Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, located on the eastern coast of Honshu Island about 220 miles southwest of Tokyo, was to be the DeShazers’ new home. After a week in the hospital, Paul DeShazer was well enough to be discharged. On January 19, Jake and Florence were relieved to climb aboard a train with their son for the trip to Osaka. They were glad to be leaving behind the cold and drafty rooming house in Yokohama.
When the family reached Osaka, Mr. Yoshiki, whose son had been killed in the war, offered his son’s upstairs rooms for Jake and Florence to live in. Soon afterward the family’s belongings arrived from the United States, and the DeShazers moved into their new lodging. Jake set up the American oil stove he’d had shipped over to keep the place warm. Because there was no kitchen upstairs, Jake set several packing cases on their sides to make a counter on which Flo could prepare food and cook it on a hotplate. With the arrival of their furniture, Jake and Flo were able to sleep in a Western-style bed. The “bathroom” consisted of a hole in the floor of a tiny room.
Florence arranged all of their food items in her new kitchen and said a prayer of thanks for all of the cans of milk that they had shipped over. The milk would keep Paul healthy and growing. Other supplies, like oatmeal and flour, did not do well in the damp climate of Osaka and had to be used up fast. This was not a problem. All around the DeShazers, Japanese families were nearly starving to death. Japan simply could not produce enough food to feed the population after the devastating war. Jake and Flo found themselves giving away much of their food, confident that God would supply more when they ran out entirely.
As Jake, Flo, and Paul settled into their new surroundings, they often encountered journalists watching them. Almost every day some tidbit was reported in the newspaper about how the family was doing. When Paul poked his pudgy little fingers through a paper panel door, the incident was reported in the newspaper. News photographers snapped pictures of Jake and Flo taking Paul for a walk and of Jake inviting the neighbors to a nightly Bible class they had started in their home. The next day the photos appeared in the local paper.
It seemed that everyone in Osaka knew Jake. Every time Jake went out he was greeted by name. Former guards and military men introduced themselves to him on street corners, and women held up their children to watch as he walked by. Jake soon learned that this all had to do with the tract he had written for the Bible Meditation League back in the United States. The tract, titled I Was a Prisoner of Japan, had been translated and published in Japanese, and over one million copies had been distributed throughout the country. The Japanese people, it seemed, were eager to read about Jake and the change that his becoming a Christian had made in his life. Japan was at a crossroads. The country’s defeat in the war, coupled with Emperor Hirohito’s declaration on January 1, 1946, that he was not a god but merely a mortal man, had created a spiritual vacuum in the country. Despite the people’s sacrifice, the old religions had failed Japan, and now many Japanese people were looking for a new religion that could bring meaning, purpose, and direction to their lives. Jake’s tract seemed to be one of the things many had latched onto in this search.
While Jake continued to be in demand as a speaker at church services, he and Flo realized that their fame provided an opportunity for them to spread the gospel far beyond the confines of the church. They just didn’t know exactly how to do this. So they regularly asked God to show them how they were supposed to go about doing it.
One of the most regular visitors at the DeShazers’ new home was Kaneo Oda. One day, about six weeks after their move to Osaka, Dr. Oda arrived just in time to help Jake and Flo with a dilemma. They had received so many letters since arriving in Japan that the letters now filled a basket to overflowing. But neither Jake nor Flo knew enough Japanese to adequately read the letters and answer them. Dr. Oda pulled one of the letters out of the basket. He opened it and began to translate it aloud into English. “Dear Mr. DeShazer,” he read. “My brother and sister were killed by the atom bomb dropped by the Americans. Both of my parents are also very ill from the fallout. I have had a great hatred for the American people, but when I read your tract, it made me think that there might be a better way for me to live out my days. Perhaps it is possible and even desirable to forgive our enemies. Could you send me any information you have on how to go about this? Thank you.”
Dr. Oda picked up a second letter and opened it. “Today, after reading about you and your lovely wife in the newspaper, I feel that I must write to ask you if you will be visiting Tokyo. I would very much like to talk with you and hear your remarkable story firsthand. I was a prison guard during the war, and when I read your story I felt a great shame—something I have not felt before—for what happened to you. Can your religion explain why I should feel this way now?”
Dr. Oda folded the letters and carefully studied Jake’s face. “I imagine the whole basket is filled with letters like these. I will take care of them. We must pray about the best possible way to use this opportunity.”
Within a week Dr. Oda returned for a visit to the DeShazers. The basket was again half full of letters.
“I have been praying over the letters, and I think you have a unique opportunity here,” Dr. Oda said. “I have never seen so much interest in Christianity expressed in Japan. We have an open door here, and we must walk through it. We need to work together to reach as many people as possible.” He leaned closer to Jake. “I have asked to be temporarily released from many of my superintending responsibilities so that I can tour Japan with you and be your interpreter. This would be for an indefinite time, as long as people want to hear you speak. Of course, it depends on whether you are willing to travel with me for many weeks out of the year.”
Jake gulped. It was hard to imagine that one of the most prominent men in their denomination in Japan would take on a servant role for him. But the suggestion also made sense. Jake did not know enough Japanese to speak alone before crowds, and it would be a long time before he could do so. Dr. Oda was one of the best interpreters in the country, and together the two men would make a great team.
That night after Paul was in bed, Jake and Florence discussed the opportunity. They agreed that conditions would not be suitable for Flo and Paul to travel with Jake. And yet with the kind of travel schedule that the letters seemed to indicate, Jake could be away for weeks at a time, leaving Flo alone with the baby. Still, for two Bible college graduates whose hearts burned for missions, their decision was not difficult to make. When they had married, they had both committed themselves to doing whatever it took to spread the gospel in Japan. And now a wide-open door to do just that had presented itself.
The next morning Jake visited Dr. Oda and told him to set up an itinerary—they were on their way to evangelize Japan!
Chapter 16
More to Do
Jake felt as though he had stepped into the middle of a whirlwind! True to his word, Kaneo Oda had set up a fast-paced itinerary for them both. Within two months of agreeing to go on the road with Dr. Oda, Jake had spoken in over two hundred places—churches, schools, town halls, public gardens, factories, and coal mines.
One of the most memorable of these events was held in the spring of 1949. The manager of a large theater in Osaka invited Jake and Florence to come and watch the newsreel of their arrival in Japan. The owner had also invited to the event all of the former Japanese prison guards that could be found. The meeting was unlike anything Jake had ever before experienced. Jake spotted several guards he knew in the crowd and was introduced onstage to Captain Kato, who had been the head guard at the Nanking prison, where Jake had been held captive.
The two thousand people in the theater were hushed as the two men stood together. Jake smiled and reached out his hand to Captain Kato. “We meet today in the presence of the God who loves and offers forgiveness to all mankind,” he said. Captain Kato nodded and then wiped a tear from his cheek.
Another time, after speaking in a church one Sunday morning, a young woman came up to Jake. “I had every intention of killing you,” she said through Jake’s interpreter. “Ever since I read about you in the newspaper, I have wanted to kill you as revenge for my two brothers who were killed in the war. But now that I hear your message, I no longer wish you dead. Instead, I feel compelled to ask you more about this God you talk of.” Jake invited the young woman to his home, and she joined the steady number of Japanese people coming to the house after work to participate in Bible studies or chat with the DeShazers.
On June 17, 1949, Jake was invited to travel to Tokyo to meet Prince Takamatsu. The prince was the brother of the emperor, and it was a great honor for Jake to be invited to visit with him. Jake had never met a prince before and wasn’t quite sure what to do when he arrived at the royal residence. When Prince Takamatsu entered the room, Jake just put out his hand and shook the prince’s hand. The prince welcomed him warmly, and after they had sat down, a servant brought a tray of tea and cakes, and together they supped tea and ate cakes while they talked.
One of the first things Jake did was to express his thanks to the prince for the emperor’s mercy in sparing his life by commuting his death sentence during the war. Jake then went on to share the gospel with Prince Takamatsu and tell him what it means to be a Christian. He also told the prince about his speaking tour of Japan and how he was speaking to between eight thousand and ten thousand people per week. Prince Takamatsu seemed to be genuinely impressed by all that Jake was doing in Japan. Jake’s hectic pace of speaking engagements around the country continued throughout the fall and winter.
As 1949 rolled on, to the west, in China, the communists were slowly but surely taking control of that country. There were also many in Japan who embraced communism, seeing it as providing new hope and a new direction for Japan. This motivated Jake and many other missionaries to reach out to as many Japanese people as possible with the gospel before the people could be wooed away by the promises of communist ideology.
In October 1949, Jake wrote to the Free Methodist mission board in the United States:
One of the greatest blessings has been the ability to witness. Often we can go right into the Buddhist schools and ask for a decision to become Christian. Many people respond gladly.… At one school, I was made honorary principal. After speaking there two or three times the whole student body, together with the principal, decided to become Christians.
Mrs. DeShazer is holding regular classes for teenagers and youngsters. She uses felt-o-grams to help make the message clear. When the opportunity comes, we both go together in the automobile which you gave us to use. Big crowds come to listen and they usually show much enthusiasm for Christianity.
Two months later, on December 11, 1949, Florence gave birth to John Douglas DeShazer, another strong, healthy boy. Jake was delighted both with his new son and with all that had been achieved during their first year in Japan. He and Flo sat down together at Christmas to count their blessings. Throughout most of the year, Jake had been out speaking to around eight thousand to ten thousand people per week, while Flo ran an effective Bible class in their Osaka home each evening. They also now had a new son, and Paul had remained healthy throughout the year. Paul enjoyed the Sunday school that Jake and Flo ran in their home, and he often sat with up to eighteen other small neighborhood children on a big red couch while Florence taught the class. In addition to all of this activity and the ongoing difficult task of mastering the Japanese language, Jake wrote a book about his experiences as a Doolittle Raider. Fifteen thousand copies of the book were printed.
