Heroes

The ex-head of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Masao Yoshida, 58, died at a Tokyo hospital of esophageal cancer on July 9, 2013.

When the tsunami devastated Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, Masao Yoshida worked to control the damage caused by the failing reactors. He disobeyed a company order and secretly continued using seawater, a decision that experts say almost certainly prevented a more serious meltdown and has made him an unlikely hero. He chose to place himself in danger, exposing himself to extreme radiation. And his story is just one of many at the plant.

Remembering the disaster, he said "The level of radioactivity on the ground was terrible…but the workers of the plant leaped at the chance to go trying to fix the situation with the reactors…. My colleagues went out there again and again."

Possible Preaching Angle:

What a beautiful picture of sacrificial, Christ-like love.

Though he played a vital role in the U.S. victory over Japan in World War II, Navy Capt. Joseph Rochefort and his heroics long went unrecognized. Rochefort, who died in 1976, was a mid-level intelligence officer whose small unit in Hawaii provided the analysis that led to the U.S. naval victory in the Battle of Midway—the turning point of the Pacific war.

In 1929 the Navy sent three young officers, including Rochefort, to Japan to spend three years becoming fluent in the Japanese language and culture. Then in 1941 Rochefort was sent to Station Hypo at Pearl Harbor to lead a team of code-breakers. By May 1942, Rochefort believed he had sufficient evidence from intercepted Japanese radio traffic to convince Adm. Chester Nimitz that two Japanese fleets of carriers and battleships were at sea on their way to attack Midway Island. Top Navy officers didn’t accept Rochefort’s judgment.

Rochefort and his team came up with a ploy to persuade their superiors: The U.S. base at Midway would send out a message to Navy-supply services that the Midway desalination system was failing and there was a dearth of drinking water on the island. The Japanese took the bait and immediately provided desalting materials to their landing forces, thus confirming that Midway was a target for invasion.

Rochefort was vindicated. Rochefort served the rest of his career with honor, without being awarded the Distinguished Service Medal he was clearly due. That was corrected by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, when Rochefort—44 years after Midway—was posthumously given the award.

Possible Preaching Angle:

There are also many believers who faithfully serve the Lord without human recognition or applause. They will be remembered by the Lord on the day when works are judged and will be given their great reward by the One who sees all who faithfully and quietly serve him.

An article in The Financial Times claims that “the west is suffering from a crisis of courage.” The author notes:

And the problem is much broader than politics. Society itself seems to be suffering from a crisis of courage … Virtue signaling might be endemic, but courage, like honor, is not deemed a virtue worth signaling. Indeed, all the incentives are stacked on the opposite side: there is little to lose from going along with what everyone is saying, even if you don’t believe it yourself, and much to gain from proving that you are on the “right” side. Courage — sticking your head above the parapet and saying what you really think — can, conversely, get you into a huge amount of trouble, and, usually, you are not rewarded for it.

The mere mention of courage has been in decline for a long time. A 2012 paper in the Journal of Positive Psychology that tracked how frequently words related to moral excellence appeared in American books — both fiction and non-fiction — over the 20th century, found that the use of the words “courage, bravery and fortitude” (which were grouped together) had fallen by two-thirds over the period.

Moral courage does not equate to recklessness, and neither does it mean being a provocateur for the sake of it … But if we want our societies to thrive, we must be courageous enough to think for ourselves and stand up for what we believe in. The late writer Maya Angelou was right when she said: “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”

In early January, the Portland area suffered from a winter storm that not only blanketed the area with several layers of snow and ice, but buffeted the area with high winds, resulting in many downed trees and power lines.

Eighteen-year-old Majiah Washington saw a flash from her window in Northeast Portland on Wednesday morning. She opened the blinds to find a collapsed power line on top of a neighbor’s car and a tree branch on the ground. She watched as members of the neighboring family, who appeared to have been getting into their SUV, tried suddenly to escape it. A small fire grew under the car.

A man holding a baby slipped down a driveway on the ice and the man’s foot touched the live wire, Washington said. Twenty-one-year-old Tajaliayh Briggs, then rushed towards the man to get the child, slipping on the ice, and hit the live power line as well.

Washington said she watched a teenager approach the SUV while she called 911. The teen—identified as High School sophomore Ta’Ron Briggs—would also die in the accident.

Majiah Washington saw all this, and disregarding her fear of death, decide to intervene as well. She later said at a press conference, “The baby moved his head ... and that’s how I knew he was still here. I wasn’t thinking ‘Oh, I can be electrocuted.’ I was thinking, ‘I need to grab this baby.’”

Portland Fire & Rescue spokesperson Rick Graves said the agency was thankful for Washington’s brave actions and that she later told officials, “I just did what any sane person would do.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

When we sacrifice our own health and safety to rescue children in danger, we model the love of Jesus for all children.

On January 15th, 2009, US Airways flight #1549 departed New York City’s LaGuardia’s Airport. Within a few minutes, the plane collided with a flock of geese, taking out both engines. Captain Sully Sullenberg made an emergency landing in the chilly waters of the Hudson River. Before he left the plane and got to safety, he walked the plane twice to make sure no one was onboard. As the captain, he knew that he must be the last person on the plane. “Sully” became a national hero.

Three years later—almost to the date—on January 13th, 2012, a massive Italian cruise ship called the Costa Concordia crashed into the rocks and started to sink. An investigation would determine the cause of the crash: the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, was trying to impress a younger female dancer on board when he veered too close to danger. The ship started sinking with its 4,000-plus passengers on board.

In the confusion and chaos, Schettino escaped on to a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off the ship. A coast guard member angrily told him on the phone to “Get back on board, d--- it.” Schettino later claimed that he fell into a lifeboat because the ship was listing to one side. But the court didn’t believe that story. Instead, he was found guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning the ship with passengers on board. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

A small glimpse into what our heroic war veterans went through can be found in the seven-part Ken Burns documentary The War. It covers World War II from the perspective of the soldiers.

In the episode "When Things Get Tough," the narrator quotes Pulitzer Prize winning Bill Maulden, a cartoonist and writer for Stars & Stripes. It is an analogy written for those who have never fought in a war on the miseries and hardships of the American soldier, in this case with scenes from the Italian Campaign:

Dig a hole in your backyard while it is raining. Sit in the hole while the water climbs up around your ankles. Pour cold mud down your shirt collar. Sit there for 48 hours. So there is no danger of your dozing off, imagine that a guy is sneaking around waiting for a chance to club you on the head. Or set your house on fire.

Get out of the hole, fill a suitcase full of rocks, pick it up, put a shotgun in your other hand, and walk on the muddiest road you can find. Fall flat on your face every few minutes, as you imagine big meteors streaking down beside you. If you repeat this performance every three days, for several months, you may begin to understand why an infantryman gets out of breath. But you still won't understand how he feels when things get tough.

On Sunday, May 15th, 2022, an assailant opened fire at Geneva Presbyterian Church, resulting in one death and five injuries. Authorities are crediting the quick actions of Dr. John Cheng as the factor preventing more deaths. Cheng sustained fatal injuries while tackling the shooter, a tactic that allowed others to quickly subdue the gunman afterward.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said, “Literally the meeting of good versus evil, between Dr. Cheng and the suspect in this case. Without the actions of Dr. Cheng, it is no doubt that there would be numerous additional victims in this crime.”

Barnes was effusive in his praise for Dr. Cheng, particularly in that his actions suggested premeditation and forethought. “I don't think that was a spontaneous act. I think he had thought this through in his mind, if something were to happen, 'What would I do?' And he acted on it. He saved the lives of probably upwards of dozens of people the way this individual was prepared."

Cheng lived in nearby Laguna Niguel, and served as sports medicine physician for the South Coast Medical Group. According to officials from Aliso Niguel High School, Cheng also volunteered as team physician for the football team and made several generous donations to the football program.

In a statement on the school’s website, they lauded his contributions to their community. “Dr. Cheng was a great man, a proud father, husband and always genuine. He always had a smile on his face. Hearing the news of his death is devastating as he just performed our annual athletic physicals last week. He is gone too soon, and we will miss him dearly.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Modeling the unconditional love of Christ means there are times when we might be called to put ourselves in harm's way for the benefit of others who might not be able to defend themselves.

During World War II, a US Army Transport Ship carrying 902 servicemen was struck by a German submarine. Panic and chaos quickly set in as men raced for lifeboats in the frigid waters off the coast of Greenland.

In the midst of pandemonium, four Army chaplains worked to calm the frightened men. One was a Jewish Rabbi, one was a Methodist, one was a Roman Catholic priest, and one was a Dutch Reformed minister.

On the deck of the ship, they worked to distribute life vests to soldiers escaping into the frigid waters. When they ran out, each minister simultaneously removed their jacket and gave them to the soldiers. They didn't call out for soldiers who were in their particular tradition. They simply gave their jackets to the next men in line. One survivor would later say, "It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven."

As the ship went down, survivors in nearby rafts could see the four chaplains--arms linked and braced against the slanting deck. Their voices could also be heard offering prayers and singing hymns. Of the 902 men aboard, only 230 survived. Congress later conferred a posthumous Medal for Heroism, The Four Chaplains' Medal, upon the four chaplains.

Before boarding the Dorchester, the Dutch Reformed minister, Chaplain Poling asked his father to pray for him, "Not for my safe return, that wouldn't be fair. Just pray that I shall do my duty … never be a coward … and have the strength, courage and understanding of men. Just pray that I shall be adequate."

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was heavily damaged in 2011 by a tsunami, resulting in three meltdowns. 200 Japanese retirees volunteered to fix the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station. The group is called The Skilled Veterans Corps and they are led by Yasuteru Yamada. He and his groups have exposed themselves to radiation so that young people won’t have to.

Yamada has said, “I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live. Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop. The older ones have less chance of getting cancer.” Although many people say Yamada is a hero, he sees his actions as purely logical.

Possible Preaching Angle:

What an example these men set for the church. We are called to lay down our lives for each other. This should be no surprise since we follow a Savior who did just that. He laid down his life that we might live.

When the Titanic crashed into an iceberg, the ship’s resources--light, electricity, heat, and so on--instantly were in danger of failing. However, the engineers who were in the engine room worked to supply electricity by keeping the engines and generators operational to ensure the survival of as many passengers as possible. Had the lights and wireless telegraph failed, panic would have been rife and it would have been impossible to summon assistance, or lower her lifeboats safely. But through their efforts power was maintained for the wireless set until ten minutes before she sank, with the lights failing just two minutes before she sank.

Although 1,517 people died on the Titanic, the death toll would’ve been much higher if it hadn’t been for the efforts of these engineers. All 25 engineers and 10 electricians and boilermakers were lost as they stayed below in the boiler rooms, in order to maintain power and lights. None of the them survived the sinking. A monument was built to them called the Memorial to the Engine Room Heroes of the Titanic. It was the first monument in British history to depict the working man.

Possible Preaching Angle:

These brave engineers laid down their lives so that others might live. The Apostle John writes: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).

In the 1960s, towns along the northeast coast of Japan began erecting seawalls to withstand waves of about 30 feet (the height of a terrible tsunami that struck in 1933). The walls were an eyesore everywhere, but they were especially disliked in the village of Fudai.

Kotoko Wamura was the mayor of Fudai when the town began planning its seawall. Wamura had been a young man when the 1933 tsunami wiped out his home town. And he also remembered the stories of an even larger tsunami (50 feet), one that had struck in 1896.

On one side of the city, the mayor built a huge flood gate where the Fudai river meets the coast. And on the other side, he constructed a tower seawall at a height of 51 feet, the tallest seawall on the NE coast. Residents who lived in the shadow of the wall were furious, unconvinced they needed a wall so expensive and so ugly, blocking their ocean view. But Wamura wouldn't back down.

Opinions about the mayor and the wall changed on Friday March 11 2011, when a tsunami, described by one resident as "a black wave, darker than a nightmare" struck Japan. Towns up and down the coast were wiped out, but not Fudai. The wall, once derided and despised, held back an ocean of death and destruction.

One resident, Ms. Odow, owns a home right behind the seawall. Recognizing that the project was initially hated by the residents, a reporter asked what the residents thought of the mayor now. She responded, “They appreciate the mayor now ... [he is] the hero of Fudai.”

When Christiana Plews left her home one fateful night, she had an ominous feeling she couldn’t shake. As she was leaving, she told her husband, “I think my worst nightmare is about to come true.” Plews is the Upper McKenzie Fire & Rescue Chief, and she’d been called to help fight fires about 30 miles away. But she knew the area was very, very dry, and she knew the weather forecast called for high winds--a recipe for wildfires.

“Be safe,” her husband told her. She could’ve said the very same to him; about five hours later, she ordered the evacuation of several surrounding towns, including her own. When she couldn’t reach her husband on his phone, she called one of her sons, instructing him to leave. “Get in your car and get out of there.” The fire that she’d left to fight hours earlier was way out of control, and was, in her words, “ripping down the valley.”

Plews and the other firefighters in her unit are all volunteers; while they battled the flames the best they could, all of their homes burned down. In the aftermath of the flames, many community members have rallied around the chief, helping to provide essential clothes, food, and supplies to replace what she’s lost.

Included among her admirers is actress Drew Barrymore, who gave her a check for $10,000. When Barrymore asked her how she remained so strong and steadfast, Plews had a ready response: “Somebody has to do it. Somebody has to lead and somebody has to help get the healing and rebuilding process started … I just have to do it for everyone else and hopefully we can all find our way.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

In a crisis, Christ followers have both the opportunity and the responsibility to demonstrate the love of Jesus through sacrificial acts of love and service.

The SEALs, arguably one of the most elite fighting groups in the world, did not develop from a grand strategy of the military. But instead from one individual who refused to allow his condition to keep him from moving ahead. His name was Draper Kauffman, and today he is known as the godfather of the US Navy SEALs.

Upon his graduation from the Naval academy in 1933, Mr. Kauffman's plan was to follow in the footsteps of another great man, his father, who also served in the US Navy. But it wasn't to be. It was not because of drug abuse that Mr. Kauffman's dreams were shattered, nor was it because of a life of crime. He simply had poor eyesight and this was enough to prevent him from receiving his commission. What do you do when you invest years of dreaming about a bright future and making plans to get there, only to find it sabotaged by something that seems so small? This is where Mr. Kauffman can inspire us all.

With his door to the US Navy closed, he joined the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France. This warrior trained to lead other warriors into combat found himself behind the wheel of an ambulance. He was imprisoned for a short time in France when the Germans occupied the country in 1940. After his release, he joined the Royal Navy Reserve in England and served in their bomb disposal unit.

While he was home on leave, the US Navy wanted to learn from his experiences. At their request Mr. Kauffman organized an underwater demolition school. After the United States entered the war, Kauffman's experience and trainees became crucial to US amphibious operations around the world. They changed the course of the war through disarming underwater bombs and conducting top-secret reconnaissance. Had Mr. Kauffman allowed poor eyesight to be the final draft of his identity, the Allies' strategy during WWII would have been different.

Paul Louis Metzger writes:

My greatest living hero is Dr. John M. Perkins, an African American evangelical Christian and civil rights leader nearly beaten to death in Mississippi in 1970 for his work defending the rights of poor blacks. ... One evening in Portland, Oregon, I was driving the now-elderly Dr. Perkins to a benefit dinner. He was to serve as the keynote speaker at the dinner, which was raising money for an inner-city community development ministry that brought jobs and housing to ex-offenders and youth.

As we drove along--fittingly on a street called Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard--I asked Dr. Perkins what it was like for him now in Mississippi. Dr. Perkins replied matter-of-factly, “I'm kind of a hero now in Mississippi. It seems that every time the state newspapers write something about reconciliation, they quote me. It's as if I created the word. But when I think about how many homes my fame has built for the poor in Mississippi, I realize that my fame hasn't built any homes for the poor. So, I don't put no stock in my fame.”

There is no shortage of people today who would like to be used to do something important, something meaningful. But most of us aren’t really sure where to start. Maybe a few words of wisdom from someone who has become known for heroism can help us find a starting point.

He pulled a person from a flaming vehicle in South Korea. He served on President Trump’s security detail during the historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He also played a pivotal role in the rescue of junior Thai soccer players trapped in a cave, during which he saved the life of a Thai Navy SEAL. In recognition of those acts, US Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kenneth O’Brien was named one of a dozen outstanding airmen of the year. But the Japan-based airman’s impressive résumé didn’t end there.

On a flight back to the United States to receive the award, O’Brien noticed a 1-year-old choking. He immediately sprang into action, clearing the child’s breathing passage and performing CPR. He said, “I’m thankful that the child is okay and that I was able to help when the family needed support. I happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

But O’Brien seems to be at the right place at the right time a lot lately. But maybe the uncanny number of heroic opportunities has nothing to do with luck. In an interview, O’Brien had this to say:

If someone needs to go do something dangerous, I volunteer. If someone needs a leader, I volunteer. I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and that’s what helped me stand out because I sought out key positions or responsibilities.

He happens to be in the right place at the right time because he put himself in situations where he could be used. He volunteered and found himself being used.

Paige Winter was in high spirits and stable condition at Vidant Medical Center, despite having just had her leg and several fingers amputated. Winter survived a scary encounter with a shark, due in part to the intervention of her father Charlie, a Marine who was in the water with her at the time.

Family friend Brandon Bersch told NBC’s Today that Winter and her father "were standing in waist-deep water and chatting and then Paige suddenly got pulled under." Witnesses say that Charlie Winter punched the shark in the face five times before it released its grip on his daughter. Officials with the Atlantic Beach Fire Department confirmed the account, saying that she sustained “deep lacerations to her leg, pelvic and hand areas.”

Nevertheless, the traumatic experience didn’t take away Paige’s sense of humor. According to her mother’s Facebook post, Paige “wants everyone to know that sharks are still good people.”

In a statement on the GoFundMe page to assist with medical expenses, the Winter family thanked "the individuals on the beach who helped, and her heroic father who saved her life." Added Paige’s grandmother, "Thank God our son was with her."

Potential Preaching Angle: Sometimes God allows us to wrestle so that we can know what it's like to overcome, but even so, God's love and protection are still close by, ready to rescue us from calamity.

PBS’ “The Great American Read” is an eight-part series that explores America’s 100 best-loved novels. This episode highlights books that feature heroic characters and explores why we love them. Books such as 1984, Charlotte’s Web, Don Quixote, The Hunger Games, and The Invisible Man are examined. Literary experts, authors and everyday book lovers discuss why our favorite heroes are complex and relatable, from the everyday hero to the tragic and unlikely or anti-hero:

-“A hero is who we all wish we were if we didn’t have our own personal limitations.”

-“I think when we hear heroes or see them or read about them, we think about qualities we wish we had. Courage, strength, fortitude, bravery.”

-“Reading about everyday heroes gives us hope and lets you know that you’re not alone in the good fight.”

-“I think we aspire to everyday heroes because we wish to be them… In moments of great tragedy we see people drawn to firefighters or emergency workers or the people who went beyond their job. They rushed in where angels fear to tread.”

-“The hero lifts us. It redeems what we try to do. The hero provides us an archetype that gives us a direction. ‘Let’s go this way. And we’ll be okay.’”

-“We’d like to believe there’s like a hero gene in all of us.”

Possible Preaching Angles: Scripture highlights the stories of ordinary men and women who became heroes as they trusted in God. In reading their stories we are encouraged to identify with them and to be bold for God.

In an interview with Esquire magazine, film producer and director J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lost) shared that his biggest influence as a child was his maternal grandfather, Harry Kelvin. Kelvin owned an electronics business where Abrams remembers his grandfather (in Abrams' words) "would take apart radios and telephones, all kinds of electronics, and explain why and how they worked. In a way, when I was a little kid, he was more of a father figure than my father; like most dads of that era, mine was always busy working."

Relatives said that J. J. was the son his grandpa never had. They would go on adventure walks together, walking around the neighborhood and making up stories. Esquire noted, "When you think about it, storytelling is a lot like electronics—it's all about how you take things apart and why each piece is necessary and where it fits in. The same is true of magic and illusion. That's what filmmaking is all about."

Kelvin also took Abrams on the Universal Studios tour. Abrams was seven or eight years old. "It was this aha moment for me," he says. "I saw how movies used illusion in this grand way. They talked about technology in a way that was fascinating. The use of cameras and special effects and different techniques—it just felt like the answer to a question I didn't even know I was asking. Suddenly I realized: This is the thing I want to do."