Religion: Pray for Them

Sergeant Jacob D. Deshazer’s Hornet-based B-25 bombed Nagoya in 1942 and then got lost in the mists of the China coast. Deshazer chuted down and was taken prisoner by the Japs. As he lay hungry, in solitary confinement, Sergeant Deshazer had a vision. A forgiving God spoke to him in the words of the Sermon on the Mount: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good unto them that hate you, and pray for them which do spitefully use you, and persecute you.

Deshazer was rescued in late August. Recuperating in Washington’s Walter Reed Hospital, he wrote to his mother, Mrs. Hulda Andrus, a Free Methodist, about his plans for the future. He intends to spend the next four years in theological school; after that he will return to Japan, as a missionary.