In 1942, a foreign army invaded and occupied American soil for the first time since the War of 1812.
Japanese troops captured the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska, just off the coast of Alaska.
An Allied force of some 35,000 Americans and Canadians were given the assignment of taking them back.
The Allies invaded Attu in May of 1943. The island’s Japanese defenders lured the attackers into the mountains, where the fighting was brutal and the casualties were heavy. Ultimately Attu was reclaimed.
Three months later the Allies landed, unopposed, on Kiska. The troops cautiously advanced towards the interior.
As historian Rick Beyer reports in The Greatest War Stories Never Told, “The battle soon turned into a nightmare. Heavy gunfire could be heard, but thick fog made it impossible to see the enemy. Reports of casualties started filtering in, and wounded men were taken to the rear. Soldiers moved slowly forward, clambering up tough mountain ridges, firing as they went.”
Thirty-two Allied soldiers were killed in the fighting, and more than 50 others were wounded.
When the fog finally lifted the Allied commanders made an unnerving discovery: There was no enemy.
The Japanese had fled Kiska three weeks earlier.
The Americans and Canadians had fought bravely. But the whole time they had been shooting at each other.
Today, more than eight decades later, their biggest guns are still rusting in place.
It’s called friendly fire. It happens frequently on battlefields – in fact, more often than we really want to know.
And it happens in offices. And at political rallies. And in family gatherings. And in groups devoted to honoring God.
We turn our guns on each other, wittingly or otherwise, and leave wounded people in our wake.
On a Sunday morning in Michigan a few years back, two factions trying to win control of a particular congregation decided to occupy the sanctuary at the same time. Both groups, which were seated on opposite sides of the center aisle, began to worship. When each side simultaneously attempted a responsive reading, a fistfight broke out.
Local news reports did not mention whether any first-time visitors decided to return the following week.
A mere 20 years after the time of Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians who were treating each other as enemies: “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Galatians 5:15).
Every now and then it makes sense to pray a fog prayer:
“Lord, please clear away the fog. Help us realize that the people on our left and the people on our right are actually all on the same team.”
That family picnic, corporate meeting, or church gathering later this week will be crazy enough without friendly fire.
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