Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II (68 page)

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

—Isaiah 30:20–21

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ECEMBER 17

The Planets Had Fallen

During his first two months as vice president, Harry Truman seldom saw Franklin Roosevelt and received little information on critical wartime developments. He knew nothing about the atomic bomb or problems with Russia, problems that suddenly became his to solve when Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Shortly after taking the oath of office, he told reporters, “Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”
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President Truman. (Harry S. Truman

Harry Truman also prayed for himself. He was a life-long Baptist, believing that his church gave “the common man the shortest and most direct approach to God.”
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He had a favorite prayer that he had used since high school, as a bank clerk, farmer, public official, and, now, as president of the United States:

Oh Almighty and Everlasting God, Creator of Heaven, Earth and the Universe:

Help me to be, to think, to act what is right, because it is right; make me truthful, honest and honorable in all things; make me intellectually honest for the sake of right and honor and without thought of reward to me. Give me the ability to be charitable, forgiving and patient with my fellow men help me to understand their motives and their shortcomings even as Thou understandest mine!
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Harry Truman was known as an honest and plainspoken man. His religion was an important part of his life although he didn’t put much value in the form of it or in intermediaries. As he put it, “I’ve never thought that the Almighty could be impressed by anything but the heart and soul of the individual.”
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The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

—Acts 17:24

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ECEMBER 18

Potsdam

On July 26, 1945, the United States, Great Britain, and China issued the Potsdam Declaration defining acceptable surrender terms with Japan. It was somewhat brutal in its directness and threatened Japan’s “prompt and utter destruction” if not accepted. However, it also proposed a road to recovery and reconciliation. The following are excerpts:

We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners. The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech and religion and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights, shall be established.

The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible Government.
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Within days this declaration was rejected forcefully by the Japanese prime minister and was followed by days of continued conflict and devastation. It nevertheless eventually formed the basis of American policy toward postwar Japan and provided the structure for one of the most successful reconstructions in history. It was a reflection of America’s oft-reiterated war aims to defeat tyranny and restore freedom. Neither conquest nor revenge was part of this agenda.

I was witness to the final restoration of occupied territory, when, in 1972, sovereignty over Okinawa was returned to the government of Japan. The postwar occupation of Japan was not without problems or flaws, but history shows that ultimately these benign policies, based on an elevated view of human nature, indeed did bring recovery and reconciliation to a devastated nation.

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the L
ORD
, who has compassion on you.

—Isaiah 54:10

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ECEMBER 19

Consumed by Your Anger

A few days after the atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto was summoned to the deathbed of a parishioner suffering from burns and radiation sickness. Mr. Tanimoto, himself suffering from the shock and fatigue of dealing with the widespread misery, offered an Old Testament reading from his Japanese-language pocket Bible: “For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as asleep… For we are consumed by Thine anger and by Thy wrath are we troubled…”
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Isaac Watts used these words from Psalm 90 to convey a New Testament message in one of the greatest Christian hymns ever written:

Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.
A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever rolling stream, Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day.
Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home.
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This hymn gives a masterful portrait of our mighty Lord and of his perspective on time and humanity. From his viewpoint our lives truly go by in a flash, and, on Earth, we are quickly forgotten. However, this hymn goes further to highlight another facet of God’s character. God loves us and provides an eternal home for us to be with him. Through his Son, he gives us the sure way to forgiveness, peace, and everlasting life. The degree of our pain and hardship in this life no longer matter. We can find comfort in God’s perspective and in the hope that he gives us for the future.

I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

—John 5:24

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ECEMBER 20

Fearful Loneliness

Miss Toshiko Sasaki lost everything on the day Hiroshima was bombed. Her home was destroyed and her parents and younger brother died. She suffered a compound fracture of her leg, months of nightmarish pain, and a permanently crippled condition. As she grew more and more depressed and morbid, she was befriended by a German missionary priest, himself a survivor of the bomb blast. The priest walked great distances to see her in spite of his own pain and weakness. He carefully introduced religion into their talks, which she at first bitterly resisted. She had a hard time with the idea of a loving God that would allow the suffering she had seen. Over time, the priest’s patient faithfulness changed her heart, and she became a Christian.

After recovering from her wounds Sasaki worked in a retirement home for old people and eventually became its director. She found that her greatest gift as a Christian was the ability to help others die in peace:

She had seen so much death in Hiroshima after the bombing, and had seen what strange things so many people did when they were cornered by death, that nothing now surprised or frightened her. The first time she stood watch by a dying inmate, she vividly remembered a night soon after the bombing when she had lain out in the open, uncared for, in dreadful pain, beside a young man who was dying. She had talked with him all night, and had become aware, above all, of his fearful loneliness. She had watched him die in the morning. At deathbeds in the home, she was always mindful of this terrible solitude. She would speak little to the dying person but would hold a hand or touch an arm, as an assertion, simply, that she was there.
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We all seem to worry about finding “the right thing to say” to a dying person and their loved ones. If we are able to share God’s love and provide spiritual comfort with words, we should certainly do so. However, this story is an inspiring reminder that our presence and touch are usually more important than what we say to a person facing the end of life.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

—Ephesians 2:67

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ECEMBER 21

Divine Providence

After the war President Harry Truman took part in a dedication ceremony for the New York Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., where many presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, had worshipped. He took the occasion to express some heartfelt views on America’s relationship to God and the world.

We talk a lot these days about freedom freedom for the individual and freedom among the nations. Freedom for the human soul is, indeed, the most important principle of our civilization. We must always remember, however, that the freedom we are talking about is freedom based upon moral principles. Without a firm moral foundation, freedom degenerates quickly into selfishness and license.

I do not think that anyone can study the history of this Nation of ours study it deeply and earnestly without becoming convinced that divine providence has played a great part in it. I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose.

It is not given to us to know fully what that purpose is. But I think we may be sure of one thing. That is, that our country is intended to do all it can, in cooperation with other nations, to help create peace and preserve peace in this world. It is given to us to defend the spiritual values the moral code against the vast forces of evil that seek to destroy them.

This is a hard task. It is not one that we have asked for… But we need not be afraid, if we have faith.
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Every point made by President Truman is applicable to America today. God has continued to bless this great nation. Never before in history have any people had such complete freedom to set their own moral and spiritual course. It is as if God has perfected freedom in America and waits to see what each person will do with it. As Christians we must live and demonstrate this enduring truth to others: that the ultimate purpose of our lives and our freedom is to seek and find God.

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

—Acts 17:27–28

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ECEMBER 22

Silent Night

On December 24, 1942, the 7
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Marine Regiment was relieved from the front line on Guadalcanal after ninety-six consecutive days of combat. Edward Andrusko and his battle-weary comrades marched to the relative safety of the beach area to wait for embarkation. That night he and many other Marines attended a memorable Christmas Eve service in a coconut grove beside Henderson Field. The makeshift altar was covered by a tent, and coconut logs served as pews. Bomb shelters were close at hand. Andrusko observed, “It was a beautiful service with candles, caroling, prayer for peace on Earth, and memorials to our dead and wounded.”
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