The Tragic Murder of Missionary John Birch (Pt. 2)

The wreckage of Col. Jimmy Doolittle's Plane

The average American today knows little of the dangers of communism. My wife recently told me of a survey that stated "49% of recent American college graduates believe that communism is a better form of government than America's current form of government."

Sigh.  

Sadly, even some Christians think that there are similarities between communism and early Christianity as described in Acts 2. But there is a FUNDAMENTAL difference between Christianity and communism. The latter is a form of government that requires dictators to force the masses to do things against their will "for the common good" of the country. Of course, the "common good" is always defined by the dictator or governmental leaders, and disobedience leads first to loss of personal liberties, and if eventual uniform conformity is not achieved, then individual deaths. Communist dictators have killed over 150,000,000 people worldwide for non-conformity. 

The Christians in Acts 2 shared all things in common voluntarily (Acts 2:44-48). Demands of uniformity and conformity by government coercion,  regardless of the intended or stated societal good, always means the loss of individual liberty and safety. 

Death follows communism like thunder follows lightning.

In Part 1 of this series I introduced you to John Morrison Birch (1918-1945), the American Christian missionary to China (1940-1945) who was murdered by Chinese communist government soldiers (CPC) on August 25, 1945, 10 days after the end of World War II.  John Birch's death has been called “the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World.”

I would like my followers of Jesus' friends to see that Kingdom people like John Birch will sometimes choose to defend liberty for the sake of a nation's health and safety, believing that this defense is a call from God Himself to protect others from physical suffering and death. 

Missionary to China John Morrison Birch

John Birch was born in 1919 to Christian missionaries living in India (George and Ethel Birch). When John was two years old, the Birch family moved back to the United States due to George's ill health. First settling in New Jersey with Ethel's family, the Birchs would eventually migrate to Georgia, where George Birch had inherited a 500-acre family farm. Teenage John Birch and his older brother worked on the farm all summer to prepare it for the Birch family to live. 

An aunt who recognized John's intellectual acumen offered to pay for his high school education at a school in Gore, Georgia, so that John could afford a better education than the one-room church school in the woods near Birchwood Farm. John graduated with honors from high school and then enrolled at Mercer University in the fall of 1935. After graduation from Mercer with honors and a year of training in Fort Worth, Texas, John Birch went to China. 

John Birch in the rice paddy fields of China

John Birch arrived in Shanghai, China, in July 1940. The coastland of China and all of northern China had been invaded and occupied by the Japanese in 1936. John began an intensive study of Mandarin Chinese in the Japanese-occupied territory of China. After a few months, John went to Hangzhou, China, to begin his ministry of witnessing to the Chinese farmers and their families about the Good News of Jesus Christ. He was an outstanding Christian missionary. He spoke Mandarin fluently, dressed in the rural Chinese everyday clothes, and grew his hair long, dyed it black, and pulled it back just like the rice paddy farmers did. 

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President of the United States ordered a surprise attack on Tokyo. In April 1942, the famous and successful Doolittle Raid struck terror in the hearts of the Japanese, who thought their island impenetrable to attack, and it lifted the morale of the American people. Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his crew bailed out in China after the Tokyo raid because they did not have enough gas in their tanks to return to the aircraft carrier.  They had flown from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8), bombed Tokyo, and bailed out of their planes before crashing on the Chinese mainland. The American air crews rendezvoused and then tried to figure out a way to get out of Japanese-controlled China. A local farmer put them in the bottom level of his fishing boat.

John Birch was eating a cheap rice bowl in a restaurant that overlooked the Ch'ien Tang River. James M Scott, in his superb book Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor explains what happened next:

A Chinese officer came inside and spotted the missionary, striking up a conversation in the hope of practicing his English. The officer commented that there were several Americans on the general’s boat tied up below. Birch protested that he must be mistaken, prompting the officer to point out the policeman in a black uniform standing guard on deck. Birch decided he had to check it out for himself. 

“Have you any Americans on this boat?” the missionary demanded of the guard. 

“No,” the policeman answered in Chinese. 

“Are there any Americans in there?” Birch repeated, this time shouting. 

Doolittle and his men crouched inside the cabin, listening to the exchange. “Well, Jesus Christ,” Paul Leonard blurted out.

 “That’s an awfully good name,” Birch answered. “But I am not he.” 

The door sprang open, and Birch spotted several bearded faces inside. “Come in here!” came the chorus. Birch climbed inside the cabin and came face-to-face with Doolittle and his men. The aviators were thrilled to meet Birch, whose language skills and knowledge of the area would be assets. Doolittle briefed the young missionary on the operation and asked whether he would travel with them and help interpret. “Of course, I was glad to,” Birch later said. “The first time I’d associated with celebrities.” 

Birch traveled with Doolittle to Lanchi, relating stories of the Japanese atrocities. The missionary confessed to Doolittle that he wanted to help American forces. Doolittle bade farewell to Birch, assuring him that he would recommend him up the ladder and asking him to remain ready to help other raiders.

Scott, James M.. Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor (pp. 276-277). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. 

Order of Merit

When Doolittle arrived in Chongqing, he told Colonel Claire Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, about Birch's help. Chennault said he could use a Chinese-speaking American who knew the country well, and he commissioned Birch as a first lieutenant on July 4, 1942, to work as a field intelligence officer, though Birch had expected to work as a chaplain.

Lieutenant John Birch would eventually be promoted to Captain John Birch and he would be a highly decorated field intelligence officer, including being awarded the Legion of Merit for his distinguished service in China. General Claire Chennault would later say of John Birch, "I loved like my own son." 

It was on August 25, 1945, 10 days after the official end of World War II, that Chinese communist soldiers shot and killed Captain John Birch in cold blood.

John Birch died defending China against insurgent communists. He died wearing an American soldier's uniform. The United States government covered up John Birch's murder for five years. In one of the blackest stains on American foreign policy, the American government pulled its military and financial support from Chiang Kai-Shek and the Republic of China and allowed the country of China to fall into the hands of the communists led by Mao Zedong. 

Millions of Chinese died under the butchering hands of Mao Zedong. 

A fight against communism is a fight for lives. 

How the communists killed John Birch and why it's important to understand the goals of communism will come in Part 3 of this series.