Jake DeShazer

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Jacob DeShazer (November 15, 1912– ) was born in Salem, Oregon. He graduated from Madras high school in 1931. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940, and eventually joined Doolittle's Raiders for their ambitious plan to attack Japan using carrier-launched B-25 Mitchell bombers. Staff Sgt. DeShazer was awarded both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart

1 Doolittle Raid
2 Japanese Prisoner of War
3 Missionary in Japan
4 References

[edit] Doolittle Raid

S.Sgt. DeShazer was the bombardier of B-25 #16, the "Bat Out of Hell", and the last of the 16 B-25s to launch from the USS Hornet on the famous bombing run over Tokyo. The raid was a success, but part of the plan included ditching the airplanes in China after using all their fuel to reach Japan. The carrier-launched bombers couldn't return to their carrier; it was a one-way bombing run.

[edit] Japanese Prisoner of War

DeShazer's B-25 crash landed in China after bombing Japan, and DeShazer was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned and tortured for the rest of the war.

[edit] Missionary in Japan

In one of the strangest and most inspiring stories to come out of World War II, Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese pilot who bombed Pearl Harbor, and DeShazer, the Doolittle Raider who bombed Tokyo, became close friends. Fuchida became a Christian in 1950 and, like DeShazer, spent the rest of his life as a missionary in Asia.

A VHS video about DeShazer with some excellent old clips of Doolittle and the flight preparations, and the B-25s launching, is DeShazer, the story of missionary Sgt. Jake DeShazer of B-25 #16 (the last to launch from the Hornet). The video is based on The Amazing Story of Sergeant Jacob De Shazer by C. Hoyt Watson. At the end of both the video and the book, DeShazer after the end of the war meets Mitsuo Fuchida, the commander and lead pilot of the Pearl Harbor raid. DeShazer and Fuchida work together as Christian misssionaries in Japan.