The bomber pilot who forgave his captors

Jacob DeShazer was filled with anger for his Japanese captors.

The American pilot was weak after months of torture, beatings and starvation in solitary confinement. At least the hatred gave him some strength.

It was Jacob’s desire for revenge that had led him to be holed up in a rat-infested prison in Tokyo. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, the staff sergeant immediately volunteered for the Doolittle Raid intended as a revenge mission and to raise American morale.

The raid was regarded as a suicide mission. The 80-strong crew who flew in 16 aircraft were told their chances of surviving were, at best, slim. After attacking various sites across Japan, they would ditch their planes in Japanese-occupied China and hope for rescue.

Jacob’s aircraft was called ‘The Bat Out of Hell’. He didn’t care whether he targeted military or civilian targets; he just wanted to kill as many Japanese as possible.

After dropping their bombs on a munitions factory, the Bat crew were soon forced to ditch the plane as it ran out of fuel. They parachuted into the darkness, with Jacob landing beside a freshly dug grave in a cemetery, not far from a startled platoon of Japanese soldiers. 

…story continues