Jacob D. DeShazer(1912-2008)
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jacob DeShazer was one of the Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan on
April 18, 1942. He was a corporal at that time and was the bombardier
in the 16th (and last) B-25 to take off from the USS Hornet. The flight
took them over Nagoya where the bombs were dropped. They flew to the
Chinese coast where they were forced to bail out because the airplane
had run out of fuel and it was dusk. The bailed out over Japanese held
territory and were soon captured. Corporal DeShazer was held as a POW
in brutal conditions until the end of the war, September 1945. During
his captivity, he decided to become a missionary should he survive the
war. He held to this dream, became a Methodist missionary and returned
to Japan to preach there. One of the leaders of the Pearl Harbor
attack, Mitsuo Fuchida, heard DeShazer preach and became converted to
Christianity. As of this writing, his 94th birthday, he is one of the
16 remaining Radiers.