Mitsuo Fuchida is one of the most notorious villains in American history.
The Japanese pilot, handpicked by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, led the surprise attack on United States forces at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
The date lives in infamy 82 years later. More than 2,400 Americans were killed by Fuchida and the 146 pilots under his command.
He shared with the war hero pilot the tales of Peggy Covell — the “angel” whose parents had been killed during the war, but who had treated him and other Japanese soldiers with such dignity as prisoners.
Fuchida began to pursue the source of love in the face of hatred shown by both Covell and DeShazer, which launched him on his spiritual journey.
Mitsuo Fuchida (left), the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Jacob DeShazer, an American airman who spent 40 months as a prisoner of war during World War II. They became friends after the war, shown here while making a TV appearance in the 1970s. (Courtesy T. Martin Bennett)
“He remains a national hero in Japan,” Miyako Fuchida Overturf, Fuchida’s American daughter, writes in an endorsement of “Wounded Tiger.”
She added, “I have no idea how the world accepts him today. Some will call him a villain; others will call him a proud warrior who found redemption. I will always admire his bravery, his intellect and his sincerity.”
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Fuchida’s stature in Japan was so great after the attack on Pearl Harbor that he was one of the few people to meet Emperor Hirohito.
“He could have had fame and made a fortune,” said Bennett.
“Instead, he lived in poverty, telling the world what God had done for him — which was to save him from a life of hatred.”
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Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
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