An unlikely friendship

Photo via Good Free Photos

This morning at church the sermon was about reconciliation and started with the remarkable story of two men, Japanese and American. Their story aired on Japan's national public broadcasting station last month on the day marking the end of the Pacific war. The story was also published in the New York Times in 2008. It's well worth a read.

Briefly: the Japanese man, Mitsuo Fuchida led the attack on Pearl Harbour and the American Jacob DeShazer was a part of the US retaliation, bombing Nagoya four months later. Mr DeShazer ended up a Japanese prisioner of war after that one bombing run and became a Christian during that time (a guard gave him a Bible for three weeks). He later returned to Japan as a missionary. Mr Fuchida became a Christian after reading a tract that Mr DeShazer wrote. Mr Fuchida also became a missionary. They became friends. A remarkable story of reconciliation.

The sermon was based on the book of Philemon and encouraged us to both be reconciled to one another as well as be reconciled to God.

Wonderful story.