Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

by Larkin Spivey

  Prayer of a Fighter Pilot

  O God, My Father, The Great Referee of earth and sea and sky, be with me in combat and adversity. Strengthen my love for the land that has given me birth and make me worthy of the sacrifices of my fathers in hewing America from the wilderness they found. Endow me with the courage to face danger in spite of fear. Make me resolve that the blood of my fathers was not shed in vain and that regardless of cost our way of life shall endure. Keep me physically strong that I may better defend my home and my native land. Keep me mentally awake that my enemies may never again strike with surprise and deal with me in treachery. Uplift my morals that I may better maintain the honor of my country and reverence of my forefathers. Let duty to God and country be my most sublime aspirations, and kindle my heart and soul with the determination to die rather than yield the ideals of my world. O God, My Father, whatever duty befalls me when my country calls, may I acquit myself as worthy of Thy Guidance.

  And when my combat’s over and my flying days are done I will store my ship forever in the airdrome of the sun. Then I’ll meet the Referee, Great God, my Flying Boss, Whose Wingspread fills the heavens from Polaris to the Cross.

  …Amen517

  Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

  —Job 38:47

  December 10

  Faith Will Help

  Chaplain Herb Van Meter wrote many letters to the families of fallen heroes and with great effort did his best to personalize each one. In April 1945 he wrote to the family of James Emory, a Marine killed on Iwo Jima.

  As we left Iwo Jima you would know how hard it was to leave behind those who fought beside me. As the transport left the anchorage the troops stood silently, reverently at attention in their honor. Eyes were fixed on the flag flying in the Division cemetery over their graves. It was a holy moment. Words cannot express the thoughts that rise in a man’s heart at such a time. There were men thinking of James as there were men whose thoughts were with those who lie beside him under those white crosses. There were prayers and there were tears. We will not forget.

  Time alone will heal the pain of separation from your son. Pride will help you face it now: pride in one who gave his life to his nation, pride in having given a gift so great. Faith will help: faith in those great causes for which Jim risked and gave his life, faith in the dedication of our people and nation to those causes. And most of all there is faith in Almighty God to help you, faith in Him who gives us life and in whose providence it is taken from us. God grant you that faith.518

  It is one thing to believe that God is sovereign in the giving and taking of life when all our loved ones remain with us. To cling to that knowledge when a son has died, however especially in the brutal circumstances of war is taking that faith to an entirely new level. My own faith has not been tested in this way, and I pray that yours has not either. But to help safeguard our faith before it is even placed in the refiner’s fire, we would benefit from remembering to place our faith in the unchanging person of God and his son, Jesus Christ, rather than measuring our faith by our circumstances. (JG)

  I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.

  —Isaiah 45:6 7

  December 11

  We the Living

  On March 21, 1945, a cemetery on Iwo Jima was dedicated to the fallen Marines and sailors of the 5th Marine Division. Chaplain Roland Gittelsohn delivered a moving sermon with echoes from Abraham Lincoln’s address at another great battlefield Gettysburg:

  This is perhaps the grimmest, and surely the holiest task we have faced since D-Day. Here before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends. Men who until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained with us… Men who fought with us and feared with us… Now they lie here silently in this sacred soil, and we gather to consecrate this earth in their memory.

  It is not easy to do so. Some of us have buried our closest friends here. We saw these men killed before our very eyes. Any one of us might have died in their places. Indeed, some of us are alive and breathing only because men who lie here beneath us had the courage and strength to give their lives for us. To speak in memory of such men as these is not easy. Of them, too, can it be said with utter truth: ‘The world will little note nor long remember, what we say here. We can never forget what they did here.’… These men have done their job well. They have paid the ghastly price of freedom. If that freedom is once again lost… the unforgivable blame will be ours, not theirs, so it is we, ‘the living’ who are here to be dedicated and consecrated.519

  Every person who has lived through war thinks of lost comrades with feelings of sadness and guilt. We survived, and they did not. Chaplain Gittelson articulately spells out our only recourse. We have to live our lives in honor of those who gave theirs. To do this, we have to be a force for peace in the world, in our communities, and in our families. In this noble endeavor we have an all-powerful ally the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

  —Matthew 5:9

  December 12

  To Live Together

  In the 1940s the military services reflected the racial prejudice and segregation then pervading American society. Black American units were organized in each branch of the Armed Forces, but were not used in direct combat roles at first. Later in the war, this began to change as the long, slow process of improving racial relations gained momentum in the services and nation.

  At Iwo Jima’s battlefield cemetery Chaplain Roland Gittelsohn, a Jewish rabbi, took a bold step for that time by addressing the issues of race and religion. He reminded the living of their eternal bonds with the fallen and one of their most important obligations to honor their memory:

  We dedicate ourselves, first to live together in peace the way they fought and are buried in this war. Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding, and other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and Whites, rich men and poor together. Here are Protestants, Catholics and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despised him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed. Among these men there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. There is the highest and purest democracy.520

  This sermon was reprinted in the thousands and made its way back to the States in untold numbers of letters home. It was also picked up by newspapers, magazines, and radio broadcasts. It was one of many seeds planted during the war that would grow slowly and painfully toward a color-blind America.

  Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

  —Malachi 2:10

  December 13

  A Sorry Swap

  The human cost of the war was at times overwhelming. A chaplain walked through a new graveyard in the Philippines lined with thirty-five hundred freshly painted white crosses. He looked at the ages of the fallen soldiers buried there and noticed that practically every one was eighteen or nineteen years old:

  For this, some poor woman labored for nine months, brought the child into the world, took care of every need, watched him grow up, proud, and this is the way it ends? There’s got to be a better way.521

  Another chaplain received many answers to his letters of condolence. Most were gracious and thankful for his help. A few were bitter, as this one from the parents of an only son killed on Iwo Jima:

  Did he die quick, with a rifle bullet or was he blown all to h ___ with a m
ortar or torn up by shrapnel? Did he last long enough to see the flag go up on Suribachi?… We spent eighteen years raising this boy and it took eighteen months for the Marines to finish the job, and we have an engraved certificate to show that he died for liberty. You will have to admit that it is a…sorry swap.522

  This letter may not have been typical, but it was honest. Other parents and loved ones may have accepted their losses more graciously, but their pain was just as deep. It is a natural and a good thing to glorify our sons and daughters who have fallen in wartime fighting for our nation. We rightfully consider them heroes. It is a good thing also to understand and remember the cost of this sacrifice. Mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings, communities all suffer losses that are at times almost impossible to bear. These tragedies shatter lives and affect untold future generations. While condemning war and the human failures that cause it, we pray to see that day envisioned by the prophet Isaiah:

  He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

  —Isaiah 2:4

  December 14

  Common Denominator

  A Jewish chaplain gave this thoughtful description of his ministry to soldiers during World War II:

  I find most of my work with men of Protestant and Catholic faiths. Moving about clearing stations, mobile hospitals, rest centers and reserve units… one cannot merely seek his own fellow worshippers. Every boy is equally important—and a smile looks as good on anyone. We forget that we are this faith or another and emphasize the common denominator of fellowship. When they bring them in on a litter covered with mud, blood-soaked, with fear and shock in their faces, you can’t tell what they are until you look at their dog tags. To serve such men is my privilege.523

  Military chaplains have always functioned on many levels. As representatives of their faith they have a role in sharing their beliefs with those in spiritual need. As representatives of different denominations they provide the familiar forms of worship that are meaningful to those denominations. On a more basic level, however, they try to represent God to others by bringing a simple, godly concern to every man and woman. This caring touch in the midst of often-desolate surroundings has been of incalculable comfort to many thousands, regardless of their religious affiliation or nonaffiliation. The common denominator is the fact that all are truly God’s children. Many of these chaplains have shared the dangers and discomforts of combat duty around the world and have earned the gratitude of generations of soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

  After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

  —Luke 10:1–2

  December 15

  Ace of Aces

  Eddie Rickenbacker was one the greatest heroes of World War I and II. As leader of the famous 94th Aero, “Hat in the Ring,” Squadron he posted twenty-six victories over enemy aircraft in the First World War, earning the distinction of “Ace of Aces.” For his heroism in aerial combat he was awarded nine Distinguished Service Crosses and the Medal of Honor. After the war he went into the business world as owner and manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and chief executive officer of Eastern Airlines.

  In 1941 Rickenbacker was involved in a near-fatal airplane crash near Atlanta and was hospitalized for months. While still recovering from multiple injuries sustained in the crash, be agreed to become the personal envoy of the secretary of war, Henry Stimson. He traveled around the world to give encouragement to armed forces personnel and to gauge the effectiveness of U.S. tactics and equipment.

  While flying from Hawaii to the island of Canton in 1942, his B-17 ditched in the middle of the Pacific. With seven other survivors, he spent twenty-four days lost at sea. He credited prayer and the miraculous arrival of a seagull for his survival. He was a devout Christian and wrote the following heartfelt prayer. When he spoke of the “valley of the shadow of death,” he had more first-hand knowledge than probably any other living man.

  O Lord, I thank thee for the strength and blessings thou hast given me, and even though I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I feared no evil, for thy rod and thy staff comforted me even unto the four corners of the world. I have sinned, O Lord, but through thy mercy thou hast shown me the light of thy saving grace.

  In thy care we are entrusting our boys and girls in the Services scattered throughout the entire world, and we know that in thee they are finding their haven of hope. Be with our leaders, O Lord; give them wisdom to lead us to a spiritual victory, as well as a physical one. And until that day, be with those at home—strengthen them for whatever may lie ahead… In Jesus’ name I ask it. Amen.524

  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

  —Psalms 23:5–6

  December 16

  Safety in God’s Will

  Darlene Deibler spent four long years in a Japanese prison camp. Separated in 1942 from her missionary husband, she never saw him again. She was still a captive when she learned more than a year later that he had died in another camp. At the end of the war, a friend brought a letter from her husband written to her on his deathbed. Along with expressions of love he wrote poignantly of one regret: “My darling, I have wished 1001 x’s that I had taken you away from here. I am concerned for your safety.”525 Darlene’s reaction to her husband’s letter revealed the strength of her faith:

  It took me a long time to finish the letter. I didn’t want to stain it with tears. I was so grieved that he felt he should have taken me away. Both of us had agreed that we should remain, and that decision was reached only after much prayer. “Lord, I trust that You reminded him that it was You Who impressed upon both our hearts that we should not leave. I have been safer here, overshadowed by Your love, than I would have been anywhere else on this earth, outside of your will!”526

  It is difficult to appreciate the power of this statement without knowing the full extent of the hardships and danger faced by this woman during her captivity. Suspected of spying by the Japanese secret police, she was starved and beaten repeatedly. She frequently thought that her execution was imminent. She survived debilitating diseases and frequent bombing attacks. For her to declare that during all this she was safer there, in God’s will, than she would have been elsewhere is one of the most amazing testaments of faith I have ever read. It is inspiring to witness the power of such a sure relationship with God. After praying for guidance and listening for an answer, Darlene Deibler was confident that she was doing what God wanted her to do. With this knowledge she was able to face every hardship without regret.

  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

  December 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.”527

  President Truman. (Harry S. Truman)

  Harry Truman also prayed for himself. He was a life-long Baptist, believ
ing that his church gave “the common man the shortest and most direct approach to God.”528 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!529

  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.”530

  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

  December 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: