Following the bombings made on Pearl Harbor, the Americans now entered into World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan, subsequently pushing Nazi Germany and Italy to declare war on the United States. For years, nations exchanged blows: air strikes, gunfire, and all forms of destruction with only one aim: to eradicate the enemy. So did the cries of war fill the airwaves of the world.
In 1945, the Allied Forces were preparing to launch a full scale invasion of the Japanese Mainland. This was following the surrender of Germany, thus ending the war in Europe. However, on the other side of the World, the threat of war was still in the air. Although measures were taken to subdue the Japanese forces, these were all in vain, as they ignored the calls to surrender and carried on.
Finally, on 06 and 09 August 1945, to finally bring the war to an end, the United States, with the assent of the United Kingdom, dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. What would take place in the coming days – the death of hundreds of thousands, and the continuous poisoning of whoever was left standing – ultimately led to Japan’s surrender.
Amidst the devastation, which would have been all the more violent near the hypocenter of the attack, there remained standing amidst all the rubble a Church dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. Inside the Church Rectory were eight Jesuit Priests who walked out of the Church after the bombing, as if nothing happened.
Except for a few minor injuries brought about by broken glass, all eight of them were virtually fine. Doctors warned them that they would eventually succumb to the gnarly effects of radiation; but after 200 medical exams in the years following that fateful day, the priests showed no sign of any effects from the radiation.
Fr. Hubert Schiffer, one of the Jesuits who survived that ordeal, who was 30 years old at the time, recalls his experience vividly: he was just about to begin his breakfast, when he noticed a bright flash of light. Thinking it was an explosion in the nearby harbour, he thought nil of it. All of a sudden, a huge explosion filled the air, throwing him off his chair. He felt like a leaf – thrown around and whirled in the autumn wind.
When he came to, his surroundings were reduced to rubble. Everything around the church was decimated. Following the bombings, the eight priests were carefully examined and interviewed by many scientists who could not understand that the Japanese easily succumbed to radiation poisoning and other related illnesses, but these priests did not.
What was their secret? A string of beads dear to the heart of every Catholic: the Holy Rosary. Speaking on behalf of his companions, Fr. Schiffer said: “We believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in that home.”
Our Lady has proven to be a steady refuge, even in times of war. In Fatima she asked the three children to pray the rosary for the end of the war. So did these Jesuits call upon her through the loving repetition of Hail Mary’s. Perhaps we could attribute Japan’s surrender on 15 August 1945 to their intercession, as 5 years later, the Church would proclaim the Marian Dogma of Mary’s Assumption, inscribing it as a feast every 15th of August. Whatever these chain of events may mean, one thing remains true: Our Lady has never failed anyone who calls to her through the Holy Rosary.