War experience shows reconciliation is a possibility for all of us

By Lethbridge Herald on July 15, 2023.

Editor:

A B25 came to Lethbridge for an air show.  The sight of the plane reminded me of my father’s friend, Jacob de Caesar.  He was a gunner on one of the 16 B25’s which flew to Japan in 1944 for the first American bombing raid on Japan soil under the command of Jimmy Doolittle. 

They took off from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.   The carrier allowed the B25 to take off but it was too small for  big aircraft like B25 to return.  So after the mission was complete the plan was to fly to China, ditch the planes and join the Nationalist Chinese Army. Only a few made it as planned.  Many were shot down in Japan and the crew spent the rest of the war in the prisoner of war camps and suffered terrible brutality.

De Caesar came back to Japan after the war as a missionary.  After release from the POW camp, he went to a theological seminary, was ordained as a Methodist minister and became a missionary. 

My father who was a Methodist minister worked with de Caesar as his interpreter because his Japanese was not quite fluent yet.  Dad wrote a book about him.   I heard him speak many times and read the book Dad wrote about him.  

But I never understood why he decided to come back to Japan.  He loved Japan and its people.  The only thing I can say is: Reconciliation is possible. 

Tad Mitsui

Lethbridge