Doolittle Raid survivor dies in Oregon at 95

[Parche]

Doolittle Raid survivor dies in Oregon at 95

03/20/2008

Associated Press


The Rev. Jacob Daniel "Jake" DeShazer, one of the members of the historic Doolittle Raid on Japan during World War II, has died. He was 95.

After spending 40 months as a prisoner of war following the raid, DeShazer returned to Japan intent on forgiving his former captors and converting them to Christianity. Over 30 years, he helped start 23 churches in Japan.

Born Nov. 15, 1912, in Madras to a wheat-farming family, DeShazer graduated from Madras High School in 1931. He died March 15 at his Salem home.

DeShazer joined the U.S. Army Air Corps at 27, two years before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. A month after the attack, he volunteered for a secret mission. He was the bombardier aboard the "Bat Out of Hell," one of 16 bombers that launched a surprise attack on Tokyo and other Japanese targets on April 18, 1942.

DeShazer's plane dropped bombs on a Nagoya, Japan, oil refinery before heading toward the safety of China. But when the fuel depleted, the crew bailed out, parachuting into a dark, foggy night.

Some of the raiders died. Others made it to safety that night. But DeShazer was among those the Japanese captured and sentenced to life in prison.

After he'd suffered months of torture and hunger, a prison guard handed him a Bible. Even though he'd been raised in a Christian home, he said he had not embraced the faith until he read that prison Bible. He vowed that if he ever was freed, he'd share what he learned with the Japanese.

In August 1945, 10 days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, DeShazer's captors freed him. Back in the Northwest, he attended Seattle Pacific College, now Seattle Pacific University, a Christian school.

He met Florence Matheny there and the two married in 1946. After he graduated in 1948, the couple moved to Japan as Free Methodist missionaries. He returned for a Masters of Divinity degree at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky before moving to Japan again to evangelize and help establish churches throughout the country.

Florence DeShazer survives her husband of 61 years, as do his sister, Helen Hindman of Iowa City, Iowa; five children; 10 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Many of his experiences were recounted in a 1950 biography, "The Amazing Story of Sgt. Jacob DeShazer" by C. Hoyt Watson, first published by Light and Life Press.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Army_B-25_(Doolittle_Raid).jpg/788px-Army_B-25_(Doolittle_Raid).jpg

:patriot: :patriot: :hi:

[whistler162]

1. To Rev. DeShazer....

Thanks for your service, both during the war and afterward....

A slightly longer article.

http://www.doolittleraider.com/raiders/deshazer.htm

[pansypoo53219]

2. thanks

makes this shit today a little worse.