Rev. David Holwick ZO
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 8, 1991
Psalm 18:3-14
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I. "December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy." (F.D.R.)
A. One of first events all Americans heard simultaneously.
1) My father was 13, remembers people asking "Where in the
world is Pearl Harbor?"
Four years later he was a private in the Army, and rounding
up POW's in Manchuria.
Celeste's dad was in the army at Fort Monmouth.
His bunkmate turned to him and said, "This is it!"
2) Disaster shook America's self-confidence to the core.
3) It also galvanized the nation, which had been deeply divided
by isolationism and pacifism.
4) In the end, it changed our place in the world.
B. Through all the suffering, God's hand can be seen in the events
of that day, and what followed. Spiritual lessons:
1) Catastrophes can happen suddenly. Be ready for God now!
2) The essence of the Gospel is God's forgiveness.
If we accept God's forgiveness, can we forgive others?
3) The best peace is God's peace. Only it will last.
II. Pearl Harbor was a remarkable chain of events.
A. Admiral Yamamoto, who had lived in the U.S., knew that America
would have to be put out of action quickly, so he planned
the infamous sneak attack.
B. Leader of the attack was a pilot named Mitsuo Fuchida.
1) As he flew in toward the harbor, homing in on an American
jazz radio program from Honolulu, he radioed back,
"Tora, tora, tora!"
(We have begun the attack, and totally surprised them)
C. That Sunday morning, two waves of planes descended on Pearl
Harbor and destroyed 8 ships, 200+ planes, 2,403 lives.
III. "Overwhelmed by torrents of destruction." Psalm 18:4
A. Scores of sailors were trapped in their ships at Pearl Harbor
and there was no way to rescue them.
32 were saved out of the capsized Oklahoma but others could not
be reached.
65 on the West Virginia were abandoned.
Louis Grabinski, a 21-year-old sailor from Erie, PA, had been
sent back to the West Virginia for sentry duty on the night
of Dec 8 when he heard pounding coming from below.
He reported it to his superiors.
Trying to reach them had so many problems, Navy officials finally
came to the conclusion that doing so would be impossible.
"There were so many other things to do" - so the trapped men were
abandoned.
Richard Goings and 20 others went out to the Oklahoma, which had
been hit by 5 torpedoes and was laying on its side.
Torches caused the paint and cork to form gases which killed the
first two men.
Pneumatic chipping hammers were used next.
Each time they broke into a compartment, the water rushed in and
they had to get the men out while the water was rising - and
before they drowned.
Many lived two weeks or longer while entombed in those hulls -
-some even survived until Christmas.
Eventually they suffocated, died of thirst, or starved to death.
#601
B. Psalm 18 and cries for help in a desperate situation.
1) The tragedy of being a captive.
a) (Terry Anderson, last captive in Beirut: found strength in
a well-used Bible, and doesn't hate them because he is a
Christian.)
2) Where you turn in such a situation?
IV. Changes in America.
A. Religion became important again.
1) Church attendance increased.
2) Popular Bible conferences sponsored by Rev. Earle, with
approval from gas rationing board to attend.
B. Racism flourished: Japanese portrayed as near-sighted
buck-toothed "Japs."
1) 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent imprisoned in camps.
a) Relatives of two of our church families were among them.
(Jean Lee herself, and Karen McCollum's parents)
b) They still find it difficult to speak about it; most
lost almost all their possessions.
V. Most tragic war in human history unfolded.
A. Mitsuo Fuchida fought at Midway, the Marianas "Turkey Shoot,"
and Leyte Gulf.
Many times he escaped death.
He was in Hiroshima both one day before and one day after the
atomic bomb exploded.
B. Americans retaliated by bombing Japan in the Doolittle Raid,
then great firebombings, and finally the Atomic bombs.
1) Nagisaki was famous Christian center.
2) In 1600's hundreds of Catholic believers were executed
for their faith.
3) Atomic bomb went off directly over Christian cathedral.
VI. Spiritual harvest following Pearl Harbor.
A. Pearl Harbor as a day of decision.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gideons placed 50,000 New
Testaments on ships in the Pacific fleet.
After attack it was found that many of the dead sailors had been
reading their Testaments.
Some had signed their name on the blank line for salvation.
A nurse who had not communicated with her sailor son for two
years came across him in the morgue.
His personal effects contained a water-logged Testament,
unreadable, but with his name signed on the line.
She asked a chaplain for a Testament of her own (she had been
non-religious) and she read it thoroughly.
She then signed her name below that of her son's.
#682
B. Conversion of Mitsuo Fuchida.
After the war he was handed a Bible to read by a former
"Doolittle Raider" turned missionary to Japan - Jacob Deshazer.
Mitsuo took the Bible home to his farm where he made a living
raising eggs for US Army occupation forces.
He read the Gospel of John and realized for the first time that
Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection were all
personally for him - Mitsuo Fuchida.
Accepting his position as a lost sinner, Fuchida in childlike
faith asked Jesus into his heart to save him.
There were no accompanying visions or flashing lights; just
personal assurance from God's Word that he was now born again.
After his salvation, Fuchida grew as a Christian.
He'd read the Bible, meditate on what it said to him, and then
try to put the principles he learned into practice in his life.
Fuchida served faithfully as an Methodist evangelist for the
remainder of his life traveling across the world telling the
good news of salvation. #1507
1) National Geographic - Fuchida asked to join American
survivors' group but was turned down.
2) But on an ABC documentary, one American survivor spoke of
meeting a Japanese airman at the USS Arizona shrine.
The Japanese man apologized and asked for forgiveness.
The American hesitated, then they embraced.
VII. Correlation of Pearl Harbor and baptism.
A. Conflict.
1) Just as the nations of the world fought each other in WWII,
Christians must fight both the visible and invisible
forces of evil.
B. Decision.
1) Each person must make their own decision to follow God,
before it is too late.
C. Death.
1) Those who died within the ships of Pearl Harbor are an image
of how our old-nature is drowned in baptism.
D. Hope.
1) Out of the hatred of WWII, a lasting peace has grown.
2) Baptism tells us of the hope of new life.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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