"l Led tfre Attqck on Peqrl Hqrbot'' by Mitsuotuchido, oi told rc J&n A. Borbour

carriers December 7, 199L, marks the he Akoei pitched and. rolled in in the air, the six aircraft qnniversar5r of the JaPa' the rough sean as the white now tiny streaks on the surface of SOth We were the nese attack on the U.S. Naval surf whipped across the flight the water beneath us. in the predawn blackness. The first wave of the 359 Planes that I Base at on deck rniles Islan4 llawaii, that brought crews were hard Pressed to keeP led toward Pearl Harbor 275 the their planes from sliding into the to the south. the United States into the north- Second World. \ilar. CaPtain sea. The time was 5:30 a.m. The By 7:30 we were over Mitsuo Fuchida was general day was the seventh of December- ern tip of tJre island. There was ggrrrrnander of the air squad- T'he year was 1941. still no sign that anyone kngqwe perfonmed the raid. In I stood in the commander-in- were in the air. If we had t,}.e ad- ron that thetorPedo 1952 Fuchida told John Bar'' chiefs quarters. "I am readY for vantage of surPrise, ^d the mission," I said. ptanes would strike first. Ttren the bour the story of that attack Inthe and of how, after the war, b'e Vice Admiral Nagumo stood to ievel bombers would attack. peace through knowing his feet and grasped mY hand hard event of resistance tJre dive bomb- found *Fuchida,'he to confuse Jesus Christ.-ED. in his. said, "I have ers were to attack first confidence in you." and attract enemY fire. After a final briefing with the Lt 7;49I gave the signal for a men, I climbed to the command surprise attack, but the slgqal post above the flight deck. MY wal misinterpreted. At 7:55 the retire4 formerly served John.d Barbour, plane was in position, its red-and- dive bombers tore in on Hickam ag executive minister withAmerican Bap- Island and Wheeler tigt Churches in the U-S.A He was also yellow striped tail marking it as Field, Ford editor of that denomination's national the commande/s plane. Field. Two minutes later the tor- newsmagazine, "Crusader,' and worked for- Just before I climbed into the pedo planes zeroed in on battle- many years as administrative editor of plane, the officer in charge of itrips in the harbor. At about 8:00 adull publicaUons with David C- Cook Pub- presented planes strafed the air base, Elgin, Illinois. He now the maintenance gang fighter lishing Company, level bombers began works-as acommunications consultantwith me with a white cloth headband. and then the an office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "This," he said, "is from the main- to drop their cargoes of death on He and his wife, Laura MaY, have four tenance crew. Take it to Pearl the battleships. grown children. They live in Ann Arbor, Harbor.' Suddenly it was as though a gi- Michigan, where they attend First Baptist at mY in the Fifteen minutes later 183 fighter ant hand had smashed ChurJh (Rmerican Baptist Churches gaping hole aPPeared on U.S.A.). @1981, 1991 John A. Barbour- bombers and torpedo planes were plane. A continued on next Po6e DECISION December l99l "l Led the Attock on Peorl Horbor" continued from preceding page the port side. The steering mecha- visited that particular camp regr.r- read an editorial in a news- nism was damaged but, before re- larly and had done what she could paper about the Bible being the turning to the carrier, I managed to make life more bearable for the world's bedt seller. Impelled to buy to drop two bombs on the USS prisoners. When one of the prison- a copy ofthe Bible, I began to read Maryland. ers asked why she was so kind to the New Testament. In the Gospel During the war, I faced death them, she said, "Because my par- of Luke, I came across the words, three times. Once when I was fly- ents were killed by Japanese sol- 'Father, forgive them; for they ing on reconnoiter between For- diers." know not what they do."1 These mosa (now called Taiwan) and were the words of Jesus on the China, I was informed that we cross as he prayed for the people were lost and that we had only 10 who were putting him to death! minutes offuel left. We were flying Itwas thenthat I understoodthe above water and, when our fuel source of the Ameriean woman's was gone, we hit the water near a concern. That very day I decided to Chinese junk. On another occasion become a follower of Jesus. I crash-landed in a jungle. A third I struggled for some time with brush with death came during the the problem of makiug known mY Batble of Midway. Following sur- conversion to Christianity. Tben gery, I s4g spnfined to a hamtnock one day I saw an automobile be- on the Akagi when it was attacked longing to an evangelistic group by American planes. The side of parked at the curb of one of the ship where I was lying was 's busiest'streets. The auto- blown out by a bomb. I was thrown mobile was equipped with a loud- into the ocean and picked up by speaker. I asked permission to one ofthe destroyers. speak, and as a crowd collected, When the war ended, I was bit- my voice boomed out, "I am Mitsuo who led the air raid on ter and disillusioned. I had spent Mitsuo Fuchi& Fuchida 25 years in the Japanese navy, Pearl Harbor. I have now sturen- and adjustment to civilian life did This did not make sense to the dered my life to Jesus Christ." not come easily. I took up farming prisoners. The young woman, who The nexb day newspapers car- near Osaka, Japan. was no more than 20 years old, ex- ried headlines: "From a TVar Cat- I had had very little place in my plained, "IVIy parents were Chris- echism'to the Bible." What I'd said life for religion. But now, living in tian missionaries in the Philip- had a mixed reception. Some close relation to the earth, I began pines when the war broke out. people denounced me as 4n oppor- to thinkinterns of a Creator-God. They were captured and ordered hrnist. Some said that I was be- I had never been an atheist, but I shot as spies. They spent their traying my ancestors. Some en- had grown to manhood without Iast 30 minutes of life praying for couraged me. A Communist cod any formal religion. In the Japa- their captors. At first I was bitter miner wrote me a polite letter urg- nese naqy the former "War Cate- when I heard what had happened, ing me to have nothing to do with chigm" was the sum total of my but my hatred has been washed Christianity. He concluded his let- ideolory. away by a Spiritdirected love for ter by saying, "Peace is onlY at I began to think too that there all 691, even my enemies." tained through L€nin." must be a.reason why I was still It was a beautiful story, but I It was not Lenin but Christ who alive. Of the 70 officers who took could not understand it. changed my life and gave me off from the Akogi that Decem- Not long aftenvard, while leav- "peace that passes understand- ber 7 morning, I was the only one ing a railroad station in Tokyo, I ing.- I, who had been steeped to survive the war. was handed a tract by an Ameri- in militarism, found the true Then.one day f saw in a list of can. It told the story of Jacob peace. No othercouldfillthat God- Japanese war prisoners returning DeShazer, a member of the Doo- shaped blank in my life. o< from States the name Iittle squadron that bombed Tokyo the United (1) Luke 2334, KIV. (2) Cf. Philippians of a lieutenantwhom I had known on April 1.8, L942. In the tract De- '1:7 very well. I went to Uraga Harbor Shazer told how, while a prisoner Mitsuo Fuehida becatn e a Pres' to meet him and to ask him about of the Japanese for 40 months, he byterian lay ministen Before the treatment of prisoners of war had received a Bible. He began his death in 1969, he traveled in American camps- reading it and surrendered him- thousands of miles preaching Myfriendtoldme a story abouta self to Jesus Christ. the message of peace through young American woman who had Soon after receiving that tract, I Jesus Christ.-ED.

14 DECISION December 1991