The Bombardier Who Came Back to Bless

In April 1942, Corporal Jacob DeShazer climbed into a B-25 bomber for the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo. Shot down and captured, he spent forty months in Japanese prison camps — beaten, starved, locked in solitary confinement so cramped he could not stand. Hatred consumed him.

Then a smuggled Bible reached his cell. DeShazer read how Christ forgave from the cross, and something cracked open in his chest. He began praying for the guards who beat him. One guard, noticing the change, started smuggling him extra food.

After the war, DeShazer did what no one expected. He returned to Japan — not for revenge, but as a missionary. He spent thirty years serving the very people who had tortured him. His testimony pamphlet reached Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fuchida gave his life to Christ, and the two former enemies became dear friends and fellow evangelists.

DeShazer understood what Joseph understood in that tearful moment before his brothers in Egypt. "Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves," Joseph said, "because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you." The Almighty had taken slavery, prison, and betrayal and bent them toward redemption.

What others meant to destroy us, God can repurpose for blessing. Some of our deepest wounds become the very doors through which His grace walks into the world.