Digital Commons @ SPU

The DeShazers arrive in Yokohama, Japan, in late December 1948. They are assigned to live and work in Osaka and move into the top floor of the house owned by the Yoshiki family. The DeShazers and Yoshikis become friends. Jacob's story and return to Japan open many opportunities for he and Florence to spread the Gospel to the Japanese. Jacob travels around the country to share his story along with fellow Free Methodist Reverend Kaneo Oda, who acts as his interpreter; Florence holds meetings for women and children in the DeShazers’ home. Both Jacob and Florence study the Japanese language, and work with other Free Methodist missionaries in Japan: Pearl Reid, Alice Fensome, Oliver Haslam, the Parsons family, the Johns, and the Bullis family, among others. Jacob writes a book in Japanese - "From Japanese Raider to Japanese Missionary." This text, along with an earlier published tract "I Was a Prisoner of Japan" (telling Jacob’s story and published by Bible League International in English and Japanese) are helpful tools for spreading the Gospel.

Jacob DeShazer reconciles with two of his former prison guards – Mr. Aota and Mr. Misawa - during this period and is also involved with the conversion of Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, the leader of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Fuchida and DeShazer become friends after meeting each other in 1950. Also in 1950, the DeShazer family moves into a new house at Nishinomiya (between Osaka and Kobe) and C. Hoyt Watson's biography of Jacob is published by Light and Life Press. The DeShazers soon return to Osaka in 1951 and live near the Osaka Christian College campus.

The DeShazer family grows during these years, as sons John and Mark are born in 1949 and 1952, respectively, and daughter Carol Aiko ("love" in Japanese) is born in 1954. A revival sweeps the churches in Japan in the spring of 1953. Jacob DeShazer returns briefly to the United States for his first Doolittle Reunion that same spring and spends some time in the U.S. sharing with different groups about the revival and the state of the missionary work in Japan. In 1954, Jacob is made superintendent of the Free Methodist Mission in Japan. After six years in Japan, the DeShazers return to the United States for furlough in April 1955.