Reverend Jacob ‘Jake’ D. Deshazer

Staff Sergeant DeShazer joined the famed Doolittle Raiders and participated as a B-25 bombardier in the surprise attack on Tokyo, Japan. After completing the mission, his plane ran out of fuel, and his crew landed in hostile territory. Captured and kept as a prisoner of war, he endured severe beatings and malnutrition for 40 months. When the war ended on August 20, 1945, the Japanese released DeShazer. He wrote a book titled “I was a Prisoner of Japan,” which fell into the hands of the man who led the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida – transforming his life. He received worldwide media attention for converting Fuchida to Christianity, and both became friends, ministering together in Japan and the United States. DeShazer lived in Salem, Oregon. Reverend Jacob DeShazer passed away on March 15, 2008.