Wounded Tiger
By T. Martin Bennett (Dynamis Books)
War doesn’t spring from the ground on its own but grows from the seed of past actions. World War II was no different and just as complex.
T. Martin Burnett’s narrative of people caught up in that complexity begins in 1922 and is told largely from the Japanese perspective, humanizing the war in a way Americans often don’t encounter.
During years of growing animosity between the United States and Japan, Mitsuo Fuchida committed himself to serve his emperor. His dedication led to his commanding the surprise air assault on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.
During those same preceding years, the Covell family served as Baptist missionaries in Japan. When Americans no longer were welcome there, the Covells made the fateful decision to relocate to the Philippines. Meanwhile, their oldest daughter Peggy was away at college in upstate New York.
Jacob DeShazer was fed up with the struggle to make a dollar and threw in his lot with the U.S. military, eventually becoming a bombardier. When duty called and he and his fellow airmen agreed to a dangerous mission over Tokyo, Jake’s life changed forever.
Bennett weaves Fuchida’s, DeShazer’s and Peggy Covell’s stories together through the battles, prejudices and fears of World War II’s Pacific Theater. He recounts the full scope of the war over hundreds of action-packed and fast-paced pages that just keep turning. By the end, each person encounters Christ’s redemption in individual and interrelated ways.
Though the narrative is dramatized, family and friends of the main characters vouch for the accuracy of Bennett’s account. Their personal effects inform the story throughout. Hundreds of illustrations—photos, drawings, maps, letters, official correspondence and newspaper clippings—anchor the historicity of the narrative and bring it to life.
As a story of war, the narrative is not always gentle. Bennett effectively conveys war’s many brutalities, as well as the horrors of the atomic bomb. Holding true to the time, he voices the disparaging view Americans had of the Japanese, a feature whose redemption only just begins in the closing pages.
Bennett first self-published Wounded Tiger in 2015 hoping it would become a major motion picture. A third edition is due out Oct. 24.
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Eric Black, executive director, publisher, editor
Baptist Standard
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