Donald M. Goldstein - Return of the Raider: A Doolittle Raiders Story of War & Forgiveness

D ONALD M. GOLDSTEIN is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. A veteran of the Korean War, he is a retired Air Force officer who served for 22 years. He has taught courses in history, public administration, political science, arms control, national security, theory, and practice of international affairs, American foreign policy, international relations and military history.

Dr. Goldstein is the author of more than 60 articles and 22 books including At Dawn We Slept, which was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 and on the Best Seller List of the New York Times for 47 weeks. He won two Peabody Awards for historical work with ABC and was the winner of the National Association of Public Administrators Teacher of the Year as well as the Chancellors Distinguished Teacher at the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as a consultant for NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, History Channel, and NHK (Japan). He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and a Master of Arts Degree in History from the University of Maryland. He also holds Master of Science Degrees in Political Science from Georgetown University and in Public Administration from George Washington University. Goldstein earned his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History from the University of Denver in 1970. He is married with four children. He and his wife, Mariann, reside in Florida.

Carol Aiko DeShazer Dixon is the first daughter of Jacob and Florence DeShazer. She was born in Kobe, Japan, and her middle name Aiko means love-child in Japanese.

She spent most of her childhood being homeschooled by her mother and attended military and mission schools in Japan. She graduated from Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) high school. She then attended Aldersgate College in Saskatchewan, Canada, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Education. At Aldersgate, she met and married a Canadian, Ken Dixon, from British Columbia. They were married in Tokyo by her father on December 19, 1974. The couple spent one year living in Tokyo with the DeShazers, assisting in their missionary work, teaching English and studying Japanese.

Carol Aiko then attended Spring Arbor College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science and Elementary Education. She did her student teaching at Seattle Pacific University, the same school her parents attended. While living in Seattle, Carol and Kens two children, Laura and Peter, were born.

During the year they were living and working with her parents in Tokyo, Carol Aiko gained a greater appreciation for her parents, their ministry, and all the sacrifices they had made for her and her siblings.

She is very passionate about her parents legacy and feels strongly that it needs to be told accurately. It is something she wants the world to know more about. She is presently working to make her parents story more available through documentaries, books, and other media.

Primary and Secondary Sources

Benge, Janet and Geof. Forgive Your Enemies: Jacob DeShazer (Seattle: YWAM Publishing, 2009).

DeShazer Family Newsletter, Spring 1951

DeShazer Family Scrapbook

Ex-Doolittle Raider: $5,000 drive set for Tokyo home, Seattle Times, 1950.

Glines, Carroll. Four Came Home (Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1981).

Hane, Mikiso. Premodern Japan (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991).

Letters of Florence and Jacob DeShazer provided to authors by Carol Aiko DeShazer Dixon Moses, William. Ex-Airman Pleads for War Guilty, Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1950.

Prange, Gordon, Goldstein, Donald, and Dillon, Katherine, Gods Samurai (McLean, VA: Brasseys, 1990).

Response, the alumni newsletter of Seattle Pacific University, Volume 26, Number 1, Winter 2003, Footnotes

Rev. DeShazer Here to Give Spiritual Help to Japanese, Nippon Times, December 29, 1948.

Snider, Louis. Missionaries of Love, Farewell, Missionary Tidings Magazine, January-February 1978.

Watson, C. Hoyt. The Amazing Story of Sergeant Jacob DeShazer (Winona Lake, IN: The Life and Light Press, 1950).

U. S. Air Force Oral History Interview with Rev. Jacob DeShazer, conducted by Dr. James Hasdorff. United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, October 10, 1989.

Videotapes

May 7, 1996: At his home, DeShazer tells his storyfrom Mr. Weise July 1, 2001: Jacob DeShazer tells his story, Salem, Free Methodist Church Service

1988: Roberts Chapel in Ohio, Florence and Jacob speak.

May 2001: Tokyo Raiders Reunion Banquet, Fresno, California

One Came Back: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida April 12, 1987: Coral Ridge Ministries, Dr. James Kennedy talks about DeShazer

2003: Doolittle Raiders Reunion March 10, 2001: DeShazer speaks at a Prayer Breakfast in Coronado, California War Stories with Oliver North: Doolittle Raid

The Return of the Bombardier: A True Story of Inspiration

One Hour Over Tokyo: The Doolittle Raid, History Channel March 29, 2008: Jacob DeShazers Memorial Service, Departure for Glory Land, First Free Methodist Church, Salem, Oregon

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before
you were born I set you apart.
Jeremiah 1:5

J ACOB DANIEL DESHAZER was born in the small town of Salem, Oregon, on November 15, 1912. He was the seventh of nine children born to a devout Christian family. Before marrying Hulda, Jacobs mother, his father brought four children from a previous marriage after his first wife died. Tragically, Jacob would never have a chance to form a relationship with his father as he died within two years of Jacobs birth. Three years passed before Hulda married again. Her new husband was Mr. Hiram Andrus, a wheat rancher from Madras, Oregon, whom she met through the aid of the superintendent of the Free Methodist Church (F.M.C.). Andrus relocated the family to Madras, which was an area steeped in Indian lore and rich in pioneer history. It was in Madras that Jacob would spend his formative years.

Madras was sparsely populated with fewer than three hundred people living in the town. Jake attended elementary school and, in 1927, began high school. Of all his high school subjects, he was most fond of mathematics. This proclivity toward math would later be an asset to Jake in his military career. Aside from his studies, Jake also enjoyed sports. Although standing only five feet six inches tall, Jake was quite an athlete and while at Madras High School, he earned letters in football, basketball, and baseball.

When not in school, the summers for the DeShazer family meant that Jake, along with his siblings, would be working alongside his father on the seven hundred acre family farm. Here Jake had a variety of jobs, which included harvesting wheat and delivering milk. Despite the work, the children still had the time to swim, fish, and play. Sometimes they all played church. In the games played by all the children, Ruth, his sister, recalled Jake liked to play preacherI dont remember what his sermons were about, but he was getting started on his lifes work.

While not rich in material goods, his parents saw that the children had the basic necessities. Another benefit from living on a farm was the presence of animals. The family had a dog named Sport and Jake was the recipient of a pony that his dad bought for twenty-five dollars at an auction at a neighbors ranch. Jake called the pony Minto and it was Jacobs pride and joy. He truly loved Minto and made sure that she was always treated well. He was very particular about who could ride Minto, and once cried when a group of his friends spanked the horse as they rode. Another family anecdote was the time a visiting girl wanted to ride Jakes horse. The horses back was sore. Jake protested vehemently and said, Dont you know that horse is just like my own flesh and blood?