Preventing Pearl Harbor

As righteous people, we show our faithfulness by sharing God’s vision of peace.

The son of a samurai, he was an heir to the traditions of the warrior class in Japan. He became a Christian while studying in Tokyo, then he moved to the United States.

His name was Kan’Ichi Asakawa, and he was a scholar of Japanese feudalism. In 1909, he wrote a book that warned that Japan’s growing militarism would eventually lead to war with the United States.

Asakawa was a prophet, talking about a war that would not break out for 32 years.

He lectured at Dartmouth College, was a professor at Waseda University, and became an assistant professor at Yale University in 1910. At Yale, he was the first Japanese professor at a major American university. Asakawa was dedicated to being a bridge between the United States and Japan, always trying to promote peace.

In 1941, he wrote a letter that he hoped President Roosevelt would send to the emperor of Japan. The letter urged the emperor to shift away from war, and he appealed to the emperor’s sense of honor and history ...