We did find some photos online. One taken in fact by couple missionaries posted on their family blog (http://joyceanded.blogspot.com/search?q=tunnel). We opted not to try to circumvent the “system” by using those images.

We did investigate the account of the missionary who gave a first-hand account, recorded in his journal, of meeting an individual while tracting who said he had tried to bomb the Hawaii temple.

As the story goes, he and his companion in Japan approached the home of a man who, by the account, said either “go away” or “come in.” They weren’t sure. The opted to come in. As the talked with the man, they showed a picture of the Hawaii temple on a flip chart, according to one account. The man got very agitated and said the missionaries had to go. He said there were evil spirits by that building. As a pilot on the Pearl Harbor attack, he had tried to bomb that building, but evil spirits had kept him from it.

In looking into the story, we deferred to the research of Kenneth Baldridge, an emeritus professor of history at BYU, Hawaii. He researched the account, including this vein, for over 20 years. His research found the following issues with the account:

1. By the missionary’s own admission, his command of the language was sketchy.
2. The name of the man they met was not on the list of known pilots that flew that mission.
3. The senior companion mentioned nothing of the event.

Do those items mean that it definitively did not happen? It’s awfully hard to prove something did not happen. It however seems doubtful that the missionary’s account, while sincere, is 100% true.

As to why we did not include this version of the story in the documentary - it took too long and wasn’t as compelling as the telling we explored. For the sake of concision and pacing, this vein of the story had to be cut.

We’d like an open forum to share our ideas and points of view with in a faith-affirming context.

We look forward to your comments.

Thanks!