LOUIS ZAMPERINI: BIOGRAPHY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Louis Zamperini (1917-2014) was an American hero of World War II and an Olympic athlete for his country. He was noted for having participated in the Berlin Olympics, in Hitler's Germany, before fighting in World War II for his country and being captured by the Japanese as a prisoner of war.

He was originally a troublesome young man, until he took to running in high school, qualifying for the Berlin Olympics. In 1914 he joined the army as a lieutenant and fought in the Pacific War in the bomber brigade of the North American Air Force.

By Floatjon, from Wikimedia Commons

After the war, he had a hard time overcoming what he experienced as a prisoner of Japan, as he was severely tortured by Asian forces. However, he later became a Christian evangelist.

The work he did helping young people after the war is continued today by his family, four years after his death.

Biography

Early years

Louis Silvie Zamperini was born in the town of Olean, New York, on January 26, 1917. His parents were Italian immigrants, faithful devotees of the Catholic religion. He and his siblings were raised in a home environment very attached to religious beliefs.

When he was only two years old, his family moved to Torrance, a region of the state of California, where he studied throughout his youth. However, when her family moved to the region, they still did not speak English, complicating her adjustment period during her childhood.

In his teenage years he was caught by local law enforcement trying to steal beer from a county store. Being a minor, the police officers took him home so that his parents could take charge of his behavior.

Being of Italian descent, Zamperini had trouble with bullies during his childhood. His father taught him to box when he was a teenager, a skill he learned easily.

Beginnings as an athlete

The big problem Zamperini had during his youth was his behavior. However, his brother helped him by enrolling him in his school's athletic activities. Pete Zamperini, his older brother, was one of the most recognized names in his institution, standing out as a runner for his school team.

Louis realized that he was also very good at running, although he was a young man who used to smoke and drink constantly. His brother told him that he had to stop if he wanted to be successful as a runner, so he decided to improve his health habits.

He became a fan of sprinting thanks to his success, and his schoolmates began to recognize him. He was such a fast runner that he broke a world record among interscholastic runners, leading to a scholarship to study at the University of Southern California.

Olympics

Shortly after, he decided to try his luck and try to qualify for the Berlin Olympics. The train ticket was free, since his father worked for one of the companies in charge of the railways. In addition, the inhabitants of his town helped him raise money to stay while the tests were carried out.

His strength was 1,500 meters, but the number of great athletes who were in that category made it impossible for him to qualify.

He tried to run the 5,000 meters. That year there was a strong heat wave and many of the favorites collapsed during testing. Zamperini did not; she went all the way and qualified, at 19 years old, for the Berlin Olympics (the youngest person to do so even to this day).

Although his time at the Olympics was not very fruitful, he managed to finish one of the laps in just 56 seconds. This, even by the standards of the time, was very fast. The host of the Olympics, Adolf Hitler, insisted on meeting the young man. Zamperini, 19, shook Hitler's hand and received praise from the Austrian for his "quick finish."

College Athletics

It was during his time as a college runner after the Berlin Olympics that he earned the nickname "The Torrance of Torrance." After the end of the Olympics, he enrolled at the University of South Carolina.

He broke a record for running a mile in just over four minutes, which stood for 15 years. The record was all the more impressive as several competitors tried to bring it down during the race, but Zamperini's effort was relentless.

Second World War

In 1940, Zamperini's goal was to compete again for gold at the Olympics. However, these were canceled after the start of World War II. The young man enlisted in the United States Army Air Force and received the official rank of "Second Lieutenant."

It flew mainly on B-24 bomber planes. He was originally assigned to a plane on the island of Funafuti, but after a mission in which his aircraft received heavy damage, he was flown to Hawaii.

There he became part of a crew that also had members of his old crew from Funafuti. They were assigned to a rescue mission, in which their new B-24 (called The Green Hornet) suffered damage during the flight and was forced to entertain.

The forced landing caused many of the plane's crew to die. Zamperini survived alongside two of his companions: Russell Allen and Francis McNamara. They were left alone in the ocean, with no one to help them.

Life in the ocean

The three airmen were left without food or water, trapped in a small boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They survived the only way they could - by catching fish (which were eaten raw) and collecting rainwater to drink.

The only food reserves they had was a small amount of chocolate. However, McNamara panicked during his time at sea and ate the reserve in its entirety.

The three survivors regained hope when a search plane passed overhead, searching for traces of their B-24. They tried to get his attention from the sea, but were unsuccessful and the plane continued on.

They were subject to shark attacks and lack of food. Sometimes they killed birds and seagulls to eat them, using some of their parts as bait for fishing. In addition, a Japanese plane fired at them from the air, damaging their floating barge, but without hitting any of the airmen.

When they were just over a month at sea, McNamara died. This left Zamperini and Allen alone in the ocean.

Capture

On July 15, 1943, the two pilots made landfall, where they were captured by the Japanese Navy. Both survivors were in a very poor state of health, as a result of the various attacks and lack of food during their time in the ocean.

Phillips and Zamperini were treated medically before being transferred to one of the prisoner of war camps that the Japanese had. There, they were mistreated by the guards for the rest of the War.

Throughout his time as a prisoner of war, Zamperini was on the brink of malnutrition. The prison camp guards treated him worse than the rest, because he was an Olympic athlete. He cleaned latrines, worked with charcoal, and was subjected to beatings over and over again, almost daily.

Cold weather and a severe lack of food led to a disease called beriberi, a deadly affliction that the body develops as a result of a lack of vitamins. This illness brought him back to the brink of death.

On August 6, 1945, the United States attacked Hiroshima with the first atomic bomb used in the war. A month later, Japan surrendered and American air troops brought food to prison camps in Japan.

Life after the war

Zamperini was released on September 5, 1945. His family had already received news of his death, because after the loss of his B-24, he and his companions were presumed dead. He came home in October 1945, to the surprise of all his friends and family.

However, the war traumas caused him to become an alcoholic and he was on the verge of divorcing his wife. This changed after listening to a speech by Billy Graham in 1949, an American evangelist.

Zamperini became an evangelist, began his recovery process, and founded a camp for children with behavior problems. He went to Japan to visit his former torturers, whom he forgave himself in person.

He returned to Japan in 1998 to carry the torch for the Nagano Winter Games and tried to forgive his staunch war enemy, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, who refused to receive him.

He wrote two autobiographies and made a movie telling his story, called "Unbroken." She passed away from pneumonia on July 2, 2014, at the age of 97.

References

1. Unbroken: Louis Zamperini, Louis Zamperini Website, (nd). Taken from louiszamperini.net
2. Louis Zamperini Biography, Louis Zamperini Website, (nd). Taken from louiszamperini.net
3. Louis Zamperini: The Story of a True American Hero, The Unwritten Record National Archives, 2014. Taken from archives.gov
4. Louis Zamperini, World War II Database, (nd). Taken from ww2db.com
5. Louis Zamperini Biography, Biography Website, 2014. Taken from biography.com