FREE TO FORGIVE
Mitsuo Fuchida was the general commander of the air squadron that performed the raid on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Following the war he met a lieutenant whom he had known well. He asked about this man’s time as a prisoner of War in American camps. His friend told him a story about a young American woman who had visited that particular camp regularly and had done what she could to make life more bearable for the prisoners. When one of the prisoners asked why she was so kind to them, she said, “Because my parents were killed by Japanese soldiers.” This did not make sense to the prisoners. The young woman, who was no more than 20 years old, explained, “My parents were Christian missionaries in the Philippines when the war broke out. They were captured and ordered shot as spies. They spent their last 30 minutes of life praying for their captors. At first I was bitter when…
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