Some of that stuff about Morihei Ueshiba is preposterous.
"Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) was history's greatest martial artist. Even as an old man of eighty, he could disarm any foe, down any number of attackers, and pin an opponent with a single finger."
He was still doing Aikido at 80, all right, and doing it well. Isn't that enough?
And the firing-squad story has grown since I first heard it. What I heard is that an enemy officer tried to shoot him, and O-Sensei was able to see where & when he was going to shoot and evade.
This has grown into a story that he could dodge bullets, and now into the firing squad and God-techniques. What he did is called anticipation; it was difficult to avoid telegraphing your punches when facing Ueshiba. I have read a of a cop who did the same thing. when faced with an armed criminal. It's a high level of skill, but not God. And probably not to be depended upon.
Inexperienced shooters, and some experienced hip shooters sometimes even punch the gun forward as they fire and a good boxer can slip a punch, which would make him hard to shoot at close range.
Ueshiba was also a showman, and good at psyching people out. He'd sit on a high stool with his feet off the floor and extend his hand and have you push on it; he'd hold you off with that hand you couldn't tip the stool over. That's one of those "chi" tricks. I just went downstairs and tried it with a 160+ lb person leaning on my hand and didn't get pushed of the stool or tipped over. He could do vastly better things than that, things that require real ability, but the stool trick is showy, and got into stories. The Aikido equivalent of a sound bite.
The things he could really do were wonderful enough; the silly miracle stories only cheapen his reputation.