| Louis Zamperini | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 26, 1917 Olean, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Inspirational speaker |
| Spouse | Cynthia Applewhite (1946-2001) |
Louis Silvie Zamperini (born January 26, 1917) is a World War II prisoner of war survivor, inspirational speaker, and former American Olympic distance runner.
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Louis Zamperini was born in Olean, New York, to Anthony and Louise Zamperini. He had an older brother named Pete, and two younger sisters, Virginia and Sylvia. The Zamperini family moved to Torrance, California in the 1920s, where Louis attended Torrance High School. The son of Italian immigrants, Louis spoke no English when his family moved to California. This made him a target for bullies, so his father taught him how to box in self-defense. Soon, according to Louis, he was "beating the tar out of every one of them... but I was so good at it that I started relishing the idea of getting even. I was sort of addicted to it."[1]
"Before long he was picking fights just to see if anyone could keep up with him. From juvenile thug, he progressed to 'teenage hobo.' Hopping a train to Mexico, he courted danger for the thrill of it. 'I caught a wild cow in a ravine and tore my kneecap till it was just hanging off,' he recalled. 'I snapped my big toe jumping out of some giant bamboo; they just sewed it back on. I’ve got so many scars, they’re criss-crossing each other!'"
(USC News, "The Great Zamperini", 2003)
Louis had a knack for getting into trouble, so his older brother Pete got him involved in the school track team as a way to divert his energy to something productive. In 1934 Louis set a world interscholastic record for the mile, clocking in at 00:04:21.2 at the preliminary meet to the state championships.[2][3][4][5] The following week he won the championships with a 04:27.8[6] That record helped Louis win a scholarship to the University of Southern California and eventually a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team in the 5000 metres, the youngest U.S. qualifier in that event.[7]
While attending USC, Zamperini was a member of The Kappa Sigma Fraternity and lived in the fraternity house along with his brother.
| Personal information | |||||||
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| Nationality | United States | ||||||
| Sport | |||||||
| Sport | Running | ||||||
| College/university team | University of Southern California | ||||||
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Medal record
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In the Olympic trials at Randalls Island, Louis finished in a dead heat against world-record holder Don Lash and qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, though neither he nor Lash had much chance at winning the 5000 meter race. Louis has related several amusing anecdotes from his Olympic experience, including gorging himself on the boat trip to Europe. "I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich," he said. "And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers.” By the end of the trip, Louis, in common with most athletes on the ship, had gained much weight - in Louis' case, 12 pounds. While the weight gain was not advantageous for his running it was necessary for his health, as he had lost 15 pounds while training in the summer heat in New York for the Olympic Trials.
Louis finished eighth in the 5000 meter distance event at that Olympics, but his final lap of 56 seconds was fast enough to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler, who insisted on a personal meeting.[8] As Louis tells the story, Hitler shook his hand, and said simply "Ah, you're the boy with the fast finish."[9] According to a profile of Zamperini on Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel radio program, Louis Zamperini climbed a flag pole during the 1936 Olympic games and stole the personal flag of Hitler.
Two years later, in 1938, Zamperini set a national collegiate mile record which held for fifteen years. He was nicknamed the "Torrance Tornado".
| Louis Zamperini | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 26, 1917 Olean, New York, United States |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | United States Army Air Force |
| Years of service | 1941 – 1945 |
| Rank | Captain [10] |
| Unit | 42nd Bombardment Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group[10] |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Purple Heart Distinguished Flying Cross Prisoner of War Medal |
Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941,[11] and earned a commission as a second lieutenant the following August. He was deployed to Hawaii as a bombardier. On May 27, 1943, he and his crew were assigned to a B-24 which they named Super Man. After this plane was shot up, they were assigned to conduct a search for a lost aircraft and its crew on The Green Hornet, a defective "lemon plane. Mechanical difficulties caused the Green Hornet to crash into the ocean, killing eight of the eleven aboard.
The three survivors (Zamperini, along with pilot Russel Allen "Phil" Phillips and tail-gunner Francis McNamara), with little food and no water, subsisted on captured rainwater and small fish eaten raw. They caught an albatross and used some of the breast meat to catch fish, all while fending off constant shark attacks and nearly being swallowed by a storm.[12] Once they were strafed multiple times by a Japanese bomber, puncturing their life raft; miraculously, no one was hit. McNamara died after thirty-three days at sea.
On the 47th day, Zamperini and Phillips finally reached land south Marshall Islands) and were subsequently captured by the Japanese Navy. Both Phillips and Zamperini were held in captivity and severely tortured until the end of the war: Zamperini was held in a Japanese Prisoner-of-war camp at Ōfuna for captives who were not registered as prisoners of war (POW). He was especially tormented by sadistic prison guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe (nicknamed "The Bird"), who was later included in General Douglas MacArthur's list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan. Held at the same camp, was then-Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington, and in his book, Baa Baa Black Sheep, he discusses Zamperini and the Italian recipes he would write to keep the prisoners' minds off the food and conditions.
During his imprisonment, he had been declared killed in action a year and a day after his disappearance; when he eventually returned home he received a hero's welcome.
In 1946 he married his wife, Cynthia Applewhite, who he remained married to until her death in 2001. After the war and suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, Zamperini met Billy Graham, who helped him launch a new career as a Christian inspirational speaker. His wife Cynthia was instrumental in getting him to go to Billy Graham's meetings and not leaving before he was saved. Louie had been a terrible alcoholic and was instantly released of alcoholism. He could immediately read the Bible and understood it for the first time in his life; he instantly felt total forgiveness towards all who had hurt and tortured him in the prison camps. One of his favorite themes is "forgiveness," and he has visited many of the guards from his POW days to let them know that he has forgiven them. Many of the war criminals who committed the worst atrocities were held in the Sugamo prison in Tokyo. In October 1950, Zamperini went to Japan, gave his testimony and preached to them through an interpreter (a missionary named Fred Jarvis). The colonel in charge of the prison encouraged any of the prisoners who recognized Zamperini to come forward and meet him again. Zamperini threw his arms around each of them. Once again he explained the Christian Gospel of forgiveness to them. The prisoners were somewhat surprised by Zamperini's genuine affection for those who had once ill-treated him. Most of the prisoners accepted copies of the New Testament which had been given by the Gideons.
For his 81st birthday in January 1998, Zamperini ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. While there, he attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormentor during the war, Matsuhiro Watanabe, who had evaded prosecution as a war criminal, but the latter refused to see him. In March 2005 he returned to Germany to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium for the first time since he competed there.[13]
Torrance High School's home football, soccer, and track stadium is called Zamperini Stadium, and the entrance plaza at USC's track & field stadium was named Louis Zamperini Plaza in 2004. In his 90s, Zamperini continues to attend USC football games and befriended star freshman quarterback Matt Barkley in 2009.[14]
In October 2008, Zamperini was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago, IL.
On April 24, 2011, Zamperini received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters from Azusa Pacific University. The following month, on May 20, 2011, Zamperini delivered Bryant University's 2011 baccalaureate address and received Bryant's inaugural Distinguished Character Award. The following day, May 21, Bryant presented Zamperini with an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters. The next day he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Red Sox-Cubs game at Fenway Park in Boston.
Zamperini currently resides in Hollywood, California. The Torrance airport was renamed Zamperini Field in the 1960s.
Zamperini wrote two memoirs about his experiences, both of them bearing the same title, Devil at My Heels. The first (written with Helen Itria) was published by Dutton in 1956. The second (with David Rensin) appeared in 2003 from Morrow.
Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend, has written a biography of Zamperini.[15] The book, titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, was published by Random House in 2010.[16] It has gone to number one on the New York Times bestseller list. It was named the top book of 2010 by Time.[17]
Book: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand