1945 - John Birch

August 1945

Suzhou, Jiangsu

John Birch.

John Birch is one of the more controversial inclusions in this book of martyrs. Many people have presumed Birch died for his secret military operations rather than for the cause of Christ, but a thorough investigation into his life and motives reveal a different story.[1]

At the time of his death, Birch was not a famous personality. It was not until 1958—13 years after Birch was slain—that a Massachusetts businessman, Robert Welch, founded the John Birch Society, a radical right-wing group on the political spectrum. Welch declared Birch a Cold War martyr, and ever since his name has become synonymous with politics, a label that he would never have desired for himself. One mission historian has described John Birch as “a missionary who has long been lost to the political cause that was unfortunately named after him.”[2]

John Birch was born in India to missionary parents and grew up in a devout Southern Baptist family in Macon, Georgia. While at college it became apparent Birch was extremely intelligent, even bordering on genius. He graduated top of his class and enrolled in the Bible Baptist Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas, where he completed a two-year curriculum in a single year. He applied to be a missionary to China and was accepted. In the summer of 1939, he sailed for the Orient, aged just 21. Arriving at Shanghai, Birch immediately commenced Chinese language study,

“and displayed such extraordinary aptitude for the language that he was fluent within a couple of months. He spent the following two years travelling about China, preaching, passing out tracts and Bibles, and developing an affection for the Chinese people and a broad network of friends and contacts that would serve him well in what was to follow.”[3]

An evening in April 1942 changed Birch’s life forever. He was eating at a riverside restaurant in a remote village in Zhejiang Province when a Chinese man approached him and quietly asked if he was an American. The missionary was then led to a boat in which were concealed several American military personnel. He was shocked to discover the leader of the group was the famous Colonel James Doolittle, who had just parachuted into China after bombing Tokyo in retaliation for the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour.

The bombers did not have enough fuel capacity to return to a safe base after the offensive, so they decided to fly towards the Chinese coast and parachute out before ditching their planes. This was an extremely risky plan as many parts of China were under Japanese control at the time. Birch led Doolittle and his men out to safety. He was deeply affected by his time with the men, and a short time later accepted a new assignment: to help locate the whereabouts of the other 15 planes that had crashed after the Tokyo raid. Birch used his network of contacts and was able to rescue most of the men.

Returning to Chongqing, Birch applied to be the assistant chaplain at the American Military Mission. Instead, “he was commissioned a captain in intelligence and told he could preach all he wanted.”[4] Because of his unique knowledge of Chinese language, culture, and geography, Birch received numerous commendations, including the Legion of Merit. One source noted,

“He never smoked, drank, or cursed, and he repeatedly turned down offers for a furlough to return to the U.S. to visit his family, always stating that he could not accept a furlough knowing that there was always another man with a wife and children who needed one more than he.”[5]

Although John Birch became an intelligence officer for the United States Army, he never lost sight of his call to serve Jesus Christ and the Chinese people. In fact, Birch came to believe that by helping fight against the insidious threat of Communism he was doing the best thing he could to help the Chinese Church in the long-term. He wrote, “I know the big enemy is Communism, but the Lord has called me. My life is in his hands, and I am not turning back.”[6]

Between 1943 and 1945 Birch became involved in evacuating missionaries and Chinese evangelists from the war zone. In one operation called ‘Harvey’s Restaurant’ he arranged for 60 missionaries and their children to be flown to safety.[7] During these years he longed for the day when the war would end, and he could return to his normal missionary work of preaching the gospel and establishing churches.

Birch was taken prisoner by the Communists on August 25, 1945, near the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. He was shot in cold blood, “thrown into a ditch…and left to die…his hands bound behind his back as if he had been executed, his face destroyed by multiple bayonet thrusts. A second bullet may have passed through his skull from back to front.”[8]

Chinese friends lovingly wrapped John Birch’s body in white silk and several missionaries and pastors attended his funeral. The headstone bore the inscription: ‘He died for righteousness.’ One of Birch’s biographers asked, “Why was John Birch killed? The best speculation is that the Chinese Reds did not want him around as a missionary after the war.”[9]

Just four months before his death, John Birch had composed the following prose, entitled The War Weary Farmer, which expressed his deep longings for a peaceful and simple life:

“I should like to find the existence of what my father called ‘Plain living and high thinking.’

I want some fields and hills, woodlands and streams I can call my own. I want to spend my strength in making fields green, and the cattle fat, so that I may give sustenance to my loved ones, and aid to those neighbours who suffer misfortune….

I want to live slowly, to relax with my family before a glowing fireplace, to welcome the visits of my neighbours, to worship God, to enjoy a book, to lie on a shaded grassy bank and watch the clouds sail across the blue.

I want to love a wife who prefers rural peace to urban excitement, one who would rather climb a hilltop to watch a sunset with me than to take a taxi to any Broadway play.

I want of government only protection against the violence and injustices of evil or selfish men.

I want to reach the sunset of life sound in body and mind, flanked by strong sons and grandsons, enjoying the friendship and respect of neighbours, surrounded by fertile lands and sleek cattle, and retaining my boyhood faith in Him who promised a life to come….”[10]

1. See James & Marti Hefley, The Secret File on John Birch (Hannibal, Missouri: Hannibal Books), 1995.
2. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, 423-424.
3. Steve Bonta, “A Real Man, a Real Hero,” article on the www.reformed-theology.org website.
4. Hefley, By Their Blood, 66.
5. Bonta, “A Real Man, a Real Hero.”
6. Bonta, “A Real Man, a Real Hero.”
7. Hefley, By Their Blood, 66.
8. Steve Bonta, “Soldier-Missionary,” The New American (vol.16, no.9, April 24, 2000).
9. Hefley, By Their Blood, 67.
10. Bonta, “A Real Man, a Real Hero.”