Posted on 01/16/2006 4:28:15 PM PST by Lorianne
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 39th birthday. 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 being thwarted should some of the U.S. battleships not be there. I gave no thought of the possibility of this attack breaking open a moral confrontation with the United States. I was only concerned about making a military success.
As we neared the Hawaiian Islands that bright Sunday morning, I made a preliminary check of the harbor, nearby Hickam Field, and the other installations 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 of nowhere, 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.
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 could 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 wounded, plus 226 Army killed and 396 wounded was something that could never be repaired.
It was the most thrilling exploit of my career. Every 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 18. Upon graduation three years later, I joined the Japanese Naval Air Force and served mostly as an aircraft carrier pilot for the next 15 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, and 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 10 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 was dropped, 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 the 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, General 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 BLI, known then as the Bible Meditation League.) Involved right then with the trials on atrocities committed against war prisoners, I put it in my pocket, determined to read the story later.
What I read was the fascinating episode that eventually changed my life. On that Sunday while I was in the air over Pearl Harbor, an American soldier named Jacob DeShazer had been on K.P. duty in an Army camp in California. When the radio announced the sneak demolishing of Pearl Harbor he 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, filled with elation at getting his own 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 prison of Japan.
During the next 40 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 25 months 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 to be 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 that 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 traditional Buddhist heritage.
In the ensuing weeks I read this book eagerly. I came to the climatic 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 that 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, drama--the 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 29 years ago at Pearl Harbor, but it is impossible. Instead, I now work at striking the death-blow to the basic hatred that 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.
Signed: Mitsuo Fuchida - 1970
I know that these are simply the memories of who must be a very old man, but that sentence stands out. Just what the hell did he--and other Japanese warriors--think was going to happen? Did he think that the United States would shrug it off with some comment as, "Well, that's OK. You destroyed our Pacific Fleet, but that's alright. We didn't need those ships, aircraft, and most importantly, servicemen anyway."
Wow. I just watched "Tora Tora Tora" again on Saturday. I had no idea Fuchida's life took this turn. Thanks for posting.
I think lots of people in imperial Japan, and also in Nazi Germany, knew only an America of movies and newsreels and thought the USA was full of decadent hedonists who could not be troubled to defend their freedom. To the extent many in the Japanese military thought about the prospects for war with the US, they thought (1) they could whip us, and (2) we'd lack any staying power. They thought we were a nation of Sean Penns and Howard Deans and Ted Kennedys before those three ever appeared on the national stage. Fortunately, in times of trial a much better sort of American rises to the fore.....
Sorry OldPossum, but do you mean like the liberals have been doing since after 9-11?
If this was their perception of the U.S. will and citizenry at the time, they must have been extremely naive or ignorant of the truth.
Yep, you nailed it, labette. The liberals, though, did hold back their true reactions for awhile. Some even pretended to be patriots. Imagine that!
Remember the media of the time, in Japan it was probably
25 years behind the states.
A few newspapers, perhaps a very few radio stations.
he wrote that in 1970....
BTW, Fuchida was/is right in his conclusion. There is only one way to peace.
Thanks for posting this, Lorianne, very informative.
Think of how much courage it must have took for a war hero of a Shinto and Buddhist country, and after being beaten so badly by a Christian country, to come out so openly for Christ. I really respect Fuchida for that.
I also think of certain key events that happened at Midway that could have tipped the outcome the other way: Fuchida coming down with appendicitus, and Admiral Halsey being put in the hospital with skin disease.
Japan was knocking on our front door at Midway. Had we lost the battle, the entire U.S. west coast would have been wide open to the Japanese.
Halsey was replaced by Admiral Spruance. Fuchida was replaced to lead the air attacks. Both key behind-the-scenes events that really worked in our favor. We won the battle. I see the hand of God in it.
When he would have been 70, describing the events of 29 years earlier.
Less than 6 months after the JAps' "glorious victory" at Pearl Harbor, and already the beginning of the end for them.
The average Japanese pilot was heavily indoctrinated and very culturally isolated. Even the Japanese High Command was under the belief that if they could cripple the American Fleet (including Aircraft Carriers) that the USA would sue for Peace.
Would a Korean Soldier worry about the geopolitical ramifications of his action in shooting South Korean Soldiers?
Ping
I have read some on WWII (honest Injun) but I must have speedread the section on Pearl Harbor.
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