August 2, 2022 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Carol, the Daughter of Doolittle Raider Jacob DeShazer, shares the story of her father being taken captive by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, and how he chose to forgive the torturers.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything on this show, including
your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. This next story begins where
the movie Paul Harbor left off. Two enemies. One led
Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the other an American
(00:31):
Doolittle raider who bombed Tokyo. Here to tell the story
is carol Iko Deschaser Dixon, the daughter of Doolittle raider
Jacob Dschaser. She is the author of Return of the Raider,
a Doolittle Raiders story of war and forgiveness. Here is
Carol Hi. My name is carol Iko Dschaser Dixon, and
(00:57):
today I'd like to tell you this story of my father,
Jacob Dchaser, whose story has made a mark in history.
I'm not a historian and I'm no military expert, but
when I received a phone call from this radio station
asking if I would consider sharing my father's story, I
(01:21):
knew I had to say yes, I'll try so. On
February twenty sixth, nineteen forty, more than a year and
a half before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, my father
joined the Army Air Court at Fort McDowell in California.
(01:44):
He always wanted to be a pilot and believed being
a pilot would be a great way to serve his country. However,
his dream of becoming a pilot was short lived. At
twenty seven years old, he was too old by military
standards to begin pilots training. Instead, the military trained him
(02:08):
to become an airplane mechanic. When the training was complete,
he was stationed at McCord Field near Tacoma, Washington. At McCord,
my father worked as a mechanic on the North American
B twenty five Mitchell bomber. Although he was forced to
(02:29):
give up his dream of being a pilot, he was
able to fly when the military began looking for bombadeer's.
The bombadeer's main duty was to assist the pilot and
navigator to ensure that a bomb hits the target. This
excited my father and he applied and was accepted to
(02:53):
bombadere school. He was on Kitchen Police better known as
KP duty, and was peeling potatoes and listening to the
radio when a Japanese raid led by Captain Mietzo Fuchita
attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one. His
(03:14):
initial shock turned to anger and then deep hatred toward
the Japanese. He heard himself saying, those Japanese, they are
going to have to pay for this. He wanted revenge
for the pain inflicted on his fellow Americans. Still, it
(03:36):
was with some surprise that he found himself in the
company of General Jimmy Doolittle and seventy nine other men.
Soon after, he heard General Doolittle explain that a secret
raid against Japan was being planned and volunteers were needed.
(03:56):
The mission would be dangerous and all perish along the way,
But when asked if they would volunteer, every soldier in
the room responded without hesitation. Yes. My father was a
last man asked, and had a bit longer to contemplate
the risk. He was scared. He had no idea how
(04:21):
to do what was being asked of him, and really
just wanted to say no, thanks, I'm not prepared for this.
Maybe he was more scared of what the others would
think of him if he said no, So he heard
himself say yes, I'll go. Saying yes to the Doolittle
raid changed my father's simple quiet life forever. He was
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born in nineteen twelve and had grown up on a
farm in Madras, Oregon. He worked as a sheep herder
and raised turkeys. After high school graduation, there was no
money for college, and lack of employment opportunities during the
Great Depression led him to enter the army so that
(05:09):
he could make a living. He had grown up in
a Christian family, but he had already decided that Christianity
and the Bible were not for him. On April eighteenth,
nineteen forty two, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
General Dolittle was seventy nine other raiders and sixteen B
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twenty fives were loaded onto an aircraft carrier named the
USS Hornet and set sail from San Francisco, passing under
the Golden Gate Bridge and sailing out on to the
Pacific Ocean towards Japan. Since the airplanes could only carry
a limited amount of fuel, the plane was for the
(05:55):
aircraft carrier to get as close to Japan as possible
and then to fly off the Hornet to attack strategic
targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokoska, and Nagoya in the dark.
The airplanes had enough gas to get to China, where
they could land and be helped out by friendly Chinese contacts. Well, unfortunately,
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the hornet was spotted far out from the coast of
Japan by Japanese fishing boats and the Doolittle raiders had
to take off the hornet and lift into the air immediately.
That caused them to reach their target in the daytime
and China at nighttime with no help as their planes
(06:43):
ran out of gas with no safe place to land.
And you've been listening to Carol Iko to Chaser Dixon
tell the story of her father, Jacob, who was serving
in the Army Air Corps when Japanese attacks, Well, they
just decimated our navy in Pearl Harbor. And when we
(07:06):
come back, we've put you right in the cockpit and
into the shoes of Carol's father when we come back,
more of her father's story here on Our American Stories Folks,
(07:29):
if you love the great American stories we tell and
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Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
(07:50):
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And
we continue with our American stories and Carol Chodcheser Dixon's
(08:13):
story about her father Jacob Let's pick up where we
last left off. Still, the raid caught Japan by surprise
and most of the targets were hit. There was little
physical damage done, but the raid struck a powerful psychological
blow to the Japanese. Most of the raiders had to
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bail out over China in the dark. A couple of
the planes crash landed with a few casualties. Two crews
bailed out unknowingly over a part of China that was
occupied by Japanese forces and were promptly captured and imprisoned.
My father was one of the eight men captured. General
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Dolittle and the surviving raiders were assisted by the Chinese
to return back to the United States to a hero's welcome.
You know, many historians say the Doolittle Raid was an
important turning point in the war with Japan, but that
meant very little at the time to the eight men
who became POWs at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army.
(09:25):
The captured Doolittle Raiders were held in solitary confinement and
cramped prison cells. They endured interrogation, threats of execution, beatings, torture, starvation,
and filthy prison cells that were infested with lice, bedbugs,
(09:47):
and rats. There was no heat in the cold winter months,
and the summers were muggy and hot with no ventilation,
particularly from the stench of the ben joe, which was
a hole in the floor serving as a toilet. All
of this increased my father's hatred for the Japanese. One
(10:10):
of the initial interrogation sessions brought my father into a
room where a group of Japanese officers began to question him.
Here is how he described his experience in his own words.
One of the officers, using lots of slang, said that
I had better talk. He said that these were mean
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people and they would torture me until I did talk.
I had been blindfolded for more than twelve hours and
hadn't eaten all day. I had been asked questions at
every opportunity, but would always tell them that I wouldn't talk.
Sometimes they would tell me about places in America where
(10:53):
Japan had bombed and taken possession of property. Then they
would come up very close to my face and open
their mouths and laugh. I was then led into a
room and the blindfold was removed. A little Japanese man
of stocky build was standing behind a table, smoking a cigar,
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rubbing his hands together and talking really fast in Japanese.
Several others were in the room. The man behind the
table said through the interpreter, I am the kindest judge
in all occupied China. I want to treat you real
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good everywhere. I have the reputation of being the kindest
judge in all occupied China. I glared at the fat
fellow smoking the black cigar. The judge returned my glaze
and said, you're very fortunate to be questioned by me.
You just tell us what the truth is and I'll
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give you a nice glass of warm, sweet milk. He
asked me if Doolittle was my commanding officer, and I
answered I won't talk, and instead I gave him my name,
rank and serial number, because that was all I was
required to say under the Geneva Convention. The judge responded
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to this by saying that I was Japanese property. The
judge continued, how do you pronounce H, O, R and
E T. I responded, that's hornet. The judge replied, that's
(12:41):
the aircraft carrier you flew off to bomb Japan. I said,
I won't talk. The judge continued, sixteen B twenty fives
took off the hornet and bombed Japan. Is this true?
I continued to respond, I won't talk. This must have
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angered the kind judge greatly, because soon he struck the
table with his fist, saying, when you talk to me,
you looked me straight in the eye. The judge was
growing angrier and pulled out his sword, holding it up
and looking directly at me. Said tomorrow morning, when the
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sun comes up, I'm going to cut your head off.
I stood there silently. What do you think of that?
The judge asked me. I told him I thought it
would be a great honor if the kindest judge in
China cut my head off. The judge and others laughed
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for the first time, and a little later I was
taken to my cell. I lay in the cell all night,
blindfolded and handcuffed without blankets. The next morning, at sunrise,
I was led out of my cell. I had no breakfast.
The blindfold was taken off and the handcuffs were removed.
(14:08):
I looked around for the judge with his weapon of execution,
but instead was loaded onto a truck with the other
prisoners and moved to another prison camp. Three of the
officers were killed by a firing squad. The remaining five,
which included my father, were sentenced to life in prison
(14:29):
in solitary confinement. My father endured these conditions for forty
long months, nearly three and a half years. He became
very weak, thin, and deathly sick, while burning with hatred
and resentment toward his captors. My father used to say,
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my hatred for my enemy nearly drove me crazy. He
often cursed the prison guards, and in return they kicked
him and beat him. Eventually, one of the other Doolittle
raiders died of malnutrition, and even the Japanese government became
concerned about the horrible conditions in the prison. An order
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was given to provide better food. The four remaining prisoners
were offered books to read, and one of those books
was a Bible. Each of them were given only three
weeks to read it. When my father received his turn,
he was excited. He had turned away from any Christian
teachings from his childhood, from his parents and church, and
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now he was being given a second chance to find
out what it was all about, and he wasn't going
to waste any more time. He had all day to
read with no interruptions. His plan was to read the
Bible from cover to cover and discover all the places
where the Bible contradicted itself. But as he read, his
eyes were opened to exactly the opposite. He saw how
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prophecy in the Old Testament was revealed and fulfilled in Jesus,
and he became convinced that what he was reading was
the word of God. He read Romans ten nine. If
you confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord, and believe with
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
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will be saved. He felt those conditions had been met,
and he said yes to God's call on his heart.
His mind would often recall his favorite passages. Of particular
importance to him was First John. He had memorized all
five chapters and often meditated on them. He liked First
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John because it spoke plainly about sin and forgiveness. And
you're listening to Carol Igo Descheser Dixon tell the story
of her father Jacob and goodness a life sentence after
being tortured and well belittled by a judge who tried
to extract information from him, and all he would do
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was give his name, rank and serial number to that judge.
And you can picture the scene in your head. That's
the joy of listening to a story like this, as
you get to create your own images in your own
ad I've got mine, I'm sure you've got yours. And
what this cell must have been like. It's unimaginable, actually,
how the Japanese treated our soldiers so inhumanely that it's
set a new standard for inhumanity. When we come back
(17:34):
this remarkable story of redemption and war and forgiveness, Jacob
Descheser's story here on our American stories, and we continue
(18:08):
with our American stories and the story of Doolittle raider
Jacob de Cheser. Here's his daughter Carol with more of
the story. One day, when reading about the baptism of Jesus,
he had a strong desire for baptism himself. He looked
up out of a small high window of his cell
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to realize that rainwater was blowing in, and he thanked
God for this provision. As he stood under the rain
and accepted the baptism of the Holy Spirit, hatred for
his enemies turned to forgiveness and love. One day, an
opportunity to demonstrate his faith appeared. He was being taken
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back to his cell by one of the guards after
a short exercise period outside, and the guard started pushing him.
Ai yahku haia coo, hy up, hurry up, the guard
shouted as he slapped him on the back with his hand.
When he came to the door of my father's cell,
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he held it open a little and gave him a
final push through the doorway. But before my father could
get all the way in, he slammed the door and
caught his foot. He held the door against his bare
foot and kicked it with his hobnailed shoes. My father
pushed against the door to get his foot free and
then jumped aside. The pain in his foot was severe,
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and he thought some bones might have been broken. As
he sat in great pain, he felt as if God
were testing him somehow he felt anger in resentment toward
the guard and thought, Oh, surely God doesn't expect us
to love these real, mean ones in this world. But
then he remembered all the words of Jesus in Matthew
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five forty four, who said, love your enemies, bless those
who curse you, do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
He also remembered First Corinthian's thirteen four eight the Great
Love Chapter, stating love is patient, Love is kind. It
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does not envy, It does not boast. It is not proud,
It is not rude, It is not self seeking, It
is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always preserves.
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Love never fails. He decided, with the Lord's help, to
replace all the hatred in his heart with love. He
also I wanted to try this new approach on the guard.
When that same guard came to his cell the following day,
he bade him ohio gozai mussu good morning. The guard
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looked confused and must have thought my father had spent
too much time in solitary confinement. But after many days
of trying to be nice to the guard, the guard
finally smiled and began to talk with him as much
as they could with his poor Japanese language skills. The
Japanese guard noticed the change in him, and instead of
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shouting and beating him, he offered him a delicious, warm,
sweet potato. He thanked the guards, saying arigato, thank you,
and then thought to himself. God's way really works if
we try it out. Jesus was not an idealist whose
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ideals could not be realized. When he told us to
love one another, he told us the best way to act,
and it will work. His way will work out better
than any other way which could be tried. My father
had grown very weak during the forty month or deal,
suffering from malnutrition and dysentery. He had counted over seventy
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five boils on his body, and he was miserable. Now
that he had read the Bible and become a Christian.
In his prison cell, it struck him how much easier
it would be to die and go to Heaven than
to stay alive and suffer. He said. He lifted up
his hands and said, Lord, take me. I just want
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to leave this suffering and to be with you. Then,
he said, he became aware of his hands. They were empty,
and he thought, I can't go like this. I've never
done anything for the Lord. Just think about it, to
appear before the creator of the universe. After all he
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has done for me. He sent his son to suffer
and to die upon the cross to forgive us our sins.
He said, I didn't want to be there for all
eternity with empty hands, he said. He quickly put his
hands behind his back. He said, Lord, I don't want
to come to you with empty hands. Give me another
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chance and I'll try. He knew he was a shy
public speaker. Well, God granted my father's humble prayer, and
he began to sense God's calling him to return to
Japan as a missionary. On August twentieth, nineteen forty five,
shortly after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which
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ended the war with Japan, my father and four other
do Little Raider prisoners were released from prison and returned
to the United States. Their faces and stories were on
the front cover of the newspapers across the nation. Well,
a very beautiful woman named Florence Metheni from Toddville, Iowa,
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noticed the newspaper articles and under a picture of my
father she read with interest that he was considering attending
Seattle Pacific College to prepare to return to Japan as
a missionary. Florence had already told God yes to a
life of missionary service years before, and was already accepted
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to be a student at Seattle Pacific College. Who knows,
she said out loud with a grin. Maybe I will
get to meet him some day and shake his hand. Well,
she did get to meet him and shake his hand,
and when he asked her to marry him, she said yes.
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She recalls that my father was sincere, but not particularly
a good public speaker. He was rather timid and slow speaking.
He had been in solitary confinement for forty months, and
his thoughts and words came slowly and with much effort.
Seattle Pacific's president at the time, Hoit Watson, and the
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entire SBC community was a great source of encouragement and
helped my father gain the confidence, training, and support to
graduate in three short years. And you're listening to the
story of Jacob de Cheeser, as told by his daughter Carol,
and she's written a terrific book called The Return of
(25:45):
the Raider, a do little raider's story of war and forgiveness.
And my goodness, reading that Bible while in prison, getting
reacquainted with the faith that he had not taken seriously
at all, and now had some time to really read
the book and see how it applied to his life,
and my goodness, what a change in his life. Love
your enemies, Bless your enemies. These are words that he
(26:07):
had to try and live by, and he did, and
he applied it to that prison guard. And the difference
in that relationship because of how he dealt with rudeness
and with meanness and well just bad treatment, teaches us
all a lot about how you can change another person's
actions and heart itself. And after he comes out of captivity,
(26:31):
after we drop two bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, besides
of all things, that he wants to return to Japan
as a missionary, My goodness, you just don't get more
remarkable than that and beautiful than that. And in that
pursuit comes across a woman who admires what he does
from afar and ultimately becomes his wife. And some people
would say, oh, what a ridiculous story. That doesn't happen
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forty months in captivity. And all kinds of things will
happen to you when you get out, all kinds of things,
and especially if you've got forgiveness with you, and in
this particular case, most assuredly with Christ with you. When
we come back. More of this remarkable story, the story
of Jacob DeCheser here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and the story of Dolittle
Raider Jacob DeCheser, as told by his daughter. Let's return
to Carol with more of her father's story. My parents
went to japan A's missionaries in December of nineteen forty eight.
News of the former American pow that was returning to
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Japan made front page news all over Japan, and my
father was invited to tell his story over and over
in churches, factories, schools, mines, people's homes, and public squares.
Many Japanese became Christians, including several of the Japanese prison guards.
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But perhaps the most amazing story is that of Captain
Mitzul Fucheedah, who was the head pilot that led the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He read my father's testimony
that was printed in Japanese on a track that was
distributed in front of a busy train station. When he
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read that my father was able to forgive because of
what he had read in the Bible, Captain Fucheedah decided
he wanted to see what the Bible said, so he
bought himself a Bible. When he read about Jesus dying
on the cross and that he prayed Father, forgive them,
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for they know not what they do, he knew he
wanted that kind of forgiveness in his life. He became
a wonderful Christian An evangelist and became my father's friend
and brother in Christ. My parents had five children, three
boys and two girls, Paul, John, Mark, Carol, Icho and Ruth.
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I am the fourth child. I was born in Cooba,
Japan and always considered Japan my home. I like to
tell people I was made in Japan. My parents gave
me a Japanese middle name, Icho, which means love. My
parents lived and ministered together in Japan for thirty years.
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As career missionaries. They were able to help get twenty
three churches started. Three of those churches were started from
their home. My father was just an incredible person with
a sense of honor and duty. He served his country,
but more important, he served his Lord. He had deep faith,
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and during his time as a prisoner of war, he
was convinced that he needed to forgive his enemy, and
after that he spent his life spreading the message of
love and forgiveness. My father lived to be ninety five
years old. He passed away March fifteenth, two thousand and eight.
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At my father's memorial service, my sister Ruth gave his eulogy, saying,
my father was given a full lifetime to try his
best to forgive his enemies and to love in all
circumstance dances. Who can measure the impact of his obedience,
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thirty years of missionary service in Japan, helping to start
twenty three new churches, raising five children, honoring his wife
of sixty one years, preaching in countless churches across North
America and all of us. Inspired and challenged by his
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story and life. Yet, if my father were here today,
he would not want this to be about him and
his accomplishments. He would want Jesus to get all the
attention and credit. He would urge us to love each other,
believe the Bible, and say, yes, Lord, I will try
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to do what you ask of me. He would say
that following after love works a hundred times out of
a hundred, and I am certain he would ask us
this question, on that final day, when you are called
to meet Jesus, what will you bring in your hands?
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Well after nine eleven, I felt God telling me to
write a new book about my father's story. I thought
of all the reasons I couldn't do it. I wasn't
an author, a historian, a military expert, a theologian, and
I didn't have a publisher and didn't know anything about
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writing a book. As I prayed, I realized I needed
to tell God I'll try. Soon after, God led me
to meet doctor Goldstein. Doctor Goldstein, who has passed away now,
is the best known historian on the attacks on Pearl
Harbor and Midway, as documented in the books At Dawn
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we Slept, Miracle at Midway and God's Samurai, which he
co authored with Professor Gordon Prang. While doctor Goldstein became
my partner and co author of our new book, titled
Returner the Raider, which tells with historical accuracy, the events
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of my father's story. I've been working for over twenty
years to make my parents' story more available through documentaries, books, videos,
and other media outlets. The other day I heard from
a man who was having trouble with his marriage. He
said he needed to forgive his wife for something she
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had done, and that he just couldn't bring himself to
forgive her. He tried, but just couldn't do it. He said.
He read my father's story and will never forget finishing
the book and slamming it shut, saying if Jacob de
Cheser can do it, so can I. After all the
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torture and everything else he had to endure, with the
Lord's help, he was able to find it in his
heart to forgive. He had a lot more to forgive
than I do, so, he said. He went back to
his wife and told her that he was willing to
forgive her and that he wanted to make their marriage
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work well. He said they got back together and that
today their marriage is better than ever. I hear from
a lot of older veterans who are concerned that the
younger generation are missing out on being told the stories
from World War Two. So parents, when you are teaching
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your children about the history of our country and the
story of Pearl Harbor and the Dolittle Raid, tell them
also the story of my father, Jacob Dchaeser and Captain
Mitzul Fuchdah, because their stories are lesson our country needs
to hear today. The best book for children on this
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topic is the book titled Jacob Dcheser Forgive Your Enemies
by Janet and Jeff Beinge. In conclusion, I would like
to read a message from Captain mitsu Ol Fucheedah. Remember
Captain Fucheedah led the attack on Pearl Harbor. I'm reading
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from a brochure he wrote in nineteen seventy titled From
Pearl Harbor to Calvary. 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
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in the decades to come must not ignore the message
of Jesus Christ. Youth must realize he is the only
hope for this troubled world. Oh, 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
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and encounter with Jesus Christ. I would give anything to
retract my actions 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,
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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 Jacob Dcheser's tormented life. He
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is the only answer for young people today. He signed
it Captain Meetzo Fuchita, nineteen seventy. That's the end, and
his special thanks to Greg Hangler for the terrific work
on this piece, and his special thanks to Carol Icho
Dscheser Dixon, the daughter of Doolittle Raider Jacob Dcheser, and
(37:19):
she is the author of A Turn of the Raider,
a Doolittle raider's story of war and forgiveness. And my goodness,
what a story he had. But Captain Fuchiitah's story equally
remarkable because Fucheedah read about this man forgiving the torturers
that did what they did to him, and this caught
Facheedah's attention. The next thing you know, he's reading the
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Bible and the rest is history. And my goodness, what
Descheser did spending his life in Japan as a missionary,
the very place where he was tortured. Oh my goodness,
he's still my heart. By the way, I love what
that married guy said. If Jacob Descheser can do it,
and that is forgive someone like the torturer, so can i.
I he had a lot more to forgive than I
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do with my wife. A remarkable story of forgiveness, love
and war. The story of Jacob de Cheeser here on
our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything on this show, including
your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. This next story begins where
the movie Paul Harbor left off. Two enemies. One led
Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the other an American
(00:31):
Doolittle raider who bombed Tokyo. Here to tell the story
is carol Iko Deschaser Dixon, the daughter of Doolittle raider
Jacob Dschaser. She is the author of Return of the Raider,
a Doolittle Raiders story of war and forgiveness. Here is
Carol Hi. My name is carol Iko Dschaser Dixon, and
(00:57):
today I'd like to tell you this story of my father,
Jacob Dchaser, whose story has made a mark in history.
I'm not a historian and I'm no military expert, but
when I received a phone call from this radio station
asking if I would consider sharing my father's story, I
(01:21):
knew I had to say yes, I'll try so. On
February twenty sixth, nineteen forty, more than a year and
a half before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, my father
joined the Army Air Court at Fort McDowell in California.
(01:44):
He always wanted to be a pilot and believed being
a pilot would be a great way to serve his country. However,
his dream of becoming a pilot was short lived. At
twenty seven years old, he was too old by military
standards to begin pilots training. Instead, the military trained him
(02:08):
to become an airplane mechanic. When the training was complete,
he was stationed at McCord Field near Tacoma, Washington. At McCord,
my father worked as a mechanic on the North American
B twenty five Mitchell bomber. Although he was forced to
(02:29):
give up his dream of being a pilot, he was
able to fly when the military began looking for bombadeer's.
The bombadeer's main duty was to assist the pilot and
navigator to ensure that a bomb hits the target. This
excited my father and he applied and was accepted to
(02:53):
bombadere school. He was on Kitchen Police better known as
KP duty, and was peeling potatoes and listening to the
radio when a Japanese raid led by Captain Mietzo Fuchita
attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one. His
(03:14):
initial shock turned to anger and then deep hatred toward
the Japanese. He heard himself saying, those Japanese, they are
going to have to pay for this. He wanted revenge
for the pain inflicted on his fellow Americans. Still, it
(03:36):
was with some surprise that he found himself in the
company of General Jimmy Doolittle and seventy nine other men.
Soon after, he heard General Doolittle explain that a secret
raid against Japan was being planned and volunteers were needed.
(03:56):
The mission would be dangerous and all perish along the way,
But when asked if they would volunteer, every soldier in
the room responded without hesitation. Yes. My father was a
last man asked, and had a bit longer to contemplate
the risk. He was scared. He had no idea how
(04:21):
to do what was being asked of him, and really
just wanted to say no, thanks, I'm not prepared for this.
Maybe he was more scared of what the others would
think of him if he said no, So he heard
himself say yes, I'll go. Saying yes to the Doolittle
raid changed my father's simple quiet life forever. He was
(04:47):
born in nineteen twelve and had grown up on a
farm in Madras, Oregon. He worked as a sheep herder
and raised turkeys. After high school graduation, there was no
money for college, and lack of employment opportunities during the
Great Depression led him to enter the army so that
(05:09):
he could make a living. He had grown up in
a Christian family, but he had already decided that Christianity
and the Bible were not for him. On April eighteenth,
nineteen forty two, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
General Dolittle was seventy nine other raiders and sixteen B
(05:33):
twenty fives were loaded onto an aircraft carrier named the
USS Hornet and set sail from San Francisco, passing under
the Golden Gate Bridge and sailing out on to the
Pacific Ocean towards Japan. Since the airplanes could only carry
a limited amount of fuel, the plane was for the
(05:55):
aircraft carrier to get as close to Japan as possible
and then to fly off the Hornet to attack strategic
targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokoska, and Nagoya in the dark.
The airplanes had enough gas to get to China, where
they could land and be helped out by friendly Chinese contacts. Well, unfortunately,
(06:22):
the hornet was spotted far out from the coast of
Japan by Japanese fishing boats and the Doolittle raiders had
to take off the hornet and lift into the air immediately.
That caused them to reach their target in the daytime
and China at nighttime with no help as their planes
(06:43):
ran out of gas with no safe place to land.
And you've been listening to Carol Iko to Chaser Dixon
tell the story of her father, Jacob, who was serving
in the Army Air Corps when Japanese attacks, Well, they
just decimated our navy in Pearl Harbor. And when we
(07:06):
come back, we've put you right in the cockpit and
into the shoes of Carol's father when we come back,
more of her father's story here on Our American Stories Folks,
(07:29):
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
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Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
(07:50):
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And
we continue with our American stories and Carol Chodcheser Dixon's
(08:13):
story about her father Jacob Let's pick up where we
last left off. Still, the raid caught Japan by surprise
and most of the targets were hit. There was little
physical damage done, but the raid struck a powerful psychological
blow to the Japanese. Most of the raiders had to
(08:36):
bail out over China in the dark. A couple of
the planes crash landed with a few casualties. Two crews
bailed out unknowingly over a part of China that was
occupied by Japanese forces and were promptly captured and imprisoned.
My father was one of the eight men captured. General
(08:59):
Dolittle and the surviving raiders were assisted by the Chinese
to return back to the United States to a hero's welcome.
You know, many historians say the Doolittle Raid was an
important turning point in the war with Japan, but that
meant very little at the time to the eight men
who became POWs at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army.
(09:25):
The captured Doolittle Raiders were held in solitary confinement and
cramped prison cells. They endured interrogation, threats of execution, beatings, torture, starvation,
and filthy prison cells that were infested with lice, bedbugs,
(09:47):
and rats. There was no heat in the cold winter months,
and the summers were muggy and hot with no ventilation,
particularly from the stench of the ben joe, which was
a hole in the floor serving as a toilet. All
of this increased my father's hatred for the Japanese. One
(10:10):
of the initial interrogation sessions brought my father into a
room where a group of Japanese officers began to question him.
Here is how he described his experience in his own words.
One of the officers, using lots of slang, said that
I had better talk. He said that these were mean
(10:32):
people and they would torture me until I did talk.
I had been blindfolded for more than twelve hours and
hadn't eaten all day. I had been asked questions at
every opportunity, but would always tell them that I wouldn't talk.
Sometimes they would tell me about places in America where
(10:53):
Japan had bombed and taken possession of property. Then they
would come up very close to my face and open
their mouths and laugh. I was then led into a
room and the blindfold was removed. A little Japanese man
of stocky build was standing behind a table, smoking a cigar,
(11:15):
rubbing his hands together and talking really fast in Japanese.
Several others were in the room. The man behind the
table said through the interpreter, I am the kindest judge
in all occupied China. I want to treat you real
(11:35):
good everywhere. I have the reputation of being the kindest
judge in all occupied China. I glared at the fat
fellow smoking the black cigar. The judge returned my glaze
and said, you're very fortunate to be questioned by me.
You just tell us what the truth is and I'll
(11:58):
give you a nice glass of warm, sweet milk. He
asked me if Doolittle was my commanding officer, and I
answered I won't talk, and instead I gave him my name,
rank and serial number, because that was all I was
required to say under the Geneva Convention. The judge responded
(12:21):
to this by saying that I was Japanese property. The
judge continued, how do you pronounce H, O, R and
E T. I responded, that's hornet. The judge replied, that's
(12:41):
the aircraft carrier you flew off to bomb Japan. I said,
I won't talk. The judge continued, sixteen B twenty fives
took off the hornet and bombed Japan. Is this true?
I continued to respond, I won't talk. This must have
(13:02):
angered the kind judge greatly, because soon he struck the
table with his fist, saying, when you talk to me,
you looked me straight in the eye. The judge was
growing angrier and pulled out his sword, holding it up
and looking directly at me. Said tomorrow morning, when the
(13:24):
sun comes up, I'm going to cut your head off.
I stood there silently. What do you think of that?
The judge asked me. I told him I thought it
would be a great honor if the kindest judge in
China cut my head off. The judge and others laughed
(13:46):
for the first time, and a little later I was
taken to my cell. I lay in the cell all night,
blindfolded and handcuffed without blankets. The next morning, at sunrise,
I was led out of my cell. I had no breakfast.
The blindfold was taken off and the handcuffs were removed.
(14:08):
I looked around for the judge with his weapon of execution,
but instead was loaded onto a truck with the other
prisoners and moved to another prison camp. Three of the
officers were killed by a firing squad. The remaining five,
which included my father, were sentenced to life in prison
(14:29):
in solitary confinement. My father endured these conditions for forty
long months, nearly three and a half years. He became
very weak, thin, and deathly sick, while burning with hatred
and resentment toward his captors. My father used to say,
(14:53):
my hatred for my enemy nearly drove me crazy. He
often cursed the prison guards, and in return they kicked
him and beat him. Eventually, one of the other Doolittle
raiders died of malnutrition, and even the Japanese government became
concerned about the horrible conditions in the prison. An order
(15:14):
was given to provide better food. The four remaining prisoners
were offered books to read, and one of those books
was a Bible. Each of them were given only three
weeks to read it. When my father received his turn,
he was excited. He had turned away from any Christian
teachings from his childhood, from his parents and church, and
(15:38):
now he was being given a second chance to find
out what it was all about, and he wasn't going
to waste any more time. He had all day to
read with no interruptions. His plan was to read the
Bible from cover to cover and discover all the places
where the Bible contradicted itself. But as he read, his
eyes were opened to exactly the opposite. He saw how
(16:03):
prophecy in the Old Testament was revealed and fulfilled in Jesus,
and he became convinced that what he was reading was
the word of God. He read Romans ten nine. If
you confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord, and believe with
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
(16:25):
will be saved. He felt those conditions had been met,
and he said yes to God's call on his heart.
His mind would often recall his favorite passages. Of particular
importance to him was First John. He had memorized all
five chapters and often meditated on them. He liked First
(16:48):
John because it spoke plainly about sin and forgiveness. And
you're listening to Carol Igo Descheser Dixon tell the story
of her father Jacob and goodness a life sentence after
being tortured and well belittled by a judge who tried
to extract information from him, and all he would do
(17:10):
was give his name, rank and serial number to that judge.
And you can picture the scene in your head. That's
the joy of listening to a story like this, as
you get to create your own images in your own
ad I've got mine, I'm sure you've got yours. And
what this cell must have been like. It's unimaginable, actually,
how the Japanese treated our soldiers so inhumanely that it's
set a new standard for inhumanity. When we come back
(17:34):
this remarkable story of redemption and war and forgiveness, Jacob
Descheser's story here on our American stories, and we continue
(18:08):
with our American stories and the story of Doolittle raider
Jacob de Cheser. Here's his daughter Carol with more of
the story. One day, when reading about the baptism of Jesus,
he had a strong desire for baptism himself. He looked
up out of a small high window of his cell
(18:29):
to realize that rainwater was blowing in, and he thanked
God for this provision. As he stood under the rain
and accepted the baptism of the Holy Spirit, hatred for
his enemies turned to forgiveness and love. One day, an
opportunity to demonstrate his faith appeared. He was being taken
(18:50):
back to his cell by one of the guards after
a short exercise period outside, and the guard started pushing him.
Ai yahku haia coo, hy up, hurry up, the guard
shouted as he slapped him on the back with his hand.
When he came to the door of my father's cell,
(19:12):
he held it open a little and gave him a
final push through the doorway. But before my father could
get all the way in, he slammed the door and
caught his foot. He held the door against his bare
foot and kicked it with his hobnailed shoes. My father
pushed against the door to get his foot free and
then jumped aside. The pain in his foot was severe,
(19:36):
and he thought some bones might have been broken. As
he sat in great pain, he felt as if God
were testing him somehow he felt anger in resentment toward
the guard and thought, Oh, surely God doesn't expect us
to love these real, mean ones in this world. But
then he remembered all the words of Jesus in Matthew
(19:59):
five forty four, who said, love your enemies, bless those
who curse you, do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
He also remembered First Corinthian's thirteen four eight the Great
Love Chapter, stating love is patient, Love is kind. It
(20:24):
does not envy, It does not boast. It is not proud,
It is not rude, It is not self seeking, It
is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always preserves.
(20:49):
Love never fails. He decided, with the Lord's help, to
replace all the hatred in his heart with love. He
also I wanted to try this new approach on the guard.
When that same guard came to his cell the following day,
he bade him ohio gozai mussu good morning. The guard
(21:13):
looked confused and must have thought my father had spent
too much time in solitary confinement. But after many days
of trying to be nice to the guard, the guard
finally smiled and began to talk with him as much
as they could with his poor Japanese language skills. The
Japanese guard noticed the change in him, and instead of
(21:35):
shouting and beating him, he offered him a delicious, warm,
sweet potato. He thanked the guards, saying arigato, thank you,
and then thought to himself. God's way really works if
we try it out. Jesus was not an idealist whose
(21:56):
ideals could not be realized. When he told us to
love one another, he told us the best way to act,
and it will work. His way will work out better
than any other way which could be tried. My father
had grown very weak during the forty month or deal,
suffering from malnutrition and dysentery. He had counted over seventy
(22:20):
five boils on his body, and he was miserable. Now
that he had read the Bible and become a Christian.
In his prison cell, it struck him how much easier
it would be to die and go to Heaven than
to stay alive and suffer. He said. He lifted up
his hands and said, Lord, take me. I just want
(22:43):
to leave this suffering and to be with you. Then,
he said, he became aware of his hands. They were empty,
and he thought, I can't go like this. I've never
done anything for the Lord. Just think about it, to
appear before the creator of the universe. After all he
(23:05):
has done for me. He sent his son to suffer
and to die upon the cross to forgive us our sins.
He said, I didn't want to be there for all
eternity with empty hands, he said. He quickly put his
hands behind his back. He said, Lord, I don't want
to come to you with empty hands. Give me another
(23:26):
chance and I'll try. He knew he was a shy
public speaker. Well, God granted my father's humble prayer, and
he began to sense God's calling him to return to
Japan as a missionary. On August twentieth, nineteen forty five,
shortly after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which
(23:49):
ended the war with Japan, my father and four other
do Little Raider prisoners were released from prison and returned
to the United States. Their faces and stories were on
the front cover of the newspapers across the nation. Well,
a very beautiful woman named Florence Metheni from Toddville, Iowa,
(24:16):
noticed the newspaper articles and under a picture of my
father she read with interest that he was considering attending
Seattle Pacific College to prepare to return to Japan as
a missionary. Florence had already told God yes to a
life of missionary service years before, and was already accepted
(24:41):
to be a student at Seattle Pacific College. Who knows,
she said out loud with a grin. Maybe I will
get to meet him some day and shake his hand. Well,
she did get to meet him and shake his hand,
and when he asked her to marry him, she said yes.
(25:02):
She recalls that my father was sincere, but not particularly
a good public speaker. He was rather timid and slow speaking.
He had been in solitary confinement for forty months, and
his thoughts and words came slowly and with much effort.
Seattle Pacific's president at the time, Hoit Watson, and the
(25:24):
entire SBC community was a great source of encouragement and
helped my father gain the confidence, training, and support to
graduate in three short years. And you're listening to the
story of Jacob de Cheeser, as told by his daughter Carol,
and she's written a terrific book called The Return of
(25:45):
the Raider, a do little raider's story of war and forgiveness.
And my goodness, reading that Bible while in prison, getting
reacquainted with the faith that he had not taken seriously
at all, and now had some time to really read
the book and see how it applied to his life,
and my goodness, what a change in his life. Love
your enemies, Bless your enemies. These are words that he
(26:07):
had to try and live by, and he did, and
he applied it to that prison guard. And the difference
in that relationship because of how he dealt with rudeness
and with meanness and well just bad treatment, teaches us
all a lot about how you can change another person's
actions and heart itself. And after he comes out of captivity,
(26:31):
after we drop two bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, besides
of all things, that he wants to return to Japan
as a missionary, My goodness, you just don't get more
remarkable than that and beautiful than that. And in that
pursuit comes across a woman who admires what he does
from afar and ultimately becomes his wife. And some people
would say, oh, what a ridiculous story. That doesn't happen
(26:54):
forty months in captivity. And all kinds of things will
happen to you when you get out, all kinds of things,
and especially if you've got forgiveness with you, and in
this particular case, most assuredly with Christ with you. When
we come back. More of this remarkable story, the story
of Jacob DeCheser here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and the story of Dolittle
Raider Jacob DeCheser, as told by his daughter. Let's return
to Carol with more of her father's story. My parents
went to japan A's missionaries in December of nineteen forty eight.
News of the former American pow that was returning to
(28:01):
Japan made front page news all over Japan, and my
father was invited to tell his story over and over
in churches, factories, schools, mines, people's homes, and public squares.
Many Japanese became Christians, including several of the Japanese prison guards.
(28:26):
But perhaps the most amazing story is that of Captain
Mitzul Fucheedah, who was the head pilot that led the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He read my father's testimony
that was printed in Japanese on a track that was
distributed in front of a busy train station. When he
(28:48):
read that my father was able to forgive because of
what he had read in the Bible, Captain Fucheedah decided
he wanted to see what the Bible said, so he
bought himself a Bible. When he read about Jesus dying
on the cross and that he prayed Father, forgive them,
(29:08):
for they know not what they do, he knew he
wanted that kind of forgiveness in his life. He became
a wonderful Christian An evangelist and became my father's friend
and brother in Christ. My parents had five children, three
boys and two girls, Paul, John, Mark, Carol, Icho and Ruth.
(29:34):
I am the fourth child. I was born in Cooba,
Japan and always considered Japan my home. I like to
tell people I was made in Japan. My parents gave
me a Japanese middle name, Icho, which means love. My
parents lived and ministered together in Japan for thirty years.
(29:56):
As career missionaries. They were able to help get twenty
three churches started. Three of those churches were started from
their home. My father was just an incredible person with
a sense of honor and duty. He served his country,
but more important, he served his Lord. He had deep faith,
(30:20):
and during his time as a prisoner of war, he
was convinced that he needed to forgive his enemy, and
after that he spent his life spreading the message of
love and forgiveness. My father lived to be ninety five
years old. He passed away March fifteenth, two thousand and eight.
(30:43):
At my father's memorial service, my sister Ruth gave his eulogy, saying,
my father was given a full lifetime to try his
best to forgive his enemies and to love in all
circumstance dances. Who can measure the impact of his obedience,
(31:06):
thirty years of missionary service in Japan, helping to start
twenty three new churches, raising five children, honoring his wife
of sixty one years, preaching in countless churches across North
America and all of us. Inspired and challenged by his
(31:26):
story and life. Yet, if my father were here today,
he would not want this to be about him and
his accomplishments. He would want Jesus to get all the
attention and credit. He would urge us to love each other,
believe the Bible, and say, yes, Lord, I will try
(31:47):
to do what you ask of me. He would say
that following after love works a hundred times out of
a hundred, and I am certain he would ask us
this question, on that final day, when you are called
to meet Jesus, what will you bring in your hands?
(32:10):
Well after nine eleven, I felt God telling me to
write a new book about my father's story. I thought
of all the reasons I couldn't do it. I wasn't
an author, a historian, a military expert, a theologian, and
I didn't have a publisher and didn't know anything about
(32:30):
writing a book. As I prayed, I realized I needed
to tell God I'll try. Soon after, God led me
to meet doctor Goldstein. Doctor Goldstein, who has passed away now,
is the best known historian on the attacks on Pearl
Harbor and Midway, as documented in the books At Dawn
(32:55):
we Slept, Miracle at Midway and God's Samurai, which he
co authored with Professor Gordon Prang. While doctor Goldstein became
my partner and co author of our new book, titled
Returner the Raider, which tells with historical accuracy, the events
(33:16):
of my father's story. I've been working for over twenty
years to make my parents' story more available through documentaries, books, videos,
and other media outlets. The other day I heard from
a man who was having trouble with his marriage. He
said he needed to forgive his wife for something she
(33:36):
had done, and that he just couldn't bring himself to
forgive her. He tried, but just couldn't do it. He said.
He read my father's story and will never forget finishing
the book and slamming it shut, saying if Jacob de
Cheser can do it, so can I. After all the
(33:58):
torture and everything else he had to endure, with the
Lord's help, he was able to find it in his
heart to forgive. He had a lot more to forgive
than I do, so, he said. He went back to
his wife and told her that he was willing to
forgive her and that he wanted to make their marriage
(34:19):
work well. He said they got back together and that
today their marriage is better than ever. I hear from
a lot of older veterans who are concerned that the
younger generation are missing out on being told the stories
from World War Two. So parents, when you are teaching
(34:39):
your children about the history of our country and the
story of Pearl Harbor and the Dolittle Raid, tell them
also the story of my father, Jacob Dchaeser and Captain
Mitzul Fuchdah, because their stories are lesson our country needs
to hear today. The best book for children on this
(35:02):
topic is the book titled Jacob Dcheser Forgive Your Enemies
by Janet and Jeff Beinge. In conclusion, I would like
to read a message from Captain mitsu Ol Fucheedah. Remember
Captain Fucheedah led the attack on Pearl Harbor. I'm reading
(35:25):
from a brochure he wrote in nineteen seventy titled From
Pearl Harbor to Calvary. 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
(35:49):
in the decades to come must not ignore the message
of Jesus Christ. Youth must realize he is the only
hope for this troubled world. Oh, 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
(36:13):
and encounter with Jesus Christ. I would give anything to
retract my actions 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,
(36:34):
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 Jacob Dcheser's tormented life. He
(36:56):
is the only answer for young people today. He signed
it Captain Meetzo Fuchita, nineteen seventy. That's the end, and
his special thanks to Greg Hangler for the terrific work
on this piece, and his special thanks to Carol Icho
Dscheser Dixon, the daughter of Doolittle Raider Jacob Dcheser, and
(37:19):
she is the author of A Turn of the Raider,
a Doolittle raider's story of war and forgiveness. And my goodness,
what a story he had. But Captain Fuchiitah's story equally
remarkable because Fucheedah read about this man forgiving the torturers
that did what they did to him, and this caught
Facheedah's attention. The next thing you know, he's reading the
(37:40):
Bible and the rest is history. And my goodness, what
Descheser did spending his life in Japan as a missionary,
the very place where he was tortured. Oh my goodness,
he's still my heart. By the way, I love what
that married guy said. If Jacob Descheser can do it,
and that is forgive someone like the torturer, so can i.
I he had a lot more to forgive than I
(38:02):
do with my wife. A remarkable story of forgiveness, love
and war. The story of Jacob de Cheeser here on
our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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