From Pearl Harbor to Calvary. Now we know that in a couple of days times can be the 7th of December and people be remembering Pearl Harbor. Well, I don't know how many will be remembering this part of God's hand and his grace in Pearl Harbor. Matthew Fashida, who was born in 1902, is best known for leading the devastating air attack on Pearl Harbor the 7th of December 1941. After the war, Fushida became a Christian evangelist, and he conducted evangelistic outreaches throughout Japan, the United States, and Europe. Fushida was the son of the master of a primary school in Kashihara, and his grandfather was actually a samurai warrior, similar to a knight in Europe, but these were the knights in Japan, the samurai. Mitsuya Fushida entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1921. He graduated as a midshipman in 1924, promoted to Ensign in 1925, sub-lieutenant in 1927. He specialized in horizontal bombing as opposed to dive bombing, and he gained combat experience in China during the Sino-Japanese War, where he was assigned to the aircraft carrier Kaga in 1929. Promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1936, he's accepted into Naval Staff College, which is essential before you get promoted to higher officer status. He joined the aircraft carrier Akagai, which is often the flagship of the Japanese Imperial Navy. 1939, commander of the air group. Now, he's a real pioneer in this because aircraft carriers were very new technology at that stage, and he is in at the ground floor. In October 1941, Fushida was made commander. Under the command of Lieutenant Vice Admiral Nagomu, he had six aircraft carriers, 423 aircraft that he is responsible for. And Fushida was made responsible to plan and coordinate the actual aerial attack on the US Pacific Fleet. He worked out how many bombs they need, how many torpedoes, the pilots, the logistics, everything was in his hand. It was quite a spectacular and brilliant attack in so many ways and they approached from the north of Hawaii and Their target was the US Pacific Fleet, which, by the way, this was not the US Pacific Fleet's headquarters. The US Pacific Fleet's headquarters was actually San Diego. And they'd only been moved here a few months before, basically to provoke a war. The evidence is strong that Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Fleet there so that it could get attacked, because basically this harbors a bottleneck. If one ship had sunk in a channel, the entire Pacific Fleet would have been stuck in that harbor. It was actually a target, an excellent target. They put the Pacific Fleet out there to tempt, to taunt, to threaten the Japanese Empire, along with the sanctions. And the evidence is that Franklin Delano Roosevelt not only knew this was coming, because they'd cracked Japanese codes, but wanted it to happen. And we've got all sorts of evidence about that, too. But that's another day's presentation. And these are the actual notes made by Mathieu Fashida on the day. And he's indicating which ones were scratched out, crossed out. And the more lines, the more hits. So if you've got one hit, maybe one torpedo hit that ship. If it's got two hits, maybe it was hit by two torpedoes. Or multiple, maybe it was also bombs as well. They had a variety of level bombers, dive bombers, and torpedo planes attacking. He was in the first wave of 138, 183 dive bombers, torpedo bombers, level bombers, and fighters. It took off from the aircraft carrier 370 kilometers north of Oahu, where Pearl Harbor is, and targeted the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. At 740 Hawaiian Standard Time, Fushida ordered Tenkai, take attack position. He slid back the canopy of his Nakajima, or Kate, torpedo bomber. He fired a green flare to signal attack. There were actually three of them in the plane. They had the rear gunner, the pilot, and then he was the commander in the middle, had the maps and radios, and he was coordinating everyone else's attack. He then instructed his radio operator to send the coded signal, toh, toh, toh, or strike. And strike they did. Now, how many here would have seen the film Tora Tora Tora? It's actually the best film ever made on the attack on Pearl Harbor because it's so accurate. They did painstaking attempts to get everything right. They were so careful about everything and explaining what led up to it. But it's not as popular as the fictional garbage like Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is not a real war film. It's a love story disguised as a war film, and it's ridiculous. I mean, a Pearl Harbor film is so full of absolute nonsense, like an American pilot flying for the British before America got to the war, and then they have fighter pilots suddenly becoming bomber pilots. You know, that just can't happen. You cannot mess this around. You're either a fighter pilot or you're a bomber pilot. You can't suddenly have fighter pilots becoming bomber pilots. And the other idiocies of this film just boggle the brain. And it's just so full of mindless, ahistoric propaganda and garbage. So the Pearl Harbor film is not to be recommended. But the Tora! Tora! Tora! is painstakingly historically accurate. At 7.53, Fashida sent the code words, Tora, Tora, Tora, back to the aircraft carrier, Kagar, which is the flagship. And that was the code word which mean they had achieved complete surprise. They never expected they could. Fashida said when he came there, they expected to see the air filled with American planes ready to receive them and counter the attack. They were stunned that they had achieved complete surprise. They didn't know how that was possible. Tora was the acronym for Toshigeki Rakegeki, meaning torpedo attack. But in Japanese, Tora means tiger. So it took the first two letters of each word, and that's an acronym for it also means tiger. So Tora, Tora, Tora, or in Japanese, Toya, Toya, Toya, was the code word. And when the attack hit 7.55 AM, the American sailors or soldiers were on leave, or they were sleeping late, and not going to church evidently, seven battleships are lined up on Battleship Row like a magnificent target. West Virginia, Oklahoma, California, Tennessee, Arizona, Maryland, all just waiting to be bombed and torpedoed. And this is a Japanese photo taken during the actual attack of Battleship Row under attack, and you can see the oil spilling out from the ships, making those big ugly marks in the ocean. You can see some of the hits of the bombs already. The Oklahoma capsized. The West Virginia and the California were sunk. The Nevada was damaged and beached near the mouth of the Pearl Harbor, which could have been a total catastrophe. If the Nevada had sunk in the middle of the channel, not one ship would have been able to get in or out for the rest of the war. But fortunately, the captain took it and beached it so it wasn't blocking the channel. That would have made the Japanese success 100%. Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania were damaged. Ten other ships were sunk or seriously damaged. And Arizona sank with a thousand sailors trapped on board after a stupendous explosion in the forward magazine. A dive bomber's bomb went straight through the forward parts of the ship into the magazine and detonated. It went through several decks, got into the magazine where all the ammunition was stored, and then one big, massive kaboom. Just eight days earlier, the Americans had published a picture of the Arizona battleship with the words, it is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiasts, no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs, which is a bit arrogant on many levels. You know, pride goes before a fall. But bear in mind that the British had just sunk a couple of Italian battleships in Taranto Harbor, and they'd sunk all the French battleships in Algeria in a preemptive strike, considering France is meant to be the Allies. The British had shown you can sink ships, although they use torpedoes mostly. So these guys are being a bit arrogant, saying no ship's been sunk by bombs. Well, they have been sunk by torpedoes dropped by aircraft before, which should have warned the Americans because it had been done across the world in the Mediterranean already. So why could it not be done in the Pacific? As the first wave returned to the aircraft carriers, Fushida remained over the target to assess damage and to observe the second wave attack. I've seen reports that Fushida took part in the first wave of the attacks. No, he oversaw all waves of the attack. He returned to his aircraft carrier only after the second wave had completed its mission. 21 large flak holes were found in his aircraft. The main control wires were barely holding together. And everyone thought it was incredible that he had survived so many hits to his aircraft. He was over the site target area for the longest. He received the most hits. God must have had a plan to keep him alive. The Japanese had lost 29 aircraft in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US Pacific Fleet had lost 21 ships, including almost every battleship. 118 American aircraft destroyed on the ground, another 159 damaged, 2,400 American lives lost. Absolute catastrophe, one of the most spectacular air attacks ever, and spectacularly successful from the Japanese perspective. a total catastrophe for the Americans, because they should have anticipated. And in fact, they'd been asking as early as February of that year for anti-torpedo nets in the harbor. Looking at what had happened in Toronto by the British attacking the Italians, the local naval authorities had asked for torpedo nets to protect the carriers and the ships in the harbor, but the high command in Washington had denied them. There's so many examples that Washington wanted this to happen and did everything they could to subvert the defense of the people, even keeping information away from the commanders when they knew that the attack was imminent, when they'd broken the Japanese codes. And that's quite an amazing story as well. Well, in Fashida's memoirs, he remarks being upset by his admirals cancelling the third wave attack, which would have destroyed Pearl Harbor's fuel tanks and dry dock facilities, meaning they couldn't have repaired ships and things like this. I was upset, he said, and I thought, what stupidity. But the decision belonged to the commander, and it wouldn't do any good if I complained. Knowing the structure of command, but also the Japanese didn't exactly go for democracy and, you know, all having their say in this, so he had no say in it, but he definitely thought it was a bad military decision to cancel the third wave of the attacks, which would have completed the destruction of the facilities on land that could have gotten the ships repaired. Years later, Fashida said that while he mourned those who had died aboard the USS Arizona, which is still at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, and it's basically one big floating coffin and a memorial, he said he did not regret his role in the Pearl Harbor attack. It was war. met with his council, he would be sitting with a barrier between him and his council, listening to what was going on, but not able to be seen by his commanders or his prime minister. The emperor was so far removed from the average person there. To be personally received by the emperor and personally awarded is probably the highest honor they could have given in Japan. 19th of February 1942, Fushida led the first of two waves of 188 aircraft in an air raid on Darwin in Australia. Any city named after Darwin deserves to be bombed, actually. Anyway, Australia got attacked. They got the Darwin Award. On the 5th of April, he led another series of air attacks against the Royal Navy bases in Ceylon, which today is called Sri Lanka. That's that island off the coast of India, which is where our Ceylon tea comes from. When people say Roy Boss or Roy Nick, Roy Nick means, are you wanting Ceylon tea or English tea? But Ceylon is a place where they get all that. And so he led, he's like the tip of the spear of the Japanese empire. In June 1942, Fushida was recovering from an emergency shipboard appendectomy, you know when your appendicitis is taken out, appendix was removed, and he was wounded at the Battle of Midway, but he was not involved in the Battle of Midway because he was on board recovering from removing his appendix. He was on the ship's bridge during a morning attack by the U.S. aircraft. That's spectacular, when after wave after wave of American aircraft had been shot down, the entire Japanese cap, combat air patrol, had come down to sea level, and they were just at that moment because the Americans launched everything they had at the Japanese carriers, but the entire combat air patrol was at sea level, and in comes this American dive-bombing group that took out all these Japanese aircraft carriers in very short order. They just had this gap because of, like, almost suicidal attacks by the other squadrons sent had used up the ammunition, the fuel, and the combat air patrol was down to such a sea level that they couldn't respond to this air attack from the dive-bombers. And the explosion threw him to the deck and he broke his ankle. So while he wasn't flying that day, he was still injured in that battle. And after recuperation, Fushida spent the rest of the war as a staff officer because he had had his ankle broken. So two weeks before the American invasion of Guam, Fushida was ordered to Tokyo. which was fortuitous because when the Japanese failed to repel the invasion of Guam, the Vice Admiral Kakuta and his staff chose Sipiku, which is samurai suicide ritual disembowelment, to take your dagger and It's killing yourself, which is required by the Bushido code of honor. You don't surrender. You commit suicide rather than being captured by the enemy. And if he had been there, he would have had to take part in this too. Again, the sword of death had missed me only by inches. And Bushido said, what did it all mean? I mean, you'd get the impression God wants this man to survive the war. The day before the first atom bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, he was actually in Hiroshima attending a conference. But then a long-distance phone call from naval headquarters required him to return to Tokyo. And as he ate breakfast in Yamato, 200 kilometers away, he learned everyone he had been working with in Hiroshima had perished in the first atomic explosion. So there's a hand on him. The day after the atomic bombing, he has ordered to return to Hiroshima to assess the damage. Some new bomb had been used and he was required to try and assess what is this that caused this unprecedented destruction so quickly. All the members of Fushida's investigative party died of radiation poisoning, but Fushida alone of his group exhibited no symptoms. He's the only one who didn't get radiation poisoning. So every one of the officers showed strange signs of this new illness that nobody even knew how to diagnose yet. And they died through radiation poisoning. As Fushida returned to Kashirahara to help his wife raise their children, he was depressed. Life had no meaning, no taste. I'd missed death so many times. And for what? What did it all mean? And then Fushida was called by General MacArthur to testify at the trials of Japanese military leaders. The Americans weren't trying to try the rank and file, but they were going for the top echelon. Like the Nuremberg trials, they also had these vengeance, vindictive trials, which is unprecedented in the history of warfare, that you would put your enemies on trial for basically losing the war. When General MacArthur summoned Fushida to testify on the Tokyo war crimes trials, Captain Fushida expressed, now that's a naval captain, which is way up there, sort of like, a commander is below a naval captain. And a commander's still like, what, a lieutenant colonel? So he's now up with, we would have considered a naval captain's what, equivalency like a brigadier, something like that. So he's very high up in Navy. And he expressed disgust, said everyone should know that war's war. Cruel acts occurred on both sides. He had just witnessed the Americans incinerating a civilian city, which, by the way, had the largest number of Christians in Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the two biggest Christian centers. There were 15,000 Christians in these cities who got incinerated by the American atomic bombs and basically destroyed Christianity in Japan. I mean, who chose these non-military targets and why? But, you know, here the people are who've used an atomic bomb on a civilian center in Firebomb Tokyo killing more people in the firebombing of Tokyo than even died in atomic bombs on Hiroshima. And now they're putting some people on trial for war crimes. And so he's saying, you know, it's never been heard of in history that you try your defeated enemies. That's just obviously something he is shocked about. Although there were, of course, atrocities the Japanese had done, particularly against Christians that came out later. General Tojo was considered the prime suspect, the main enemy in Japan, because he was effectively the Prime Minister, and so they blamed him instead of the Emperor. Interestingly enough, the Japanese have been looking for peace treaties and been negotiating through Switzerland to try and get peace before the atomic bombs, and they only had one condition. which is what the Americans acceded to in the end as well, and that's that the Emperor allowed to continue to reign and not be interfered with. So the Japanese wouldn't give unconditional surrender. Their only condition was that the Emperor's not to be touched, and in the end the Americans accepted that. So there was no need for the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki anyway, because of the fact that the only condition Japanese wanted for peace they acceded to afterwards. But Tojo He was fair game. He is an army commander, he was a prime minister, so they put all the blame on him, not on Emperor Horiyoshi, because the emperor was considered like a god to the Japanese in the Shinto religion. So basically, Tojo took all the blame. And the petty vindictiveness of the Allies infuriated Fushida. He denounced the victor's justice, unprecedented in the history of warfare, that you act like your defeated enemy are all war criminals that must be tried, as though your people didn't do any war crimes, didn't bomb civilians and execute prisoners and things like that. So 1947, Fushida met his former flight engineer, Kazuo Kanegasaki, who he had thought died in the Battle of Midway. So many of his friends had died in the Battle of Midway, which was the turning point of the war. But Kanegasaki reported, a young Christian woman, Peggy Cobble, had cared for them when they were prisoners of war in America. And despite her missionary parents having been killed by Japanese soldiers on Panay in the Philippines, And Peggy Cobble's parents were missionary teachers in Japan until 1939. Then seeing the writing on the wall, they moved to the Philippines. And when the Japanese conquered the Philippines, 1941, they fled into the jungle, were captured, and then both of her parents were executed by beheading with samurai swords for being American spies. That was the charge at the time. On Sunday morning, 19th of December, 1943, In Fushida, this love for one's enemies was inexplicable. The Bushido code of Japan required you must exact revenge against the murder of your parents. You must restore honor. You were obligated by honor to kill those who are responsible for the death of your parents. So he became obsessed with trying to understand why would anyone treat the enemies with kindness and forgiveness? For what purpose? And the extraordinary testimony of Peggy Covell and Jacob de Cesar inspired Fashida to know more about the God of the Christians. When Japanese prisoners of war had asked the young 18-year-old Peggy Covell why had she volunteered to help them when they were prisoners of war in America, her reply was, well, Japanese soldiers killed my parents, which doesn't seem to answer the question. When Peggy considered her parents' sacrificial love and service for the Kingdom of God, reaching the people of Japan, she is convinced she must continue her parents' mission. She must seek to reach Japanese for Christ, because that's what her parents died for. As Fushida researched from every source in the Philippines that knew the cobbles, he learned they'd been forced to their knees by their captors, and they'd prayed together, and as they were about to be beheaded, they only asked for time to pray. And they prayed for the Japanese who were about to kill him. In 1948, Fushida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko. Anyone know who Hachiko is? Hachiko is a dog who waited at the train station every night for his owner to come back. And his owner died of a heart attack or something in the city. He didn't come back. And for the rest of his life, this dog waited at the railway station. There's a statue to this dog at the station to this day. I mean, this is like the ultimate in loyalty. If only people were loyal to God like dogs are to their owners. I think it was the moon was made with blitzed tea. That's right, and that was in America. But they had a Japanese dog in America based on a true story of this Japanese dog who was in Japan. So it didn't happen in America, but it happened in Japan. But for Hollywood reasons, they changed the location and identity. But what a loyal dog. If we were loyal to God, they say a dog is the only creature on Earth who loves you more than he loves himself. It was absolutely extraordinary. So at the station, right by the statue, there's an evangelist, a Japanese evangelist, handing out a pamphlet about the life of Jacob DeCesso, who was a member of the Doolittle gang. In other words, he is a bombardier, an American bombing squadron, that took off from an aircraft carrier, which is quite extraordinary. They'd never had land-based bombers take off from an aircraft carrier, but it needed all the range it could get to reach Japan and to bomb Japan. This was designed as America's revenge for attacking Pearl Harbor. It was symbolic. They didn't do much more than a pinprick of damage in the scheme of things, but it was a big psychological shock. Even the emperor of Japan had to be taken down to the bomb shelter, which they never expected would happen. Japan itself could be bombed. They didn't think the Americans had the range, but they put long-range bombers on aircraft carriers, got as close to Japan as they could, and launched them. But there's no way these planes could be recovered back on the aircraft carrier, and they didn't have enough fuel to really even reach China that wasn't under the control of the Japanese. So they bombed Japan, kept flying into China as far as they could, and then they ditched their planes, parachuted, and Jacob de Chesseur was captured. B-25 ran out of fuel in occupied China, as you'd expect. In his pamphlet, I Was a Prisoner of Japan, de Chazard, this former United States Army Air Force Staff Sergeant, a bombardier, he related his testimony of imprisonment, torture, and how he got awoken to God. Jacob de Chazard was a bombardier of the B-25 number 16, and after takeover from the USS Hornet, he dropped bombs on Nagoya in Japan, flew onto China but ran out of fuel over Japanese-controlled China. And these are some of the actual pictures of this phenomenally innovative event, which is fictionalized in the Pearl Harbor film, where they have fighter pilots flying these bombers, which is just completely and utterly impossible. You just could not get that. And why Hollywood thinks they've got to mess it up like that? But I suppose they wanted to have the same heroes all the way through. So they fight a pilot, suddenly morph into bomber pilots. It's like the Four Feathers, where suddenly you get army officers becoming cavalry officers, becoming camel corps officers, and then Kamani infantry, which is completely impossible. But I suppose these filmmakers just either don't know or don't care about these things. But to have even fitted these aircraft on this aircraft carrier and still had space to take off, not much of a runway. and it wasn't even thought to be possible, but a very colourful character leading this Doolittle raid, and they were being very audacious indeed. They apparently ditched just about everything to get more range, including their machine guns and a tail gunner, all sorts of things were ditched just to be able to reach Japan with the few bombs that they had on board, which was not much at all, but it was a very symbolic propaganda run. And here you've got Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle, after whom it's named. Doolittle, by the way, had some Japanese medals that were given, friendship medals or something like that, from some previous activity. And he apparently tied his medals to one of the bombs that he dropped over Japan, which is, you know, it's all symbolic. It's not like anyone would be able to see or read it. But, you know, people writing slogans on the bombs they were going to drop and all this sort of thing. None of which actually matters to the people at the other end, but it apparently boosts morale on the attacking side. The Americans were still very bitter about what had happened at Pearl Harbor, and this is part of their revenge. And what an experience to take off in choppy waters from an aircraft carrier with a land-based army bomber. And nobody really expected to see them again. And that was basically, they were somewhere between 700 and 800 miles out of Japan when they launched. And then they had to still get through to China. And they were soon out of their range of fuel and having to ditch the aircraft. But these are some of the men who were retrieved and able to travel by Burma Road or some exotic way out of China to get back to America. Well, de Chazard's crew were captured after the parachute to the ground. They were imprisoned for 40 months. 34 of these months, de Chazard was in solitary confinement. And he reported he was beaten, malnourished. He saw three of his crew executed by firing squad. A fourth member died of starvation. And after 25 months of hating his captives, a Bible came into his hands. But he only had the Bible for three weeks. But it changed his life completely. he began to learn Japanese. He started to treat his captors with respect. He resolved to bring the message of Christ to Japan. Now he'd hated the Japanese all this time, and suddenly now the Bible trained him totally to love his enemies. And after returning to America after the war, he attended the Seattle Pacific Bible College, and he returned to Japan to preach the gospel as a missionary. 14 months as captive, three of the four surviving American prisoners, very much emaciated by this point, arriving at Chongqing in China, late August 1945. And from the left, Jacob de Chazelle on the left, Bob Hite and Chase Nielsen. So these are the three survivors of that B-25 bomber. And here he is as a missionary preaching in Japan. And he took his wife to Japan as well. That's quite amazing. He established a church in Nagoya, the very city he had bombed years before. Can you imagine what leads a person to go back to the very place that he had bombed to preach the gospel? The gospel gets people doing some strange things, doesn't it? Well, Fashida became intrigued with the Christian faith and with the testimony of this Tshasho and the shocking example of Christians able to forgive their enemies. Staggered Fashida. That's when I met Jesus. Looking back, I see now that the Lord had laid his hand upon me so that I might serve him. And Fushida read the tract on the spot, right by the dog statue. And then on the train, he saw an advertisement for the same book with the title of what he had just read the tract of. So when he disembarked, he headed for a bookshop, and he purchased that book. And D'Souza's story embraced Fushida. He determined he must understand what had motivated D'Souza. So Fushida bought a Bible being sold by a Japanese man on the street. It used to be quite common having Bible cold porters selling books at railway stations. And I used to see that. In fact, shortly after I was converted in Cape Town, there'd be people with little card table at the railway station, bus station, would be selling Bibles. And it's a magnificent ministry, so important. And when Fashida read, father forgive them for they know not what they do, he realized this must be what the Kovals had been praying before the execution. In 1949, Fashida purchased the Bible at the same Sibiu station where he'd received the pamphlet by the dog statue. As he read the gospels, he came to understand the reason for the life of forgiveness and the life of mercy that had motivated Peggy Koval and her parents and also Jacob de Sazo. It was the crucifixion of Jesus and his words in the gospel, Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing, that really gripped him. And on the 14th of April, 1950, he surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. At the time, he had completed reading the gospel of Luke, for she had become a Christian. Faith comes with hearing, hearing by the word of God. The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. If we want to be right with God, our first priority is to read the Bible. When I first came to Christ, my first priority was to get into the Bible and read it, and I started with the Gospel of Mark. I was told it's the shortest gospel, it's the most action-packed, easiest to understand. Get into the Gospel of Mark, that's where I started, and I got to Luke second. But it's as you read the gospels that your relationship with the Lord is really solidified. We have to read the gospels for ourselves. As Christianity was considered the occupier's religion, Japan. This brought for Shida a lot of reproach from his former friends and family. Imagine him thinking, you know, you've joined the religion of our enemy. You're a traitor. Because Shintoism is worshipping the Emperor as God. Now he's worshipping Jesus Christ as God. But isn't Jesus Christ the tribal deity of the Americans, our enemies? So you can just imagine the hostility he got. And here we see Pitch and Glenn Wagner of the Pocket Testament League in Japan, they met with Fushida and encouraged him, join us in open air outreach. In the business section of Osaka, as the Americans stood to speak, there were never more than about 40 Japanese who had stopped to listen to the Americans preaching. But when Fushida, the hero of Pearl Harbor, when he was introduced, the crowd swelled rapidly. Rush hour traffic stopped, hundreds gathered, even the police gathered around to listen. And this is the beginning of Fushida's new career as an evangelist. Sydney filled an auditorium in Osaka and 500 Japanese people came forward at that rally to surrender their lives to Christ. Virtually every newspaper in Japan reported on this incident. It was like having the sunrise, he said. He preached against Japanese egocentrism and xenophobia. Today, if you go to China, the word foreign and devil goes together. And they speak about blue-eyed devils and foreign devils. And xenophobia is like the national religion in China. In China, a foreigner is An insult, I mean just call a person a foreigner is really an insult and they are xenophobic to the nth degree and Japan was apparently something like that at about this time Not so much now, but it was then. Like Paul on Mars Hill in Acts 17 Fushida used Japanese cultural examples to communicate the gospel of Christ. He was the descendant of a samurai, and he was like an aerial samurai, and now he's showing how much of the samurai code actually is inspired by gospel principles that you need to be the best. As Christians, we are serving the greatest commander in chief, the greatest commander, one who's gone in front, and he showed Jesus is the great conqueror. Captain Rashida went from being a vital part of Japan's military attack on the United States. I mean, he is the tip of the spear in the attacks on America and on Ceylon and on Australia. And I mean, he led these attacks. And now he's a vital part of God's missionary offensive to recharge minds and souls of the Japanese. And later God would use him to win Americans and Europeans to the Lord as well. In 1950, May 1950, Fashida and de Chazal finally met for the first time. And they developed a lifelong friendship. So in May, he visited de Chazal, knocked on his door, and said, I've desired to meet you, Mr. de Chazal. My name is Mathieu Fashida. I mean, can you imagine two enemies that both fought on opposite sides, bombed one another's countries, and now they're meeting? in Christ's name. So de Chasseur obviously instantly recognized the name Mitzir Fushida, welcomed him in, and the former enemies embraced as brothers in Christ. In 1951, Mishida published an account of the Battle of Midway, the battle that doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy story. Midway was the turning point of the war. Before Midway, the Americans had lost every engagement, the Japanese had won every battle. After Midway, the Americans won every battle in the Pacific, and the Japanese lost everyone. Midway was the turning point, and Midway was won because of military intelligence. They had cracked the Japanese Purple Code. They were reading their ciphers. They knew the Japanese plan. They knew they had this plan to attack Midway, and they ambushed the aircraft carriers that were attacking Midway. It was a touch-and-go battle, one of the few battles that could have gone either way, and a matter of seconds made all the difference. In 1952, Fushida toured the United States as a member of the Worldwide Christian Missionary Army of Sky Pilots. And he said, I remember the thrill that was mine when in one of my first meetings, I led my first soul to Christ in America. And he was one of my own countrymen. There were quite a lot of Japanese people living in the United States, especially on the West Coast. And by the way, which is interesting, I saw a TV interview with him just recently, which happened during this first visit, and the American interviewers were absolutely surprised to hear that there was no intention of the Japanese to ever invade America. And when I said, you know, when did you plan to invade America? Fashih said, there was never any plan to invade America. We had no intention to, we didn't think we ever could. All we thought we could do was delay the Americans destroying us by crippling the Pacific fleet and people were kind of surprised because I think the Americans had been filled with this paranoia that Japan's gonna invade and we're gonna have to fight all the way across the west coast and all this other thing, but Fushida said no, not at all. During the war by the way, the Americans put in concentration camps all Japanese in America. That included Japanese who were born in America, who were by rights full American citizens. Supreme Court lifted all restrictions. People of Japanese descent, even if they had been born in the country, had no rights under the Constitution. And they just threw them in concentration camps, and that was it. So there were harsh things done on both sides, indeed. So in February 1954, Reader's Digest published Fashida's story on the attack on Pearl Harbor. You might recall it was a time that Reader's Digest was one of the things we all turned to. It was very popular. I remember my parents had lots of Reader's Digest, and we would read things like this. It was a reading culture at one stage. And Fashida then wrote From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha, which was later renamed From Pearl Harbor to Calvary. And in 1955, he expanded his book midway, The Battle at Doom, Japan, the Japanese Navy Story, and his autobiography for that one day, The Memoirs of Matthew Fushida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, was published in Japan, 2007, translated into English, and published in English in 2011. for that one day. It is said that the reason for the state to nurture its soldiers for years is to use them for just one day. My entire youth was dedicated for that one day. I mean, that's like a samurai and a knight's code. You train and train. You're training for that one day. And that training's going to make all the difference. But you think a sports person, it's the same. A person can train whether it's for ice skating, skiing, whatever it is. They're training and training for days and years, and it's for one day. when they get that medal. And in the case of a soldier and airman, it's for that one great day of that big battle that makes all the difference. In Midway, Fashida wrote five minutes. Who would have believed that the tide of battle would shift in that brief interval of time? And that was a turning point. And in fact, Without the American pre-knowledge of Japanese plans and deployments, through breaking the cipher code, which is much like the British had cracked the German code with Enigma and the GCHQ, and the Americans had cracked the Japanese purple code, and so they knew the enemy's dispositions, deployments, and intentions ahead of time, which gave them a very serious advantage. But then, they still couldn't win that battle without those waves of squadrons that literally went in and got torn apart, every single aircraft being shot down. And they prepared the way. Unless they had done that, the last successful dive-bombing crew would not have succeeded in taking out those aircraft carriers. And that's actually a military principle. They teach you that to achieve your objectives, you have to be willing to be expendable. And Nate Sainz said, missionaries must face the same expendability. So for example, infantry are taught that if you come across a barbed wire obstacle, you can't hear who's got the wire cutters and take it out. You're under fire. It's probably covered by machine guns. First person, fling yourself on a barbed wire. And the others use you as a springboard to bounce over. And you'd put your foot in the small of the back or on the webbing of this person and launch over. You know, if you're the first one there, you're bouncing up and down, and every time that bond wire is getting closer and closer and deeper into your skin. But you've got no choice. The first ones have to be willing. You may not get them with the first wave, but it's wave after wave so that the final wave can break through. to the enemy. And that's what these aircraft squadrons did. They kept coming through, even though they didn't have a chance. And the Zeros were taking all the Americans out, shooting down the Dauntlesses, the bombers, the fighters. And then when they were all at sea level, then in came the dive bombers. It wasn't planned this way. It was just the way it happened. They launched everything they had when they had the rough positions of the Japanese fleet. And so Rashida even commented that those American pilots came in like samurai warriors. They sacrificed their life for the goal of the last squadron to be able to hit the target. And that's got to be done sometimes. You have to be willing to be expendable to achieve your objectives. We had been caught flat-footed in the most vulnerable position possible, decks loaded with planes armed and fueled for attack. And just to see how the whole attack worked out and how the timing of it, the aircraft, that the radio didn't work. the misunderstandings. The Japanese were continually trying to change between torpedo bombers and bombs, because are they going for ships or are they going for midway? And they were caught flatfoot with all the different ordnance on the deck, trying to rechange, because now they knew the aircraft carriers nearby, and they were changing from bombs to bomb midway to torpedoes to take out the American fleet. And at that point, the final wave comes through and takes out the aircraft carriers. And this is a very complicated series of attacks. And the Japanese had a series of distractions, like an attack on the Aleutian Islands, hoping to distract the Americans and pull their fleet away, while actually the aircraft carriers knew that that was planned. And so they had the aircraft carriers just over the north of Midway and were able to ambush the Japanese fleet. Now here, back in 1966, Fushida's standing at Pearl Harbor showing the direction he came in for attack. Well, Fushida was given an offer from the Japanese government to organize the new air force. He could be the head of the Japanese air force. And he turned it down. He faced down angry pilots who pulled a knife on him and threatened to kill him. There were a lot of people angry with him, you can imagine. But this pilot later came to Christ. And here he is in 1966 pointing, that's where he led the Japanese planes to attack this harbor, Pearl Harbor. Fushida ministered in prisons. He led people to Christ, even in cells of condemned murderers. He formed Calvary clubs in prisons. And Mashiya Fushida often related the testimony of Peggy Kowal and her brave parents. All over Japan they heard the story of Peggy Kowal's parents who prayed for their captors even before they were about to be beheaded. He quoted a testimony, but the Holy Spirit has washed away my hatred and has replaced it with love. Only God can do that. By the way, we've got this book in Christianity books. The cobbles had gone to their singing hymns joyfully, praying for the conversion of the enemies. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and mature for she does actually won the fruit of their faith because of piggy cobbles parents and their prayers. And her testimony following her parents footsteps and trying to show love to the enemies, human enemies. He spent the rest of his life as an evangelist. He took the gospel of Christ throughout Japan, the United States, and Europe. He spoke at Billy Graham crusades giving his testimony. Extraordinary opportunity. So I don't know if you've done much praying for Japan, but I encourage you to pray for Japan. I should say there was a big boost opportunity when Japan was defeated and the Emperor received the American Shogun, as they often call him, the American General MacArthur, who came and basically, like the dictator or the governor of Japan, Emperor Horiosho said to General MacArthur, I suppose I must become a Christian. I must be baptized as a Christian, is what he said. And General MacArthur, affected by the American individualism, respond, no, no, that's a personal decision. Now, General MacArthur did a lot of good things, and I don't want to criticize him, but he was wrong on that point. That's just bad advice. All the great peoples of the world came to Christ through some defeat. Just think of the Vikings or King Clovis of the Franks. In the fifth century, his entire army ordered to be baptized because he had decided to come to Christ. The Vikings, when the Vikings came to Christ, everyone's going to be baptized. And you'd be baptized or you will be killed. I mean, just repent and be baptized or die. When Prince Vladimir of the Russians was converted in what was it, 888? All the Russians were commanded to be baptized by Prince Vladimir. And that's the way it often happened. The Vikings, the Saxons, the barbarians, they were baptized en masse because their leader said you must be baptized. King Alfred the Great, whose battle whom we sometimes sing, when he was When he defeated the Vikings, the first time the Vikings were ever defeated, and he could have killed them. I mean, he had them captured. He had their leaders. He said, the 30 top leaders of the Vikings need to be baptized. They went through catechism. They were baptized. And he said, we can't make a treaty with you because you're pagans, and you won't keep your word. That's why you must convert to Christ. Now, of course, the act of baptism doesn't magically make a person a Christian. And forcing a person to be converted to the point of a sword doesn't ensure that he's regenerate, that he's born again. But he makes a commitment to Christ. Now he can be thoroughly discipled, evangelized, and then real conversions take place. So General MacArthur missed the opportunity of the 20th century. Imagine if Emperor Horius had been baptized as a Christian in 1945. All of Japan would have had to become a Christian, at least the Shintos who worshipped the emperor. And then they could be evangelized, they'd be open to gospel. Today there's sadly only about 2% of Japan are Christians, because General MacArthur missed the opportunity. Bad theology, lack of knowledge of history. Now MacArthur knew his military history, but he obviously didn't know his missionary history. If he knew his missionary history, he would have said, yes, when should we schedule it for? Next week? I mean, he should have taken the emperor right then, led him through the wars of baptism. That would have changed history in a missionary sense. That might have given some meaning to this horrible, almost purposeless, terrible war that killed millions of people. If the people of Japan could have been converted at the end of the Second World War, that would have actually almost made a lot of the sacrifices worth something. But tragically, this great nation missed the opportunity of the century because of a very poor counsel given by the military commander, who was out of his depth. He needed a missionary to advise him. He knew missionary history. Japan stays resistant to the gospel. hard to reach, unreached nations today. I've heard friends of ours who've worked in Japan say, you can spend four hours at rush hour at the railway station and you count yourself blessed and successful if you gave away four tracks in the last four hours. He said, you can stand there offering the tracks and showing all respect, the people of Japan are closed, not interested. He said, very, very hard to reach them. There was a window of opportunity in 1945, the country was crushed. smashed, defeated, and they were open to the gospel. And Matthew Fashida responded to the gospel, and he won many others to the Lord, but the big picture, the whole nation was lost because General MacArthur should have been ready to lead Emperor Horatio to the Lord at that point, but he didn't do it. Now, I came across the story back in 2005. It was the upcoming 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and I saw that the Scouts and Cubs were organizing their jamboree in Japan. Now the jamborees only happen like every 10 years. And all Scouts in the whole world gathered together in one place in the world. Sometimes it's Britain, America. In 2005, it was Japan. And the reason for that was it was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. And as I looked at this and I thought the timing, why are they going there in August? You would normally think they'd go in July during the school holidays. The only reason it could be going in August 2005 must be anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. So I started to investigate Japan. I was thinking this is a guilt manipulation, anti-American sort of stunt that's being planned. And I started to investigate, and I found all military leaders at the time opposed the use of the atomic bombs on Japan. Even MacArthur, who was no dove. I mean, he was a hawk. But MacArthur, even Eisner, who was a real hawk, but they all opposed the use of the atomic bomb on a civilian center in Japan and so on. Most of them saying the war's over anyway, and what a terrible blight on our history that we would be the first to drop an atomic bomb on a civilian center. And why don't we bomb maybe a military a base or something that's a naval base, something that's got military significance, but this is a civilian target, a university city, a Christian city at that. But anyway, that's something else. And the more I looked at them, I saw, in fact, everybody across the board in military circles opposed the bombing. Only politicians and Democrat politicians at that supported the use of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All the Republicans opposed it, and all the Democrats supported it, which is intriguing. So as a result, I started to support my son going to Japan on his jamboree for this big scout extravaganza, which is tens of thousands of scouts from around the world gathering there, an amazing event. And so I designed a tract to go with it. And I learned this phenomenal story of Matsuya Fushida, and designed this track to go with them to Japan to distribute out amongst other scouts there as well.