Faith forges new friends

Like Muslim extremists today, a young Japanese ideologue was driven by the belief that America must be brought down.

He led 360 planes in the raid on Pearl Harbor, devastating the American Pacific fleet, leaving 2,402 dead and 1,282 wounded.

He believed if America went down, world peace would go up.

Instead, “December 7 1941 — a date which will live in infamy,” — was a crushing disillusionment to Captain Mitsuo Fuchida.

When he stood in my family room, he was radically changed.

His passion for world peace was unchanged.

But the process he followed was different.

A leaflet Fuchida picked up as he walked the streets of Tokyo in the wake of the Japanese surrender was destined to change his life.

The leaflet, written by Jake DeShazer, a former prisoner of war in Japan, told the inspiring story of how he overcame bitterness and now enjoyed peace and goodwill for his former captors.

It impacted the young captain.

What piqued Fuchida’s curiosity even more was a young Christian woman who lovingly dedicated herself to serve the needs of Japanese prisoners responsible for the death of her parents.

Fuchida began to read the Bible. As he read “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” it was clear to him how both the young woman and DeShazer found the ability to be kind to their enemies.

What they found was powerful enough to change a person “from the inside, out.”

That day Christ became Lord of Fuchida’s life.

It was a few years earlier than his visit with us that Fuchida actually met Charles De Shazer.

DeShazer was one of General Doolittle’s raiders, who flew in the bombing of Tokyo after Pearl Harbor.

He was shot down, imprisoned and tortured.

Bitter and angry, DeShazer vowed he would return to Japan for vengeance upon his captors.

As he suffered his time and with nothing else to do in his dimly lit cell, DeShazer read through a copy of the New Testament that somehow fell into his hands.

DeShazer came to realize the way to peace is not through bigotry, hatred and war.

Eventually, he committed his life to Christ and returned to Japan to bless his captors.

As these two icons of opposite sides in World War II embraced, and with emotion begged forgiveness of each other, they epitomized the fact that a better remedy than the sword is available for personal and world peace.

From painful experience, both had learned what all men know instinctively when they give integrity a chance: that peace primarily is the product of a personal transformation that comes exclusively through a personal relationship with Christ.

What greater eloquence could be summoned to dramatize that fact than bringing these two former enemies together as brothers?

This is not to say that cultural Christianity is the answer.

It’s no secret that cultural Christianity has committed its share of atrocities since Constantine.

The key is in relational Christianity, an enlightened personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

It’s common knowledge that Jesus was clear in saying people of all races, ages, economic and political stripes, who believe in Him will be “born again.”

The United Nations, peace conferences, education and a myriad of well-intentioned efforts might deter war.

But I suspect we really know it’s what’s on the inside that counts — although we might not verbalize it because it’s not exactly politically correct.

A new heart, not treaties and textbooks, leads enemies to “beat their swords into plowshares” and live peaceable with one another.

The image of Fuchida and DeShazer, in an embrace of forgiveness and acceptance, rises as a silent, but eloquent, specter of promise across our world.

If we will allow its shadow to fall upon us with transformational grace, it will make a difference in our troubled world.

A peace plan that does work comes with the Christ who was born on Christmas Day.

The Fuchidas and the DeShazers of this world have made that discovery.

Dr. Guy BonGiovanni is president of Life Enrichment Ministries Inc. in Canfield and interim pastor at North Bloomfield Assembly of God.