus Christ. Eventually he met DeShazer.
Epilogue
After becoming a Christian, Fuchida became an evangelist and traveled the world. He visited my hometown of Spokane, Washington four times (probably because of the large Japanese-American community there). On one visit he spoke in the auditorium of my high school - on Pearl Harbor Day, no less! He died of diabetes on 30 May 1976, at the age of 73.
A MIRACULOUS FIND
Howard Hamlin, M.D., a WWII veteran and then a Christian missionary doctor, visited Hiroshima soon after the atomic blast as part of the U.S. Military Occupation of Japan following the surrender. He was Chief Orthopedic Surgeon and Consultant for the Public Health and Welfare Department for Gen. MacArthur's Headquarters in Tokyo, 1946-48. When he went to Hiroshima, he was amazed at finding the sole remaining identifiable book in the great Asano Library - a Bible translated into Japanese. Overcome with emotion, he wrote this prayer in his journal:
"I don't know God, whether it was accidental or providential, but I do know that here today I have before me the concrete tangible evidence that the only thing here which withstood the atomic bomb is the Word of God. Out of thousands of volumes in this great heathen library ... [only] the gospel of Jesus Christ [survived].
"Oh Lord, forgive me for worrying. For why should I fret, even though we are in a new era? The blessed Rock upon which my faith is built is all the defense I need for even the atomic age. Not even a deluge of atomic bombs, yea not even the falling of stars from their place in the firmament can change the permancy of that precious Book. "I shall go out of this place today knowing that the Word of God is the only sure foundation in the age when all else is transient and unstable. It is the message of hope which we need to give to a frustrated and frightened world. Amen."
(from The Challenge of the Orient, by Howard Hamlin. As quoted from the cabinet display in the First Church of the Nazarene of Kansas City. Among the artifacts in the display are the Bible pages that Dr. Hamlin found and writes about. Dr. Craig Roell saw this display on a visit to Kansas City.)
Acknowledgments
The first picture and picture #16 are courtesy of Stan Stokes. pictures of the Pearl Harbor attack are from the U.S. Navy. The picture of Fuchida and DeShazer and From Pearl Harbor to Calvary are from Bible Literature International. For further reading, I recommend God's Samurai by G.W. Prange (1990). Dr. Craig Roell supplied the information on A Miraculous Find.
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Great Cloud of Witnesses
Love Sowed in a Field of Hatred (part 1)
On December 7, 1941, 360 Japanese planes were launched from aircraft carriers in range of the Hawaiian Islands. Ace airman, Mitsuo Fuchida, gave the famous attack signal: Tora! Tora! Tora! (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!). They wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored in exquisite Pearl Harbor. By the end of the attack, eight battleships, three destroyers, and three cruisers had been sunk or severely damaged; 188 aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 people had been killed; and 1,178 were wounded (Benge, p. 26).
As Fuchida guided the planes back to their carriers, he was filled with pride for his men and for himself. The surprise attack had succeeded beyond all expectations. His admiral congratulated him, and later he had the extraordinary honor of personally giving his report to Emperor Hirohito.
But Fuchida left behind more than smashed ships and aircraft and dead and wounded men. His raid left behind a nation “welded together by the fires he and his men had set – a United States that would not rest until the Japanese had paid in full for their morning’s work” (Prange, p. 37).
The Doolittle Raid
As a result of the raid on Pearl Harbor, the next day the United States and Britain declared war on Japan. President Franklin D. Roosevelt mandated to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to bomb Japan as soon as possible, to boost public morale. Lt.Col. James Doolittle, the daring and much decorated flyer ordered to plan and lead the mission, noted in his autobiography, “The Japanese had been told they were invulnerable. An attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders” (Doolittle, pp. 1, 2).
Sixteen B-25 “Mitchell” bombers were carefully prepared to enable them to take off from an aircraft carrier. The 80 crewmen were volunteers, invited to participate in a dangerous mission the details of which they knew nothing until they were at sea heading for Japan. One of them was Corporal Jacob (Jake) DeShazer, a bombardier. His fear mingled with a sense of honor and privilege to participate in retaliation for the carnage of Pearl Harbor. His anger toward Japanese, born on Pearl Harbor Day, had grown into a deep hatred and obsession for revenge.
On April 18, 1942 the bombers began their flight. Fourteen hours later, Jake’s plane dropped its bombs on their target, and headed for free China. They never made it. He and his fellow crew members bailed out in the dark and landed in territory occupied by the Japanese army. Several airmen were executed; he and four other survivors were given life sentences.
A Prisoner of War
For 40 months, Jake and his companions were prisoners of war, often brutally beaten, tortured, poorly fed, and for most of the time kept in solitary confinement, their only companions lice, fleas, and rats. Sometimes they had to sit on tiny stools facing a wall for 16 hours a day. The only source of strength Jake had to draw upon was his bitter hatred for the enemy. During the lonely hours Jake reviewed his life. His father had been a Church of God lay preacher. When he was a child his family had easily prayed and talked about spiritual things. But when Jake had left home, he had put it all behind him. He felt that now under these horrible conditions, since he had forsaken God, it would be dishonest to pray.
On one occasion when he and Bob, one of his fellow prisoners, were allowed to weed the courtyard, his companion said to Jake, “I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Coming King, and that He is God’s Son…The war is not going to stop until Jesus Christ causes it to stop” (Benge, p. 124). Bob later died, and Jake’s only thought was how anyone, even Jesus, could dare to suggest that a person love his enemies when they were mistreating and starving good men to death (p. 125). Uplift came when without fanfare the guards distributed several English language books among the prisoners. The prize volume was a Bible, but Jake had to wait nine weeks for his turn to read it, and he would only have it for 21 days.
“From the moment the Bible was brought to his cell, Jake barely slept or put the book down. Despite the fact that the light in his cell was dingy and the Bible text small, the words seemed to leap off the page at him” (Benge, p. 126). He read straight through, beginning with the Old Testament and continuing on with the New. As he read he became conscious of a Presence in the cell with him, “God right there beside him, reaching out to someone who was lost, alone, and abandoned” (p. 127). One day, as the Gospel truth come through the verses he was studying, he prayed “Lord, though I am far from home and though I am in prison, I ask for your forgiveness” (p. 127). His heart filled with joy. He knew he was a new man.
Changes
As he continued to read and study the Bible, the Lord spoke to him about forgiving others. One day a guard intentionally kicked his bare foot with his hobnailed boot several times, causing him intense pain. His first reaction was a desire for revenge. But pondering the verses he had memorized, including Jesus’ admonition for Christians to love and forgive their enemies, Jake recognized that Jesus was asking him to forgive his tormentor and to reach out to him with love.
As his attitude toward the guard changed, illustrated by forgiveness and grace, the man responded in kind, and Jake began to receive better treatment. Although he suffered repeatedly from dysentery and boils all over his body, Jake became more and more conscious that God was with him. His desire to pray grew and he began to cry out to God to put it in the hearts of the Japanese leaders to sue for peace. Then one day he sensed the Lord say, “You can stop now. You don’t need to pray anymore. The victory is won” (Benge, p. 140).
“The victory is won!” A wonderful promise, but what he would do when the war was over? What would happen when the Emperor surrendered, leaving the Japanese without the assurance that they were invincible? Then, a startling thing happened. The room seemed electrified. Without warning he heard an audible voice speaking to him: “You are called to go and teach the Japanese people and go wherever I send you” (142).
Within days, God’s promised victory was corroborated. The guards brought him his own uniform and said, “The war is over now. You can go home.” The next weeks were a blur: he was flown back to the U.S., had a medical review, and returned home on a nine-week vacation. His family had heard that all the Doolittle Raiders had been killed, so the reunion was a very emotional one. Jake was a celebrity, constantly invited to speak and share his experiences. But deep within his heart burned the conviction that God had called him to return to Japan as a missionary.
Beyond Pearl Harbor
How God caught up with the man who led Japan's surprise attack. America's latest blockbuster, Pearl Harbor, has already been blamed for dwelling on a shallow love triangle, ignoring the sacrifices of Japanese Americans, downplaying the Japanese empire's aggression, and generally Disney-fying the "date which will live in infamy." No surprises there; as director Michael Bay told Reuters, "It's not a history lesson." But it's far too easy to shoot holes in Hollywood history. Instead, I'm going to fault the movie for missing a poignant and inspiring Christian story: the saga of Mitsuo Fuchida. Fuchida grew up loving his native Japan and hating the United States, which treated Asian immigrants harshly in the first half of the twentieth century. Fuchida attended a military academy, joined Japan's Naval Air Force, and by 1941, with 10,000 flying hours behind him, had established himself as the nation's top pilot. When Japanese military leaders needed someone to command a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they chose Fuchida. [Here, you can cut to the movie—it renders the attack pretty faithfully.]
Fuchida's was the voice that sent his aircraft carrier the message "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!) indicating the success of the surprise mission. Later, he too was surprised when he learned that, of the 70 officers who participated in the raid, he was the only one who returned alive. By 1945 he had attained the position of the Imperial Navy's Air Operations Officer. On August 6 he was eating breakfast in Nara, Japan, where a new military headquarters was under construction, when he heard about a bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He flew to investigate, then sent a grim report to the Imperial Command.
God's Samurai...... Name of his book and life story
Jacob DeShazer
On the same day, an American P.O.W. named Jacob DeShazer felt moved by the Holy Spirit to pray for peace. DeShazer had been in captivity since 1942, when, as a member of Doolittle's Raiders, he dropped bombs near Tokyo and then was forced to parachute into China. While imprisoned, first in Nanjing and later in Beijing, DeShazer had become a Christian. He found his heart softened toward his Japanese captors. After being liberated, DeShazer wrote a widely distributed essay, "I Was a Prisoner of the Japanese," detailing his experiences of capture, conversion, and forgiveness.
Fuchida and DeShazer met in 1950. DeShazer had returned to Japan in 1948 as a missionary. Fuchida had read DeShazer's testimony, bought a Bible, and converted from Buddhism to Christianity. DeShazer had recently finished a 40-day fast for revival in Japan when Fuchida came to his home and introduced himself. DeShazer welcomed the new convert and encouraged him to be baptized. While DeShazer continued to plant churches throughout Japan, Fuchida became an evangelist, spreading a message of peace and forgiveness in his native country and throughout Asian-American communities.
Fuchida died 25 years ago, on May 30, 1976. Like dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who wished his legacy to be one of peace rather than destruction, Fuchida wanted the message of his changed heart to supersede the memory of his infamous attack. He wrote, "That morning [December 7] … I lifted the curtain of warfare by dispatching that cursed order, and I put my whole effort into the war that followed. … [But] after buying and reading the Bible, my mind was strongly impressed and captivated. I think I can say today without hesitation that God's grace has been set upon me."
Fuchida and DeShazer met in 1950. DeShazer had returned to Japan in 1948 as a missionary. Fuchida had read DeShazer's testimony, bought a Bible, and converted from Buddhism to Christianity. DeShazer had recently finished a 40-day fast for revival in Japan when Fuchida came to his home and introduced himself. DeShazer welcomed the new convert and encouraged him to be baptized. While DeShazer continued to plant churches throughout Japan, Fuchida became an evangelist, spreading a message of peace and forgiveness in his native country and throughout Asian-American communities.
Fuchida died 25 years ago, on May 30, 1976. Like dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who wished his legacy to be one of peace rather than destruction, Fuchida wanted the message of his changed heart to supersede the memory of his infamous attack. He wrote, "That morning [December 7] … I lifted the curtain of warfare by dispatching that cursed order, and I put my whole effort into the war that followed. … [But] after buying and reading the Bible, my mind was strongly impressed and captivated. I think I can say today without hesitation that God's grace has been set upon me."
Fuchida in Dress Uniform
Jacob Daniel DeShazer participated in the Doolittle Raid as a staff serant. Army base in Oregon, DeShazer heard news of the attack on Pearl Harbor over the radio. He became enraged, shouting: "The Japs are going to have to pay for this!" Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Staff Sergeant DeShazer volunteered to join a special unit that was formed to attack Japan. The raid was a success, but DeShazer and the rest of the crew were forced to parachute into enemy territory over Ningpo, China when their B-25 ran out of fuel. DeShazer was injured in his fall into a cemetery and was captured the very next day by the Japanese. During his captivity, DeShazer was sent to Tokyo with the survivors of another Doolittle crew, and was held in a series of P.O.W. camps both in Japan and China for 40 months — 34 of them in solitary confinement. He was severely beaten and malnourished while three of the crew were executed by a firing squad, and another died of slow starvation. During his captivity, DeShazer persuaded one of his guards to loan him a copy of the Bible. Although he only had possession of the Bible for three weeks, he saw its messages as the reason for his survival and resolved to become a devout Christian. His conversion included learning a few words of Japanese and treating his captors with respect, which resulted in the guards reacting in a similar fashion. After his release, DeShazer began studying to be a missionary, eventually to return to Japan with his wife, Florence, in 1948. One of the most inspiring stories to come out of World War II is the story of how DeShazer, the Doolittle Raider who bombed Nagoya, met Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, becoming close friends. Fuchida became a Christian in 1950 after reading a tract written about DeShazer titled, I Was a Prisoner of Japan, and spent the rest of his life as a missionary in Asia and the United States. On occasion, DeShazer and Fuchida preached together as Christian missionaries in Japan. In 1959, DeShazer moved to Nagoya to establish a Christian church in the city he had bombed.
Mitsuo Fuchida was a Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a Imperial Japanese Navy flying ace pilot before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first air wave attacks on Pearl Harbor. At 0749 hours Fuchida instructed his radio operator, to send the coded signal "To, To, To" (Totsugeskiseyo, or "charge!") to his aircraft. At 0753, Fuchida ordered the code words "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (tiger). The three word message meant that complete surprise had been achieved in the attack. In the fall of 1948, Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko at the Shibuya Station when he was handed a pamphlet about the life of Jacob DeShazerwho was captured by the Japanese. In the pamphlet "I Was a Prisoner of Japan" Deshazer, himself a former U.S. Army Air Force Staff Sergeant and bombardier, told his story of imprisonment, torture and an awakening to God. Fuchida became more curious about Christianity but couldn't find a Bible at the time in post-war Japan, but in the spring of 1949, again at the statue of Hachiko he met a man selling Bibles, and he bought one. In May of 1950, he and Jacob DeShazer met for the first time, as friends. Fuchida spent the rest of his life telling others what God had done for him around the world. In February 1954, Reader's Digest published Fuchida's story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He also authored and co-authored books including, From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha (aka From Pearl Harbor to Calvary) and Midway (aka Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story). His story is told in God's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor (The Warriors). taken from wikipedia. Message from Pastor Sam. It is indeed, nothing is impossible with God. Even two enemys can become friends in the love of Christ.
Mitsuo Fuchida became an American Citizen in 1960.
The same year I was saved.
It is said in making restitution to the people of Honolulu, " that he gave One Million dollars every year, to the civil government, until he died. " Trying to repay for the destruction that he had brought upon the U.S. Navy and the citizens of Oahu, Hawaii. I was told further that he owned the local newspaper, the 'Honolulu Advertiser'and every day one whole page was dedicated to printing the gospel tract "God's Simple Plan of Salvation" by Ford Porter This I verified myself. For excitedly, every day, while serving the Lord in the Hawaiian Islands. I picked up the Honolulu Advertiser, the afternoon news paper, and turned and read, "God's Simple Plan of Salvation." There in bold print spread across the entire page!!! Del Wray Click to read more of this man of God. He was a dear friend whose testimony influenced my life. MitsuoFuchida, believed and loved God's Word, the King James Bible!
The Story from Pearl Harbor to Calvary
Mitsuo Fuchida was a Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a Imperial Japanese Navy flying ace pilot before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first air wave attacks on Pearl Harbor. At 0749 hours Fuchida instructed his radio operator, to send the coded signal "To, To, To" (Totsugeskiseyo, or "charge!") to his aircraft. At 0753, Fuchida ordered the code words "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (tiger). The three word message meant that complete surprise had been achieved in the attack. In the fall of 1948, Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko at the Shibuya Station when he was handed a pamphlet about the life of Jacob DeShazerwho was captured by the Japanese. In the pamphlet "I Was a Prisoner of Japan" Deshazer, himself a former U.S. Army Air Force Staff Sergeant and bombardier, told his story of imprisonment, torture and an awakening to God. Fuchida became more curious about Christianity but couldn't find a Bible at the time in post-war Japan, but in the spring of 1949, again at the statue of Hachiko he met a man selling Bibles, and he bought one. In May of 1950, he and Jacob DeShazer met for the first time, as friends. Fuchida spent the rest of his life telling others what God had done for him around the world. In February 1954, Reader's Digest published Fuchida's story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He also authored and co-authored books including, From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha (aka From Pearl Harbor to Calvary) and Midway (aka Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story). His story is told in God's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor (The Warriors). taken from wikipedia. Message from Pastor Sam. It is indeed, nothing is impossible with God. Even two enemys can become friends in the love of Christ.
Mitsuo Fuchida became an American Citizen in 1960.
The same year I was saved.
It is said in making restitution to the people of Honolulu, " that he gave One Million dollars every year, to the civil government, until he died. " Trying to repay for the destruction that he had brought upon the U.S. Navy and the citizens of Oahu, Hawaii. I was told further that he owned the local newspaper, the 'Honolulu Advertiser'and every day one whole page was dedicated to printing the gospel tract "God's Simple Plan of Salvation" by Ford Porter This I verified myself. For excitedly, every day, while serving the Lord in the Hawaiian Islands. I picked up the Honolulu Advertiser, the afternoon news paper, and turned and read, "God's Simple Plan of Salvation." There in bold print spread across the entire page!!! Del Wray Click to read more of this man of God. He was a dear friend whose testimony influenced my life. MitsuoFuchida, believed and loved God's Word, the King James Bible!
The Story from Pearl Harbor to Calvary
Screaming Sun
HAWAII'S GREAT AWAKENING
1835-1840 TITUS COAN: GOD'S SERVANT
Just prior to the missionary meeting of 1836, a new member of the mission team had arrived in 1835 in Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, to become the pastor of the church. His name was Titus Coan. The church in 1836 had 23 members, although Coan reported in his missionary report the Sunday attendance was 300 adults and 100 to 150 children. This church was about to see a massive change, for God had brought to the islands the second ingredient for the Great Awakening, the man of faith.
Titus Coan was born in Connecticut in 1801, the child of a devotedly religious family. His mother was the aunt of Asahel Nettleton, the well-known evangelist of the Second Great Awakening in New England. Although exposed to the gospel most of his life he did not surrender himself to Christ until 1829, during a revival in his home town after a prolonged illness. His surrender was wholehearted and he began to pursue opportunities to involve himself in ministry. In the summer of 1830 he met with Charles Finney and a number of his associates while working with a minister friend in New York. After two years of study at Auburn Theological Seminary, a brief stint as a missionary in Patagonia, he married and soon after took his bride to become missionaries to the Sandwich Islands.
It is important to weigh Coan's contributions to the revival in light of all that happened. All the islands experienced a revival. However, it was the island of Hawaii's revival that accounted for 3/4 of all the new members added to the church. Secondly, it was Titus Coan's belief and those like him that helped to spur on the revival. Let me explain this point. S.E. Bishop in his article published in the March 1902 issue of The Friend gives an interesting insight. He states, "...I think it true that the severer forms of Calvinism presented by the earlier missionaries were less adapted to facilitate the work of the Divine Spirit, than were the gentler and sweeter forms in which the Gospel was presented by those more lately arrived who had been in the wonderful revival under Finney's preaching." He goes on to tell his own personal experience as a child in hearing the gospel presented by these new missionaries. He went on to conclude that the "entrance of these devoted men into the Hawaiian work gave a new impulse to the evangelization of the people. There was a more direct and efficient presentation of Christ, less encumbered by the old and stiff Westminister forms of doctrine. This new preaching undoubtedly contributed much to the great spiritual awakening among the Hawaiians.'' In another article in December 1902, Bishop names the missionaries who experienced the Charles G. Finney revivals in New York. They were, "Dibble, Coan, Lyons, and Lowell Smith, whose souls had felt the peculiar kindling of the Spirit and who brought with them His peculiar flame.''
These new missionaries had experienced revival in the United States and believed God for revival in their respective fields. They caught a vision, a new vision of what God could do, without which the revival could not have happened. This vision of revival was all encompassing in that they did the very things they had seen God use to bring revival in the United States. Dr. Rufus Anderson recorded that: "the means employed were those commonly used during times of revival in the United States, such as preaching, the prayers of the church, protracted meetings, and conversing with individuals or small companies." He went on to note that during "the protracted meetings much care was given to the plain preaching of revealed truths, with prayer in the intervals." He even jotted down some of the topics preached which were so effective: "The gospel a savor of life or death; the danger of delaying repentance; the servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not; sinners not willing that Christ should reign over them; halting between two opinions; the balm of Gilead; the sinner hardening his neck; God not willing that any should perish." Anderson states that the topics most insisted on was the sin and danger of refusing an offered Savior."
The rationale for the reproducing of what God had done in the revival movement in the United States is provided by Titus Coan who found that "like doctrines, prayers and efforts seemed to produce like fruits."
Not only did Coan take the success of the Finney revivals and reproduce it in Hawaii, he characterized what attitude a missionary was to have if they were to be used by God powerfully to bring forth a great harvest. He exemplified the incarnation principle, love in action. Historian Gaven Daws comments that "Love was the driving force in his life: he loved his wife, he loved Christ, and he loved his work." In a letter Coan wrote to colleagues concerning the passion of his early Christian love he stated: "When I came to these islands, and before I could use the Hawaiian language, I often felt as if I should burst with strong desire to speak the word to the natives around me. And when my mouth was opened to speak of the love of God in Christ, I felt that the very chords of my heart were wrapped around my hearers, and that some inward power was helping me to draw them in, as the fisherman feels when drawing in his net filled with fishes.''
S.E. Bishop spent his childhood in Hawaii and Titus Coan was his spiritual father. He comments on Coan's "personal magnetism of love" that drew him, "sweetly and irresistibly, to the love of God in Christ." He goes on to mention how in later life he personally met Finney and was influenced by his intellectual and spiritual power, but he never met anyone that matched the "winning power of love" like that of his spiritual father, Titus Coan."
The incarnation is expressed so beautifully in John 1:14, "the word became flesh and dwelt among us." This is what Titus Coan attempted to emulate. His love for the people was expressed first by the mastery of the Hawaiian language and secondly by his desire to preach the gospel to everyone living in his district, which was around 15 to 16,000 all living within the distance of 100 miles. In order to preach to everyone, in the fall of 1836 he decided to make a tour on foot of his entire district.
In his autobiography he tells about this tour and how he "preached three, four, five times a day, and had much personal conversations with the natives on things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." He goes on to share how in the Puna area there was a greater response among the people, all eager to hear the "word of life". He states, "Many listened with tears, and after the preaching, when I supposed they would return to their homes and give me rest, they remained and crowded around me so earnestly, that I had no time to eat. And in places where I spent my nights they filled the house to its entire capacity, leaving scores outside who could not enter." This went on till midnight and would resume at the crack of dawn. In the most popular area of Puna, in two days, Coan preached ten sermons while spending the time in between the services in personal conversation. A number of people were converted, one being the High Priest of the Volcano, a violent man who was a drunkard, adulteress, robber and murderer. He broke and began to seek the Lord. This first tour was 30 days long during which he not only preached, but examined 20 schools with a total of 1,200 pupils.
It seems, from what I can gather, that Titus Coan went on tour often times each year attempting to personally touch for Jesus every person in his parish. In fact, he had a unique and thorough follow-up system in order to keep track of his converts and new members. Coan states, "I had a faithful notebook in my pocket, and in all my personal conversations with the people, by night and by day, at home and in my oft repeated tours, I had noted down, unobserved, the names of individuals apparently sincere and true converts. Over these persons I kept watch, though unconsciously to themselves; and thus their life and conversation were made the subjects of vigilant observation. After the lapse of these, six, nine or twelve months, as the case might be, selections were made from the list of names for examination. Some were found to have gone back to their old sins; others were stupid, or gave but doubtful evidence of conversions, while many had stood fast and run well. Most of those who seemed hopefully converted spent several months at the central station before their union with the church. Here they were watched over and instructed from week to week and from day to day, with anxious and unceasing care. They were sifted and re-sifted with scrutiny, and with every effort to take the precious from the vile. The church and the world, friends and enemies, were called upon and solemnly charged to testify, without concealment or palliation, if they knew ought against any of the candidates.''
Coan goes on to tell how on his numerous tours he would take his book with him and call the roll of church members in every village. "When anyone did not answer the roll call, I made inquiry why. If dead, I marked the date; if sick, visited him or her, if time would allow; if absent on duty, accepted the fact; if supposed to be doubting or backsliding, sent for or visited him; if gone to another part of the island, or to another island, I inquired if the absence would be short or perpetual, and noted facts of whatever kind.'' This personal care even extended to his parishioners who became sailors. When they returned he would check as to whether they lived for the Lord or not. Even while in Honolulu once a year he would put up a public notice and 50 to 100 people who were his parishioners that had moved to Honolulu would show up for a meeting.
An interesting example of personal care of what was by 1841 the largest church in the world, is seen in the 1841 Missions report. It reads as follows:
Both Titus Coan and Lorenzo Lyons who was also a missionary on the island of Hawaii, his district being Waimea on the other side of the island from where Coan was, were used mightily by God in the growth of the church. For example, in six months from January to May of 1838, Coan admitted 639 new members, and Lyons 2,600. Their two stations combined were responsible for 3,239 of the 4,930 additions of formal members to the church in 1837-1838.
In the following year, Coan admitted 5,244 and Lyons 2,300. This tremendous addition to the church brought criticism from some of the more conservative missionaries and from some of those back home in New England. Their concern was whether people were really converted and could it be people were brought into membership too fast. Some even criticized the way Coan and Lyons preached and what happened in their meetings. But, Coan was convinced what was happening was a work of the Spirit. He felt strongly that to leave people outside the protection of the church in the name of caution was to abandon them to "wander in darkness, uncertain as to their own character, exposed to every temptation of earth and hell, unknown and unrecognized as the sheep and lambs of the Lord Jesus, and in danger from the all-devouring lion.''
Coan had a tremendous concern for the lost to be found. His love for lost souls drove him because he feared that he would die before the task of seeing his people saved was accomplished. This made him a "people person" having great results. His critics were silenced when after a number of years, it was found that his losses were not any different proportionally than his critics who were over cautious in admitting new members. The reason for this was his hard work in reaching, sharing, and caring for people.
A final aspect of Titus Coan that represents the kind of person God used mightily to bring forth the Great Awakening was the fact that he saw things in light of a spiritual battle. To Coan the work was a tremendous spiritual battle. He referred to the "weapons of our warfare" and a militant view of God. Repentance was brought about by "Jehovah's Hammer" or the "battle-ax of the Lord," or the "Arrows of the Almighty". In fact, he saw the struggle for souls as a fight that he wanted to fight till he died.
The man of faith seems to be an integral part of a great revival. Titus Coan was that man or at least exemplified that kind of person. What is fascinating to note is that even twenty years after the Great Awakening, Titus Coan was asked to tour Oahu. The tour produced a revival and more people were added to the church in Oahu than at any time since 1839, the height of the Great Awakening. It was reported by Coan as the "gentle revival". However, the fact that this could happen in Titus Coan's later life speaks much to the fact that he was genuinely a man of faith, a key in the Great Awakening.
Coan's wish was "to die in the field with armor on, with weapons bright." God gave him that wish for in the midst of a revival, he suffered a stroke and died praising God. He had served the Lord for forty-seven years in Hilo and by 1870 had received 13,000 members to his church, the largest number by any pastor in his generation.
GOD'S MERCIFUL JUDGMENT"On the 7th of November, 1837, at the hour of evening prayer, we were startled by a heavy thud, and a sudden jar of the earth! The sound was like the fall of some vast body upon the beach, and in a few seconds a noise of mingled voices rising for a mile along the shore thrilled us like the wail of doom. Instantly this was followed by a like wail from all the native houses around us. I immediately ran down to the sea, where a scene of wild ruin was spread out before me. The sea, moved by an unseen hand, had all of a sudden risen in a gigantic wave, and this wave, rushing in with the speed of a race-horse, had fallen upon the shore, sweeping everything not more than fifteen or twenty feet above high water mark into indiscriminate ruin." So Titus Coan describes the great tidal wave that hit Hilo. Houses, furniture and everything else along with two hundred people were floating or struggling in the great waves. It was so unexpected that no one had time to prepare for it. All one could do now was hope their loved ones were not in the waves. Cries for help were heard while frantic children, wives and husbands ran looking and calling for lost family members.
Titus Coan goes on to comment that "had this catastrophe occurred at midnight when all were asleep, hundreds of lives would undoubtedly have been lost. Through the great mercy of God, only thirteen were drowned." To Titus Coan this tidal wave was as if God was speaking to the people to "Be ye also ready." They began to listen. Titus Coan mentions how they buried the dead, "fed, comforted, and clothed the living, and God brought light out of darkness, joy out of grief, and life out of death." He states, "Our meetings were more and more crowded, and hopeful converts were multiplied.'' This was not only the case for Hilo, but in other places in the islands that were affected by the tidal wave. People realized their need for God when coming so suddenly close to death. The revival increased in intensity because God's third part of the Great Awakening, his merciful judgment, had taken place.
THE MARKS OF THE REVIVAL
In answering the question of how did The Great Awakening happen, we have seen how the stage was set, how God raised up a man of faith and others like him, and how his merciful judgment was poured out.
This brings us to the fourth aspect of the Great Awakening, what I call the marks of revival. Whether these marks brought about the revival, are simply the results of the revival, or how a revival is known to be happening, is not clear. It can be said however, that these elements are common to other recorded revivals and were clearly a part of Hawaii's Great Awakening.
PrayerThe writers who recorded what happened during the Awakening were struck by the tremendous emphasis of the people on prayer. The missionaries in their annual meeting of 1836 had prayed and had sent requests to the United States for prayer on behalf of the Sandwich Islands. The Hawaiian people themselves it was noted had a unique ability to give themselves wholeheartedly to prayer. Missionaries on each island reported a tremendous interest in prayer. On Molokai, Mr. Hitchcock noted that "a number were in the habit of rising an hour before light and resorting to the school house to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit.'' This was before an awakening took place on Molokai. Rufus Anderson in his book, History of the Sandwich Island Mission... states, 'Missionaries declare that they had never witnessed more earnest, humble, persevering wrestling in prayer, than was exhibited by some of the native Christians at this time; and that they had reason to bless God for being so greatly edified, comforted, and assisted by their earnest supplications.'' This was not only true for the adults, but the children as well. Mr. Baldwin reported how in Lahaina, for a lengthy period of time that "one could scarcely go in any direction, in the sugar-cane or banana groves, without finding these little ones praying and weeping before God.'' An interesting preface to the revival was what took place on board a ship that was loaded with reinforcements from Boston for the Sandwich Island Mission. The missionary team prayed both morning and evening and preached on Sunday with a revival taking place on board ship. The captain, one of his officers, and several on board ship made an open commitment to Christ and were taken in as church members along with the Hawaiian people on their arrival in the Sandwich Islands.
A unique aspect of the Holy Spirit's work in causing the people to pray was the kind of praying the people participated in. The prayer was united and verbal, each one expressing himself individually but all out loud together. Each one would intercede over what the Holy Spirit had impressed on their hearts to pray. They would pray earnestly and with much emotion oblivious to the fact they had joined a whole chorus of people praying out loud together. This kind of praying was unique in the 1830's at least among the early New England missionaries who had first come to the Sandwich islands therefore some of them opposed it. However, for those who had experienced revival fires in New England before joining the missionary team in the islands, it was a mark of God's working. It seemed as though the Hawaiians were fulfilling James 5:16, "The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much." (KJV).
RepentanceThis brings us to the second mark of this revival: repentance over sin was expressed openly. The people desired to be righteous. At times such emotion was evoked that the missionaries did not know how to handle it. Titus Coan reports such an incident. He was holding an outdoor meeting in Puna while preaching on "Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus." One man burst out in the middle of the meeting with much emotion and tears saying, "Lord, have mercy on me; I am dead in sin." Titus Coan goes on to record how his "weeping was so loud, and his trembling so great, that the whole congregation was moved as by a common sympathy. Many wept aloud, and many commenced praying together. The scene was such as I had never before witnessed. I stood dumb in the midst of this weeping, watching, praying multitudes, not being able to make myself heard for about twenty minutes.'' This soon became a pattern in the meetings. The burden to be rid of sin, through confession of sin and restitution was real. Loud crying, shrieks, falling down, and wailing was not unusual in the meetings. Titus Coan reports, "I arrived yesterday at 8:00 A.M. Found a large company of children collected...in the meeting houses besides several hundreds of adults. I was a little weary, but I felt the Spirit break upon my heart; so I went right in among the children and fell upon my knees and looked up to Heaven. The Holy Spirit fell instantly, so soon as I opened my mouth. The place was shaken. The congregation was all in tears, and there was such a crying out as I had not heard before. The overt expression of repentance manifested in the meeting continued for over two years. Some missionaries criticized Coan and Lyons for allowing such displays. But, to Coan the physical manifestations of repenters were a "token of the Holy Spirit".
It is fascinating to note that holiness, right living, and open repentance was much a part of the Great Awakening that even after this move of God, people still saw this kind of life style to be the normal Christian life. Rev. H.T. Cheever who visited the islands not long after the Great Awakening described a communion service.
"In the afternoon was the sacrament. Kaipuholo, our host, had previously come to ask Mr. Bond (the missionary in charge) if his wife might come to the communion. He said that the evening before, after the preparatory lecture, she had quarreled with her neighbors about her goats getting into their enclosure. As we entered the church the man with whom she had quarreled was confessing his sin before the whole congregation and professing his repentance. His wife followed, and with great dignity and self-possession, confessed the same."
"But Kaipuholo's wife remained silent. At the communion when it was asked if any had been omitted in the distribution, she arose to confess her sin, and when the elements were passed to her, she partook with considerable hesitation. The whole incident evinced a conscientiousness and sense of propriety the more pleasing as it was entirely self-moved."
Hearers felt God's power so strongly that their muscles quivered. They waited in "tremendous throes" like a "dying giant or broken down with an "earthquake shock". Sometimes the fallen lay "groaning on the ground for fifteen minutes or half an hour after the fight was done!''
The Word of LifeA third mark of the revival was the tremendous hunger for God's word. The town of Hilo swelled to ten times its original size growing from 1,000 people to 10,000. This was due to people moving in from outlining areas so they could attend church and hear God's word. Titus Coan first saw this hunger manifested in his 1836 tour. He describes how people would hear him speak in one town and walk over with him to the next town so they could hear another message. Titus Coan mentions how during his tours throughout his parish he saw the following take place. He writes: "There were places along the routes where there were no houses near the trail, but where a few families were living half a mile or more inland. In such places, the few dwellers would come down to the path leading their blind, and carrying their sick and aged upon their backs, and lay them down under a tree if there was one near, or upon the naked rocks, that they might hear of a Savior. It was often affecting to see those withered and trembling hands reached out to grasp the hand of the teacher, and to hear the palsied, the blind, and the lame begging him to stop awhile and tell them the story of Jesus.'' Protracted meetings, that is meetings everyday became a common thing in each of the stations. People could not get enough of God's word.
Dr. Wetmore tells of the style of life of the Christians due to their hunger for God's word. He writes: "It was intensely interesting in those earlier days to see Christians keep with them at home and abroad their "ai-o-ka-la" (daily food), and their hymn book, and to hear them day by day repeat over and over again, (whole families of them), the passage of Scripture specially designated that they might thoroughly commit it to memory as a portion of their Sabbath school exercises, and their strive to learn its meaning and the lesson it taught." Rev. Coan, because of the hunger for God's word, would send out church members from Hilo two by two to preach, throughout his parish.
One final item that should be mentioned that helped to encourage this hunger for God's word was the printing and distributing of the Hawaiian language New Testament. In fact, Queen Kaahumanu was given the first copy of the Hawaiian New Testament on her death bed in 1832. This availability of God's word in the language of the people and the fact a large number of people had learned to read helped to foster a hunger to understand what the scriptures meant and how it applied to one's life.
GivingThe generosity of the people was a fascinating mark of the revival. Titus Coan remembered how although extremely poor his people did not want to come to church empty handed. He writes, "Among their humble gifts, you will see one bring a bunch of hemp, another a pile of wood for fuel, a mat, a tappa, a male, a little salt, a fish, a fowl, a taro, a potato, a cabbage, a little arrowroot, a few ears of corn, a few eggs. The old and feeble and children who have nothing else to give, gather grass wherewith to cover and enrich the soil. Each give according to his ability and shuns to approach empty-handed."
The giving was not just in things, but in time and talent. This was especially seen in the building of the churches. The building of the church whether it was a timber thatched with grass or structures made of stone or coral, the task was undertaken willingly and joyously. The amount of work done for the building of a single structure was incredible. If it was a wood structure, the men who had axes went to the mountains and cut down trees then transported the logs by hand to the building site. This would need hundreds of people to complete the task, both men and women. Others wove mats for the floor or thatched the roof from grass and reeds they had been collecting. The task was even greater when it came to stone constructed churches.
However, their giving was more than simply their time or resources, they gave of themselves to the work of the gospel. During the awakening it was not unusual to see people bringing others to the meetings with them. Some of them were blind or lame, elderly or the infirm. Their concern for others to hear the word, motivated them to reach out and bring people to worship with them.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
Throughout this revival there was one reoccurring theme, that the Great Awakening was a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who wrote about the revival saw that it was the Holy Spirit that caused the people to pray, to share their faith, to hunger for God's word, to repent of sin, and to give. The missionaries saw their powerful preaching of the gospel as a unique work of the Holy Spirit. S.E. Bishop recalls as a youngster, the impression made upon him on one Sunday morning at the beginning of the revival. His father was preaching, but not like he had done before. It, was Prophetically powerful. He writes about his father's preaching: "He was usually colloquial in his preaching, without special impressiveness of manner. On this occasion, he seemed to be another man, flaming with the power of the Spirit. I had at that time learned only a few words of Hawaiian being sedulously kept from doing so. But, I remember the impassioned emphasis with which the preacher said 'U'oki! U'oki!' (Stop! Stop!). He was manifestly another man, with a divine power inspiring him. I think that this was a common experience of the missionaries."
The Spirit's work was not only seen in the preaching, but even through unusual demonstrations of power. One interesting example is what happened during one of Titus Coan's meetings. He writes: "A young man came once into our meeting to make sport slyly. Trying to make the young men around him laugh during prayer, he fell as senseless as a log upon the ground and was carried out of the house. It was sometime before his consciousness would be restored. He became sober, confessed his sins, and in due time united with the church.''
There was an awesome reverence for what the Holy Spirit was doing. Titus Coan mentions how his wife "who's soul was melted with love and longing for the weeping natives, felt that to doubt it was the work of the Spirit, was to grieve the Holy Spirit and to provoke him to depart from us.''
For all involved in this Great Awakening, it was clear that God had demonstrated in their midst the reality of Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts."
THE AWAKENING WANES
The revival made a major impact on the nation and the Pacific. As to the nation, Hawaii became known as a Christian nation. In the law code of 1846, the Christian faith was established in this statement, "The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ shall continue to be the established national religion of the Hawaiian Islands.'' After a brief takeover of the government by the British, the kingdom was restored on July 31, 1843. Kamehameha III's speech was simple, but reflected the faith of the people. "The life of the land, is preserved in righteousness." The revival's effect in the Pacific was seen in that the native church became so strong it sent out its own missionaries. The Hawaiian Society of Foreign Missions was formed in 1850, with the desire to share the gospel with other nations. On July 15, 1852, the first Hawaiian missionaries set sail for the Caroline Islands with a letter of greeting from King Kamehameha III to all the chiefs of the islands of the Pacific urging them to receive the missionaries kindly, and encouraged them to renounce their idols and worship the true and living God.
Although the revival had a powerful effect it waned. This was due to a number of items. First the nature of revival is that it is like a wave that breaks against the shore and draws back. There are seasons in God's working. Just as in the natural realm, there are seasons in the spiritual realm. There is a time for planting and a time of harvest. In spite of this, men of faith see the harvest when others do not. They precipitate the harvest through their vision, and through their perseverance continue to bring people to God even though others have ceased. Titus Coan is a good example of this for although the Great Awakening had passed, he continued through his efforts to see people added to the church, even seeing the gospel thrust into the Pacific through the purchase of ships to take missionaries to other island nations.
Secondly, the revival waned not simply because of the nature of how God moved, but due to a number of other factors. Hawaii became inundated with other religious expressions. After a stormy beginning, the Catholics, under the protection of the French government, established its mission on a permanent basis in 1839. The Mormons arrived in the 1850's and the Episcopalians in the 1860's. Coupled with this change came the tremendous changes in population. The decline of the Hawaii population that had begun in the thirties escalated in the 50's through unbridled epidemics like smallpox and measles. With the rise of the sugar industry came the need for workers and large numbers of Chinese, then Japanese came into the islands bringing their own religious beliefs and customs. By the end of the century other groups had begun arriving in large numbers with each one bringing with them their own traditional-religious beliefs. One historical commentator interestingly saw the gold rush in California as another factor. His point was that the life-style of the population changed when money became the common medium of exchange.'" With it came a shifting of people's minds from the concerns of their soul to that of secular matters. Political changes was another factor which caused much confusion and in some cases resentment that hardened some to the gospel. Also, men like Titus Coan were a dying breed. He continued in his evangelistic fervor till he died, but others who followed him did not seem to have the same kind of commitment to the lost. By 1870 the American mission had closed its doors leaving the work to be carried on by the national church. The church in Hawaii had come of age, but there was a need for men of vision and without them the church settled into the task of simply maintaining the work. Help from missionaries' children who still lived in the islands was disappointing, as far as the Preaching of the gospel was concerned, since most chose to go into business and politics.
As A New Christian
Testimonies of Conversion
The Conversion of C. H. Spurgeon -by Henry Davenport Northrop
The Conversion of Martin Luther ---by Tom Stewart"The Kingdom of God that flowered from that Reformation in Germany 'is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it' (Luke 13:19).""The Kingdom of God that flowered from that Reformation in Germany 'is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it'
The Conversion of Abraham Lincoln ---by Rev. James F. Jacquess
