Dec | 07 | Chocolate Pearl, From The Fiery Harbor

Dream Word – CONSIDER

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. NKJV

A Chocolate Pearl, From The Fiery Harbor

Today in 1942 at 07:40 a.m  precisely, Mutsui Fuchida, one of Japans most skillful flyers, opened the canopy of his Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 Model 3 torpedo bomber and fired a green flare to signal the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was this same Mutsui Fuchida, who just nine minutes later, ordered the code words ‘Tora, Tora, Tora’ to be sent back to the ‘Akagi,’ the flagship of the First Japanese Air Fleet. Complete surprise had been gained in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Fuchida was first over the bombing zone at Pearl and after personally sinking the battleship ‘Maryland,’ was also the last to leave it. Now, although Pearl Harbor was a cowardly attack, Fuchida himself was no coward. Leading many attacks during the war, he crashed six times at sea. It was only an emergency appendectomy before the battle of Midway that kept him grounded but not out of the fray, for whilst trying to fight fires in an American bombing attack, he broke both his legs there in a bomb blast. Consequently, he was thus kept out of the battle of Guadacanal, where he would have undoubtedly died. At the end of the war, Fuchida was the sole surviving officer of the seven commanders and thirty two squadron leaders whom he led in the Pearl Harbor raid.

After Pearl Harbor, Fuchida became the Japanese national hero, and had a personal meeting with the Emperor himself! Like most of his compatriots, drunk on Victory sickness, it was the hangover after the defeat of Japan, that led him to later question his whole existence and role in the war.

Fuchida came to the conclusion that it was proud nationalism and cultural hatred of others, that had led in all nations and in his nation in particular, to a terminal lack of brotherly love for one another! In his post war book, ‘No More Pearl Harbor,’ Fuchida’s new driving life force, was that peace and brotherly love was the only direction for his post war Japan and that peace should be chosen by them no matter what directions the other nations pursued. “How though,” he wondered, “Could such brotherly love be achieved?”

Fuchida, retired from the Japanese Navy and now a post war farmer, was never the less required to give an account of his war activities to a war crimes tribunal. It was while in process of attending such an interrogation in Tokyo, that he alighted from a train onto a platform where a saw an American missionary handing out some information. There on ‘Shibuya’ railroad station was a very public, ‘Pocket Testimony League’ meeting going on and it was right there, that Fuchida was given a pamphlet called, “I was a Prisoner of Japan.” This pamphlet was written by Sergeant Jacob DeShazer, bombardier of ‘The Bat Out of Hell,’ who was shot down over Japan whilst participating in the reprisal Pearl Harbor ‘Doolittle’ raid on Tokyo.

Fuchida devoured the contents of the pamphlet and having read that it was the Bible that had transformed Jacob DeShazer, he got his own copy and read it with ravishing deliberation. Here he found out how and who, was the only person which could transform a heart of hatred into brotherly love. Jesus Christ the Lord! “This is it!” cried Fuchida, “I was strongly convinced. I concluded that the true realization of my book, ‘No More Pearl Harbor’ was no other than to expect Christ’s second coming and to endeavor to prepare men from all over the world to welcome Christ’s return. As a first approach towards this, I was convinced that I should first of all become a good Christian. Thus, I contacted the Pocket Testament League representatives who showed me from the Bible how to become a Christian. I then opened my heart and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior on April 14, 1950.”

Fuchida went on to work as a Christian missionary, for the Pocket Testament League as well as joining his friend and Christian brothers, as a member of the ‘Worldwide Christian Missionary Army of Sky Pilots!’
Now tell me tonight, dear friends, just how amazing is it, that a little girl's Cadbury’s Chocolate Fancy, could tickle all the blood bathed sandy shores of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans? So, I ask you again tonight then, “What’s in your pocket?”

Listen: - We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:14-15 NKJV

Pray: - O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. (Psalm 131:1-18 NKJV )