An amazing story of redemption out of Pearl Harbor

Dec. 7, 1941, is “a date which will live in infamy,” declared President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Japanese pilot that led the infamous raid on Pearl Harbor is the subject of a new fascinating book, “Wounded Tiger” by T. Martin Bennett. Christian apologist Josh McDowell calls Bennett’s book, “mesmerizing.”

I spoke with Bennett on my radio show about this amazing story of violence, repentance, redemption and forgiveness. I have been aware of pilot Mitsuo Fuchida’s incredible story before, having produced a TV segment on his conversion for D. James Kennedy Ministries-TV about 30 years ago.

When Bennett read an old book, “God’s Samurai,” about the life of Fuchida, he said, “Wow. This is one unbelievable story. … If it was fiction, it wouldn’t work. But it’s true.”

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida led the raid on Pearl Harbor, the outpost in Hawaii, where the United States had aircraft carriers, other ships and many airplanes. Fuchida is the one who yelled into the static-filled airplane radios the attack code, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” That means “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!”

This surprise attack by some 350 Japanese planes in the wee hours of that fateful Sunday morning killed about 2,400 Americans. It was the worst attack on American soil by an enemy, until 9/11.

Why did the Japanese even bomb Pearly Harbor in the first place? Bennett writes of the Japanese leadership, “Their agreed-upon strategy was solely to assault and cripple the Americans and quickly secure terms of mutual nonaggression, allowing Japan free reign in greater East Asia.”

Japanese Emperor Hirohito understood himself to be, notes Bennett, “a living god to whom his subjects owed absolute obedience.”

A month before Pearl Harbor, Japan’s Prime Minister Hideki Tojo appeared on the cover of Time (Nov. 3, 1941). Tojo told Hirohito near that time, “Your Majesty … at the moment, our empire stands at the threshold of glory or oblivion.”

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