Veteran of Doolittle Raid dies at age 95

**rev214** · March 18th, 2008, 09:13 PM

Veteran of Doolittle Raid dies at age 95
Salem resident was captive of Japan in World War II
Alan Gustafson
Statesman Journal
March 18, 2008

Jacob DeShazer of Salem took part in World War II's legendary Doolittle Raid, endured more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war and later teamed up with his wife, Florence, to serve as a Methodist missionary in Japan for nearly 30 years.
DeShazer, 95, died Saturday night at the Lancaster Village assisted-living facility, said Ruth Kutrakun, the youngest of the couple's five children.
"He passed away peacefully in his sleep at home," she said.
Kutrakun characterized her father as a gentle and humble man with a lively sense of humor. His life was centered around faith, family and country, she said.
"My dad was just an incredible person," Kutrakun said. "He had a sense of honor and duty. He served his country, but more importantly he served his Lord. He had deep faith, and during his time as a prisoner of war he was convinced that he needed to forgive his enemy. After that, he spent his life spreading the message of love and forgiveness.
"We're all going to miss him. I think everybody that knew him felt like they knew someone special."
DeShazer's fervent faith was forged during harrowing events.
On April 18, 1942, he was among nearly 80 fliers whose bombs struck targets in Tokyo and Nagoya. It become known as the Doolittle Raid — the United States' first air attack on Japan, by Lt. Col. James Doolittle and his Raiders.
Most of the 16 planes taking part in the raid lacked enough fuel to reach the planned refueling point and crashed or were ditched over China. DeShazer and his crew bailed out near the coast of China.
Captured and held in a cramped Chinese prison cell, DeShazer withstood 40 months of solitary confinement, interrogation, torture and threats of execution. He was fortified by a born-again religious experience that came while reading the Bible — the only book his captors allowed him.
"My hatred for the enemy nearly drove me crazy," DeShazer said during a 2001 interview. "My thoughts turned toward what I had heard about Christianity changing hatred between human beings into real brotherly love."
In August 1945, DeShazer's POW stint ended. He was freed by U.S. troops who parachuted into China shortly after Hiroshima was leveled by an atomic bomb.
Back in the United States, he enrolled at Seattle Pacific College, now Seattle Pacific University, a Christian school, and trained to be a missionary.
He met Florence Matheny in spring 1946, and they married that August. In 1948, the young couple moved to Japan. Initially, they lived in Nagoya, the city DeShazer bombed during the Doolittle Raid.
During three decades as missionaries, the couple helped start 16 churches in cities throughout Japan.
One of those converted to Christianity by DeShazer's testimony was Mitsuo Fuchida, the former Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. After reading a tract that DeShazer had written, called "I Was a Prisoner of Japan," Fuchida began to study the Bible. He became a Christian and spent the rest of his life as a missionary.
Bonded by their experiences, DeShazer and Fuchida met and became friends.
"I saw him just before he died," DeShazer said in 2001, recalling their last meeting. "We shared in that good, wonderful thing that Christ has done."
The DeShazers retired from missionary work in 1977 and, upon returning to the U.S., settled in Salem.
In 2001, DeShazer was a special guest at the premiere showing of the movie "Pearl Harbor." He was invited to view the film aboard a Navy ship moored in Pearl Harbor. In 2005, he was inducted into the Oregon Aviation Hall of Honor.
In addition to his wife and their five children, DeShazer is survived by 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.