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In the year 1281, the Mongol warlord Kublai Khan led a mighty armada to conquer Japan, but a fierce typhoon destroyed the flotilla. The Japanese called it the kami ("divine") kaze ("wind"). Centuries later, by a strange linguistic twist, kamikaze became the word for a suicide attack when a pilot crash-bombed a ship.

As Christians, we believe in the Divine Wind, the Holy Spirit. In Scripture, the same Hebrew and Greek words can mean breath, wind, spirit, and the Spirit (John 3:5-8). The words describe windstorms at sea, even the destruction of a fleet of ships (Ps. 48:7). At Pentecost the Spirit's coming sounded like "the blowing of a violent wind."

Sixty years ago this month, the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, an event that stunned America. The event has been referred to often since the September 11 suicide attacks, which also left America shocked and grieving. So it may be time to retell a remarkable story that arose from that horrific attack in 1941. It is a story of the kamikaze of God.

Sgt. Jacob ("Jake") DeShazer was on KP duty at an Army air base in Oregon when news of the Japanese attack blared over a loudspeaker. He threw a potato against the wall in disgust and shouted, "Those Japs are going to have to pay for this." His deep hatred for the Japanese, born that day, grew through succeeding events into an obsession for revenge.

His life, like that of many single people then, included drinking and dance halls. So, a few weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, when word came to report to the captain at once, he expected another reprimand, with a possible return to KP.

Instead, a score of his buddies were there. The officer spoke directly. He asked how many of them would volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission, so secret he couldn't give them any details. It sounded like an adventure, so DeShazer immediately volunteered. After training as a bombardier, he became a crew member of the Doolittle Raiders. Known as "master of the calculated risk," Lt. Col. James Doolittle had a daring but perilous plan. Land-based B-25 bombers capable of flying long distances, with pilots trained to take off from an aircraft carrier, would travel by Naval convoy to within 400 miles of Japan. Then, flying very low to avoid detection, they would bomb Japan and land at friendly Chinese airfields.

But the Japanese spotted the task force, and the planes had to take off one day early, adding hundreds of extra flying miles. After bombing Tokyo and other cities, they ran out of fuel, abandoned their planes, and parachuted down. While most of the Doolittle Raiders made it to friendly Chinese locations, the Japanese Army captured DeShazer's crew and three others. So began 40 months of imprisonment, 34 of them in solitary confinement.

Their captors moved the men to Japan. They were interrogated for days and nights, placed on a starvation diet, beaten, and tortured. One torture was the "water cure"—water was poured on a wet towel covering the open mouth, so when the man gasped for breath, it felt as if he were drowning. In another method, a long bamboo stick two inches in diameter was placed behind the prisoner's knees. The prisoner was forced to kneel with folded legs, while a soldier jumped up and down on his thighs. Bugs, lice, and rats bit them until their faces swelled with infections. In October 1942, three of the men were executed, but Emperor Hirohito commuted the sentences of five, including DeShazer, to life imprisonment.

They were sent to Nanking, where they each spent more than two years in solitary confinement, except for a few minutes of daily outdoor exercise. During this time one of them died of malnutrition. For years, they begged for books. Finally, in 1944, their captors relented. Among other books, they brought a copy of the American Standard Version of the Bible.

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December 3 2001, Vol. 45, No. 15