Jacob DeShazer Prisoner of War, Part 3

After Meder’s death, there began to grow in Jacob a longing to understand the hatred that was eating him alive. He remembered his family’s faith—it had been said that it had the ability to transform hate into love. How desperately he wished for a Bible to learn how that was so!

Then came a thread of mercy from the most unlikely of sources—Emperor Hirohito. Japan’s monarch was not in favor of the inhumane treatment the American prisoners had been receiving. This meant that DeShazer and his companions were now given one Bible to share.

When he was finally able to hold the precious tome in his gaunt hands, Jacob drank in the heavenly words, reading and rereading. He was given the Bible for only three weeks, but during that time, he memorized as many passages as he could, including the Sermon on the Mount and even the entirety of John’s first epistle.

But it was when he read this verse that he finally understood: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). This was it—Meder’s key. It was not the faith itself that transformed hearts; it was who the faith was in—Jesus Christ. Jacob’s captors did not know Christ, and if they did not know Christ, then how could they know how to love?

Jacob decided to take his newfound faith to a practical level. One day, a guard began to hit and kick him repeatedly, screaming at him to move faster. His first thought was one of hate, but then he thought of Jesus and His instructions in the Sermon on the Mount.

The next morning, when the guard walked by, Jacob smiled at him and greeted him in Japanese. The next day he did it again, and the day after and the day after. A week later, the guard gave him a gift: one beautifully boiled sweet potato.

God continued to change Jacob’s heart in prison. On August 20, 1945, at the end of the war, Jacob was released. He went on to become a missionary and serve his former enemies, the Japanese, for the next 30 years. Among those he helped bring to Christ was Mitsuo Fuchida, the captain who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Reflect: Have you seen an act of love change someone’s attitude toward you? Remember, love will awaken love in the heart of another.

Key Bible Texts

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44 KJV)