A New Beginning presents a fascinating book about heaven from Pastor Greg Laurie. I began an extensive study of the topic of heaven. What is it like? What will we do there? Will we see our loved ones again?
Short answer yes, if they're Christians. But I've written about this in detail in a book called As It Is in Heaven.
So if you've had questions about heaven, and I think we all do, I think you ought to order a copy of this book, As It Is in Heaven. Get your copy at harvest.org. Prior to your commitment to Christ at the Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles. You started drinking heavily. You were experiencing what we now call post-traumatic stress syndrome, but back then they didn't have a name for it.
You were having nightmares about the bird. One night, you woke up with your hands around your wife's throat thinking you were choking the bird, correct? Yeah, well we were both scared. I just, I just, I couldn't figure out what was happening. But the nightmares started in prison because every day when he would punish me, I'd clench my fist.
And he knew I wanted to hit him. And he said, if I draw my sword, I must use it.
So I had nightmares there all the way home. And there was never a night I didn't dream about getting this guy.
So but when I woke up in a cold sweat. With my hand around my wife's throat, that really scared me, and of course, it scared her. And then she and we were A young couple in the apartment came to our apartment and knocked on the door, started telling us about a young evangelist coming to LA. And he started to quote scripture, and boy, that hit me. I said, hey, I'm out of here.
And my wife listens. And when Billy came, they talked into going down with them. And she, in the meantime, she had already Filed for a divorce. And then uh But when she came home and tried to get me to go down, I fought her. But then she said something that softened me up.
She said, because of my conversion, I'm not going to get a divorce.
Well, that really softened me up a bit, and so she was able to persuade me to go down here, Billy. But then again he was quoting scripture and that really hit me between the eyes. And I said, I don't need anybody to tell me I'm a sinner. I know I am. And so I got mad, pulled her on home.
But uh the next day she's all over me again and And I said, okay, okay, I'll go back on one condition. When he says every head bowed and every eye closed, we're out. And so back again we went and Billy's Finishing the sermon. And I said, let's go. And then he said something like: when people come to the end of their rope and they have nowhere else to turn, they turn to God.
And I thought, yeah, that's what I did. And on the raft in prison camp, all the prisoners were praying about the same prayer: get me home alive to my family, and I'll seek you and serve you.
Well, he got me home alive, and I didn't keep my promise, and that really hit me between the eyes.
So instead of leaving the tent, I went back to the prayer room. and made a confession of my faith in Christ. In an interview you did, Louie, you made this statement about your conversion, quote, I got off my knees and somehow I knew I was through getting drunk. I knew it. I knew that I forgave all of my guards, including the bird.
I think proof of that is that I had nightmares every night about the bird since the war, and I haven't had a nightmare since the night I made my decision for Jesus Christ, 1949, till now. That's right? Still true.
So now. You wanted to kill the bird. You've made a commitment to Jesus Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade. and you've been able to forgive him.
So you return to Japan. And you want to actually... Talk with him and meet him, and you actually wrote a letter to him because you were told that he was no longer alive. But you wrote a letter in hopes of meeting him. Would you read that letter to us?
So, Mr. Cheryl Watsonabi, as a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwanted and unreasonable punishment, My post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and the suffering as it was to the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate. with the budget. Under your discipline, my rights not only as a prisoner but also as a human being.
were stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war's end. The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble. But thanks to a confrontation with God, Through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you.
Christ said, forgive your enemies and pray for them. As you probably know, I returned to Japan in 1952 and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Tsugamo Prison. I asked them about you and was told that you probably had committed Harikiri. which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.
Thank you very much.
So we're gonna food this one. No. As it turns out, and you found out later, the bird was actually still alive. He was running from the authorities, he was a declared war criminal. He became aware of the fact that you wanted to meet with him, but he agreed to meet you, and then at the last minute he refused to meet you.
Is that correct?
Well, it was uh it was uh it's a sixty minutes. did the video tonight. Won the Emmy Award. And they did get him on the street. And that was the first interview of his life.
And they He agreed to talk to him. But then his son and grandson came out of the house. Hell no. It's then sixty minutes near there. you know, a condemnation thing.
I didn't accuse them of all these crimes. And the son and grandson didn't know he was a guard. They didn't know he was wanted by MacArthur. And boy, they stopped and said, no more of this.
Now, if he thought of that happened, he said, He would meet with me. But after the son and grandson, I stopped the whole s the whole conversation. I d I never got to meet with him. Nobody could talk to him on the phone or see him in person. And he died about, I guess, five or six years ago.
