Ten years ago, T. Martin Bennett found an old copy of a book about Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor and who is still largely unknown to Americans, except as a one-dimensional enemy of the U.S. during wartime. Bennett, a Tennessee-based author, screenwriter, and entrepreneur, says, “I’d never heard a single word about Fuchida, other than that he was a villain.” But as he started reading about Fuchida’s life and its extraordinary circumstances, drama, and beauty, he knew he had to tell Fuchida’s story. The result is Wounded Tiger, Bennett’s vivid, cinematic work of historical fiction, published in this second edition to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the attack.
What makes Fuchida’s story so captivating and surprising is that he actually stands at the unlikely intersection of three lives. Fuchida, hand-picked by Admiral Yamamoto to lead the Pearl Harbor attack, later turned away from war, became a Christian evangelist, and lived in the U.S. His conversion was a direct result of encountering two Americans: Peggy Covell and Jacob DeShazer. “Each of the plotlines can stand on its own as a great story,” Bennett says. “But the combination of the three is like three cords wound into a powerful rope.”
In Bennett’s telling, Fuchida’s story unfolds through a series of remarkable coincidences. In 1947, he was about to testify at a war crimes trial in Tokyo, confident that war made both sides treat each other inhumanely. But, just before the trial, Fuchida encountered Kazuo Kanegasaki, a sailor and friend whom he thought had died. Kanegasaki told Fuchida that as a prisoner of war he was treated with almost sisterly respect by Covell, whose parents were Christian missionaries in the Philippines. “Once Fuchida became aware of her choices,” Bennett says, “it astonished him, gripped his mind, and turned him down an unknown path of discovery.”
In 1948, chance struck a second time when Fuchida was again ordered to testify. As he got off the train in Tokyo, he was handed a pamphlet entitled, “I Was a Prisoner in Japan” by DeShazer. In 1942, DeShazer was one of the Dolittle Raiders who bombed Japan. He was captured in enemy territory in China and spent 40 months as a prisoner of war, most of it in solitary confinement. He was severely malnourished and witnessed the executions of some of his crew members. During captivity, DeShazer convinced a guard to let him borrow a Bible. After being freed and going to college in the U.S., DeShazer returned to Japan as a missionary.
“Character arcs are the dramatic elements we love to see,” Bennett says. “The greater the arc, the more dramatic the story. In the case of Wounded Tiger, we see extreme character arcs on all levels of conflict: national, physical, social, mental, and spiritual.” The transformations of these characters over time, and especially the resolution of their inner conflicts, will certainly resonate with readers. According to Bennett, “The most difficult to deal with is the antagonist of our own selves, which is what we see in this story.”
Perhaps the most unlikely coincidence of all is the close friendship that grew between Fuchida and DeShazer. In May 1950, Fuchida knocked on DeShazer’s door, and the two met and embraced. “Socially, to go from bitter enemies to friends for life is not unheard of but still quite rare, and in the circumstances of the Pacific War and the context of Wounded Tiger, nearly unbelievable,” Bennett says. “Ultimately, this is a story about restored relationships on every level. I often say that, if this story were purely fiction, it wouldn’t be very good because it would be too far out to be believed. It seems like it couldn’t possibly happen. Yet it’s true.”
Wounded Tiger is written in a fast-paced, almost cinematic style, in part because Bennett originally wrote the story as a screenplay. Capote’s In Cold Blood, particularly its immediate presentation of the dramatic elements without compromising the facts of the case, was also an inspiration. The book is full of fascinating details: Fuchida wore red underwear for the Pearl Harbor attack so his comrades wouldn’t be discouraged if he returned wounded; the emperor of Japan watched American cartoons that were captured by the Japanese when they took an American island in the Pacific. Bennett’s inclusion of 263 historic photos and maps only enhances the immersion, making Wounded Tiger a captivating and inspiring story.
