Story from Morris Smith Bushman

Sharing our Links to the Past
by Wally and Frances Gray

Back to Ann Lewis's Table of Contents

Story from Morris Smith Bushman

Provo, Utah

(son of Alonzo E., son of John, son of Martin Bushman)

The following incident was told to Lois and Morris Bushman 14 years ago on a visit to Hawaii in 1970 by Frank F. Suzuki and Grace O. Suzuki.

Morris had the privilege of baptizing Frank in 1941 as a missionary and now Frank and Grace are temple workers and have recently returned from three years in Tokyo spent getting the temple work started there.

In 1969 a group of Japanese converts arranged for a group to go to the Temple in Laie, Hawaii, to do temple work and at a meeting in the chapel when a testimony meeting was in progress, a convert of about 52 years of age told of a time December 7, 1941, when he was with the Japanese Air Force and as a pilot was flying to bomb Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. As they approached the island of Oahu from the northwest, he flew over the Laie Temple, and seeing the nicely landscaped building, decided that this must be an important building and thought that he could easily destroy it on his way by with one bomb. He proceeded over the building and released a bomb, however, the bomb did not fall, which was a surprise to him, so he turned around and drove toward the building and tried again. This time he blacked out and came to finding himself climbing into the sky again. He figured that if his bombs would not fall he could then use his wing guns and destroy the building. He was shocked to find that they would not operate either, at this time a strange feeling came over him and he felt that he was not to destroy this building but get on over the mountain and down through the middle of the island to their destination of Pearl Harbor. He joined his comrades and contributed to the great destruction of the United States fleet and navy ships anchored in Pearl Harbor. He found that his plane worked perfectly and dropped all of his bombs and fired all of the shells in his wing guns, then returned to the Japanese Aircraft carriers north of Hawaii. The puzzle of the malfunction of his guns and bombs disturbed him for many years.

About 20 years later in Japan, missionaries were teaching the gospel to the wife of this former Air Force pilot and he was resisting the message of the missionaries. One evening a missionary was showing pictures of LDS Temples in the home and this uninterested Japanese man suddenly spotted a picture that looked familiar to him. On closer investigation he found that it was the Mormon Temple in Hawaii–the very building that he attempted to destroy years before. He was interested in its purpose and became more interested in the Church. He testified that it was the hand of the Lord that saved the building from destruction in 1941 and that he was happy to be here in this building to obtain his endowments and be sealed to his wife in 1969. His mission of destruction has turned into a mission of Salvation for him and his family.