April 18, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, our next story was made into a 2014 motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie and based on the 2010 non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. While some of the most remarkable parts of Louis Zamperini’s story were left out of the film, you'll hear them in this piece—from the man himself.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And we love our listeners stories. Send them to our
American Stories dot com. That's our American stories dot com.
There's some of our favorite Our next story was made
into a twenty fourteen motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie,
(00:34):
based on the twenty ten non fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken,
a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption.
While some of the most remarkable parts of Zamparini's story
were left out of the film, you will be hearing
them told now by the man himself. We'd like to
(00:55):
thank the folks at Vision Video for giving us access
to the footage you're about to hear. Checked out their
selection of nineteen hundred video titles of uplifting, family friendly
videos at Vision video dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
My name is Louis Zamparini. I was born January twenty sixth,
nineteen seventeen in Oley and New York and moved to
California for my health. I had pneumonia and so ever
since I was two years old, I lived in tornch
California is a south of LA about twenty miles and
(01:33):
I'm afraid I was in constant conflict with the Tornch police.
I was a rascal, and I think it all started
with the I couldn't speak English, and the other kids
were teasing me. They wanted to hear me swear in Italian.
You know, these were your bullies they call them today.
And so my dad got me some weights, punching bag
and I started getting in shape. And so then after
(01:54):
a few months, I start fighting back. When I started
fighting back, they stopped teasing me. In the meantime, time
I continued with my errant ways, and I had been dissipating.
I started smoking when I was five, and during that
time it was proibition.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But everybody made beer.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Wine and other things, and we knew who made it,
and when they're at the movies on Saturday night, we
would hijack the stuff. And even if they knew we
took it, they couldn't turn a sent to the police
or they'd go to jail. So that was my life
as a teenager until my brother got mew on the
track what they call an inner class track meet and
(02:33):
the pains of exhaustion that's the worst.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And that was it. No more running.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
So a week later, we're having our first bull meet
with Narbon Narbonn High School and everybody assisted. I represent
the school in this race, the same six hundred and
sixty yard run, and they finally talked me into it.
The first two runners from Narbon had finished and the
third Manzon headed me about fifty years ago. I wasn't
(02:59):
about to, you know, until the students, a thousand students
from my high school started screaming, come on, Louie. Well
those were beautiful words to me because I had no
idea that anyone at.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
All knew my name.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Here a thousand students of Hallering, come on, Louie, And
that tasted pretty good, and I just got up a
little adrenaline. I suppose I finally nipped this guy at
the tape about six INSes and came in third. So
after that I thought about that recognition. That was important
to me, and I think it's important to all athletes.
(03:36):
The thing that inspires you and creates the desire to
go ahead and become a champion is a recognition. And
so that night I had to make a decision, and
that was no doubt. The first wise decision of my life.
I decided to go all out to become a runner.
Considering my life, you think that was an impossibility. My
(03:57):
family thought it was an impossibility, my brother thought. But
I made up my mind and I became a dramatic trainer.
No more dessert. I ran everywhere, no hitch hiking, rynd
On back four miles or most of them back. I
run like twelve miles on a Saturday. I hit the mountain,
run around the lakes, jump on, and I got so
I liked it. I was not getting tired anymore and fatigued,
(04:19):
and I enjoyed mainly not running around the track, with
running in the wilderness and jumping over streams. I can
remember on a number of occasions chasing deer down the
hill just for the part of it.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And so all that running and in no days.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
There were no stopwatches around, so I had no idea
how fast I was running, didn't even care. I just
started enjoying running. And finally, at the end of the summer,
the first running race was a far west Au cross
country at use to La, two miles, about one hundred
and one runners. When the race was over, I won
(04:54):
by a quarter a mile or over a quarter and
I couldn't believe it. I said, no, I'm sure I
can corner. I wouldn't take credit for winning, and the
official said, no, all the challenges are in. You passed
every checkpoint. And they said, by the way, you WoT
all three records, Class A, Class B, and Class C,
and you ran the two miles in nine fifty seven,
(05:16):
which was comparable to college running.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And I was sophomore in high school. So that did it.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I knew that hard work was the answer and from
then on I never lost a race for three and
a half years. The best, the second best five thousand
meter runner in America was coming to California to run,
to draw a big crowd and so forth, and my
brother said, I want you to train.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You got two weeks.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I want to should have run against this guy, now
we had no hopes of the Olympics. Just run against
him to see how close you can get to a
fellow who's going to make the Olympic team. And that
would have been a victory in itself. And I got.
I caught him at the table about two inches, So
I knew that I could beat the second best runner
in America and This gave me the power stability of
(06:00):
making the team.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I didn't think about the team at that time until
the next day when I got a call from the
newspaper that the Olympic Committee had called Taunch to tell
them that I qualified for the Olympic tryouts at Ramlos Island,
New York. And again it wasn't important to win. I
made the team and the trill and I'm on this
(06:23):
ship now with all these great athletes and they were
all my heroes and number one around meeting all the
athletes and go off the ship at Hamburg and off
to Berlin. And then they took us into the most
beautiful Olympic village ever made, and it was gorgeous, Finstein
animals running loose lakes, stormtroopers walking through and we'd give
(06:43):
them the Hile hitter salute with the big laugh on
our face, and they knew we were kidding. They'd salute back.
If we said highlight up, they stay Hile Hitler, or
vice versa. And so they were a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And you're listening to the voice of the one and
only Louis Zamparini raised in Torrance, California, as he said,
a self proclaimed rascal in his youth. But hearing those
words come on, Louis get chanted by students. That recognition.
While that was all the fuel he needed, it lit
a fire in this young man, and he said it
(07:17):
was the first wise decision in my life of a
comer runner. When we come back more of this remarkable
life story Louis Zamporini's story here on our American Stories.
Here are our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
(07:37):
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(07:58):
dot Com and we're back with our American Stories. Let's
return to Louis Zamparini and where he left off with
his arrival to Berlin, Germany to compete as a nineteen
(08:19):
year old distance runner in the nineteen thirty six Summer Olympics,
also known as the Nazi Olympics.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So I got in the semi finals, and fortunately I
made the final. And the last lap comes and I'm
fifty yards behind the leaders. Something my brother had taught
me when I was I used to complain about the
third lap.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Of the mile being.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Tired, and he said, some of the other runners, they're
all human beings, they're all tired.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But think of it this way.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You got a lap to go about one minute here
isn't one None of the pain worth a lifetime of glory.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And I never forgot that. And so I opened up
the last lap.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
And I caught the leaders coming down on the homestretch,
so I did come in with the leaders then doing so,
the coach said, you just ran the last quarter in
fifty six seconds, which was considered impossible for a distance runner.
And uh, that evidently cast the attention of Adolf Hitler.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
He was there every day.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And I go back to my box after my shower
and officer comes over and says, Hitler wants to meet you. First,
he asked her my name. I said, I, you didn't
do anything, you know, he was taking hands of the
gold medal. He said, well, he wants to meet you.
So I went over to him, and he just reached down,
shook my hand and simply said the boy with ah
He said, oh yeah, the boy with the fast finished
(09:35):
and that with it, so met The fur didn't mean anything.
But my opinion of him was the same opinion that
Martin Luckman had and all the others. You look like
a comedian and the way he acted, stopping his feet,
pounding his legs, and face a mustache and all that.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Uh so that was my opinion of him. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Well, the games are over and we collectedirs. All the
Olympians did remind them of their Olympic trip. And now
I'm back home entering USC as a freshman, and now
nineteen forty Tolkville Olympics. We're all aiming for that, and
(10:15):
suddenly we get the announcement headlines of papers the Olympics
are canceled. Well, it was quite a blow, you know, adults.
Billy couldn't understand it. For a kid who's been aiming
for four years for one race and you're going to
hit your peak of your life at that particular year,
that was hard to take. Until Pearl Harbor was hit,
(10:37):
and of course we forgot all about being athletes and
like all other Americans. We are one mind of one accord,
one purpose, getting the war quickly, get it over with
as fill as possible. However, I did run in Hawaii to.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Keep in shape.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And even though General Arnold, Charge of the Air Force
through a friend, he was a friend of mine indirectly,
but they wouldn't allow me to go back. Because our
bomb group was a special bomb group and experimental. We
were the first to use the heaviest bombing of the
war for dive bombing. So we had a lot of
missions up and down the Marshall and Gilberts bombing Macon
(11:13):
and Chiragua and Woji and all those islands, you know.
And now we had a few local search missions looking
for submarines. And then we came back and after a mission,
you get a couple of days off and we're heading
for the main gate on the way to Honolu ruined
and the operations officers comes skidding up in the jeep
(11:34):
and says, we just got a report of each twenty
five is gone down two hundred miles north of Palmyra.
Now the cloud cover broken, Sauser at one thousand feet
that's our search mission height and swinging here on here
and they're looking for debris and the water, rife, rath,
anything we could find. And suddenly the RPMs dropped on
(11:55):
one motor, oil pressure to zil and the pie had
immediately called the new engineer, and he was so excited
to do his job. He came up and nervously feathered
the wrong motor and all this plane could not fly
normally on four motors. He couldn't get off the ground
of the bomb load. It was the green Hornet was
(12:17):
a lemon, and with one motor out, the plane was
having trouble. And now when he feathered the wrong motor,
the plane just healed over and went down left wing
first forty five degrees at the water and exploded. The
pilot and tail gunner were fortunately blowing free at the wreckage.
And then the tail snapped off the control wires, which
(12:38):
are heavy wires that are springing. So when the wires
made it coiled up and they so when they snapped.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
The wires coiled around the tripod. I'm in the middle.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I can't get loose now with the wires, there's no
Hoper's situation, and so I just thought.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, this is it, this is dead.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I'm dead, And so I started sinking. My ears popped,
and that usually happened around twenty five thirty feet. And
then as I stand deeper something I never had happened before.
I felt like someone in the signers with a sledgehammer.
And then I lost consciousness, and of course I'm thinking.
(13:16):
I'm still thinking, so the pressure has got to be
getting greater. And when then I lost consciousness and if
for some unknown ring, I'm cautious again, I'm free. I'm
loosening from that section of the ship. I'm fairly around
my arms trying to find something to grab onto and
fortunately my USA ring, which was on this finger, was
(13:38):
bearing the white stars still there. U snagged down to
the waste window, and I knew that was a waste
window by the field. I grabbed with my other hand,
watched my back out of the window, and played my
lifejacket and palped to the surface, and there I saw
my two buddies, who were now hanging out to a
gas tank. They were both in the state of shock,
(13:58):
screaming help, and the pilot's head was bleeding profusely with
a hot ivy and there's no way.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I can help them.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
If I swim over, they help them we're all dead.
I saw a life wrap that had ejected from the
plane automatically, and so there's one hundred foot cord dragging
behind the life wrap.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So I'm trying to swim to the.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Life raft with shoes on clothes, and it's impostuble even
in a swim suit. I couldn't have caught that light
that the currents were that vicious. But as I almost
gave up swimming, this cord was going by my face.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I couldn't see it in the water.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I grabbed the last two or three feet and I
reeled in the raft and I got to.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
The pilot. Co pilot pulled him aboard.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
But a three I took two T shirts, made a
wet contest, put on the cuts, tied it with the
other T shirt very tightly so it wouldn't breede anymore,
and I laid him back. And then I started thinking
about that escape.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That really bugged me.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And I kept thinking of any kind of a logical
answer for my escape, and I just couldn't find one,
so I gave up thinking about it. Instead, I started
praying a thanking God for sparing my life. Well, my
buddy saw this. They started to pray with me, and
then it wasn't long after that the tail down her
panics and began to scream, and I suddenly dawned on
(15:17):
him what happened. We're all going to die, then, I said,
mac nobody's going to die. We're gonna die. I said,
mac Nobody's going to die. And then I told him
to shut off. I said, if you don't shut up,
I'm going to make a report on you to the
military when we get back. And uh, he still kept screaming.
So I tried to use child psychology and that didn't work.
(15:39):
So I thought I'd give my double shock, and this
is the last resort a good shock treatment. So I
turned my back on then I came around with the
back of my hand and cracked him hard across the face.
He laid back in the raft contempt and he was
okay for maybe five days a week, and then I
had to do it again. But it always seemed to work,
and he never adracted. I just laid back and see
(16:00):
enjoy it. So our menu of course now is for
the next forty seven days is what birds, fish and
water we could cast and a course the burge and
the fish we simply ate raw three albatross. Well, we
actually caught four albums, and we caught the first only caught.
We just ripped it open and the smell was enough.
We threw it overboard. The second one we caught, I said,
(16:21):
we got to eat some part of it, you know,
and so we took the breast. We tried to take
a bite out of the breast of piece and try
to chew.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
It up and swallow. We just barely swallowed one.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Mouthfall again we where we stood over board and used
parts of it to bait, and we did catch a
small fish. We divided bad freeways and that wasn't bad
raw fish. And then uh, a lot of time went
by before we got another albatross now at all.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, there's another albatross.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
We open it up and may I'll say it was
like a hotspodge funny with nuts on it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
We ate everything eyeballed.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And what a story you're hearing. Louis Zamparini. Tell Hitler
wants to meet you. He was told after that last
final burst of speed. And by the way, he did
not tell the story here of him seizing the Nazi
flag and stealing it and taking it home. That's a
heck of a story. We couldn't tell every bitten part
(17:14):
of this story, but he did it, and he did
it because well why not? He was still well a rascal.
In the end, he goes to usc he wants to
compete in the nineteen forty Olympics. That doesn't happen, They're canceled.
Then comes Pearl Harbor. His life is changed. He takes
on dangerous missions and soon finds himself stranded in the
(17:36):
Pacific with a few buddies forty seven days, hanging on
for dear life to be rescued. When we come back
more of this remarkable life story, the voice of Louis
Zamperini from the grave. He's in heaven now he's smiling,
loving this story here on our American stories. And we
(18:08):
returned to our American stories and to Louise Zamparini's story.
The year is nineteen forty one. While serving as Obama
deer on a search and rescue mission in the B
twenty four Liberator in the Pacific, Zamporini's plane experienced mechanical
difficulties and crashed into the ocean. Let's pick up where
we last left.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Off before we went seven days without water on the
twenty seventh day. We heard mortars and you can imagine
our excitement with shot players through water. Guy in the
ocean flickered our mirrors. The plane came down and through
Lords they came to Wargis. We had our shirts off,
you know, waving our shirts. Care's my eyes all. We're
(18:50):
going to be with the Maurice to Knight on Palmyra.
And then machine gun it water splash off, you know,
coming out and just missed us. And then I saw
the red circle. It was a Sally bomber, which was
comparable to our be twenty five. And so that went on.
They stretched us for about thirty minutes. I was in
the water with two sharks while there was two stayed
in the raft, and every time I came up, I
(19:13):
knew they were dead, but they were alive. And they
weren't touched. Missed by an eighth of a minute, quarter
as half ince. And this was just unbelievable. And I'm
in the water with two sharks, and of course I'm
taught how to evade sharks. The last resort is straight on.
You stay there, they'll come up. Surely, they'll stop size
you up, and then they'll come at you and you
(19:33):
got plenty of time to get your hand up there
and catch them on the end.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Of the nose, and they usually just take off. And
that worked.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
But after about thirty minutes we decided we were in
a hopeless situation.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
The raft is now wrinkle, laying flat in the water.
There's no chance.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
We got to pretend we're dead. So we pretend we
were dead, and the plane evidently bypasses that round but
made a big circle, and we thought they were going
back to but they decided on one more run at
this time as they came up directly on course, there's time,
said the off course. I looked out of the corner
of my eye and I saw the bombay door open,
(20:10):
and ours is it. They dropped the depth charge. It
was a canister. Now we dropped bombed on submarine. They
dropped the canister and it lit about fifty feet away,
which would have killed us, But the canister was improperly
armed and shrank to the bottom harmlessly. And they did
turn around then and leave us a bore water relief.
(20:32):
And then we had to start pumping that raft with
sharks around, and we're right level with the water. We're
pumping like mad, taking turns and barely got the raft
up again. And now the holes are about the size
of a twenty two hole. He had a seven point
seven millimeter I think, And if you saw that inner
two pull a hole to the swimming pool, it would
(20:53):
not sink.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And that's the way.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
That was our situation there as we saddled back in
the raft after eight days, which took us about eight
days to get the reft decently patched subb and then
the only real big storm we had during the entire time,
and it was monsterus. The ways were like twenty five
or forty feet and that was far more fighting than
the Japanese airplane and far more fighting than the sharks.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And we survived that well, I should say the two
of us survived.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
That the tail gun had died on the thirty third
day and we buried him at seed and so the
next day, of course, there are big swells and we're
on top of the swore. I see lamb for the
first time, and we knew we were going to drift
into the island, but we also knew these were held
by the Japanese, so we had to be real careful
and try to find a jujula island and we were
(21:43):
about to land on one island when the Japanese patrol
boats came around a point and s followed us, and
you know, you got about twenty five guys with rifles
aimed at you.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
One guy the machine gun.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
You know, we were so bushed that we couldn't really laugh,
but inside we were laughing.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Then they threw us the rope and pulled us aboard.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We couldn't even crawl over that week and sat us
on the deck of the ship. And here's for the
percol in the face. But they did get us a
drink of water and a biscuit. They were taking the
wood in there. Weighed in at thirty plo buck I
don't know sixty five pounds, so I lost about almost
one hundred. And there we were treated decently. They pulled
(22:25):
the raft out of the from the boat and counted
the whole forty eight holes. And I told him, I
told him to day the twenty seventh day on the raft,
the date that the Japanese pilot straped us, he should
be able to find out who that pilot was or
no Japanese pilot wouldn't do that, but he did it.
So they wouldn't accept that even with the evidence. Two
(22:47):
days later, we're told we're going aboard a steamer heading
for another island, and after you leave this island, we
cannot guarantee your life. So we're heading for a quadch
and we knew through the scowar, but that it was
considered the execution island. We were blindfolded the ocean forty
(23:10):
seven days out there, all you saw was that endless sky,
and the Pacific Ocean is what sixty five million square
miles the endless ocean. Now I'm blindfolded, and when I
menside that cell, which is two paces wide by six
feet deep and six feet long, they take my blind
poles off. My eyes just jumped all over the place.
I couldn't believe where I was. And this had a
(23:31):
terrible effect on me. I just in the corner of
that stall. I just sat there and I looked at
my scoutsful fame and just started to cry. And it was,
you know, here I am a two months ago, I
was a vigorous athlete, and here I am a skeleton.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
And then.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Our knew guard came on duty and after about a
week and he simply looked in and said, you Christian,
me Christian, so they can say, well in Japan at
that time, didn't admit you were a Christian, not in Japan,
and uh, of course I thought I wasn't ill me
Christian Christian. So we started a chat on paper, who
(24:11):
draw a picture for the name.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
To and so forth?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
And uh two days later he got his monthly candy
rash and shared it with me.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Unbelievable. Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Every day, of course we in the morning we would
think about execution. Will this be the morning? We'll list
be the morning?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And then.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
An officer came in one day and said, you will
go to Yoklahama's Pidness war on the Japany with the
Japanese fleet, up to a sacred camp in the hild
of old Una. And uh there him shoved into a
room and told us stand away for for the orders.
And uh, so I stand there. I see the back
(24:49):
of the man's head and then he turns around men's
back in the chair and looks at him, laughs, and
he didn't have to say remember me.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I know him well. At USC for three and a
half years.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
James Sosaki and Riley says I came back to Japan
after USC and became admiral Socati, that civilian rank of
admiral ahead of all interrogation all over Japan, ninety one
prison county, and we talked about USC the making an
(25:23):
eight bactress on the campus. He was talking about that
kind of food chili, weren't getting it, and then he said, well,
we'll see each other from time to time. They called
him Jimmy. Jimmy Sosaki had a high ficency transmitter just
off of Towns Boulevard, a short distance from the Edison
sub station where he made broadcast.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Daily to the Japanese government.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Then it said he left by boat two days before
or raked by the FBI and CIA. I'm finally transferred
to what they call headquarterstab on Mary between Alma, Tokyo
or a man made island, and there I'm a nightmare
in my life. The bird I command there, he lies
us up to and by him looks at me, and
(26:05):
I couldn't look in his eye that looked away, and
he said, why you don't look at my eyes? Buy
So I'm knockdown, I get up knock down again. So
I'm punched out every day for the first ten days.
And I knew who who the bosh was, that's for sure,
and so he was there so brutal the other guards
we gave him by a filthy names.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It didn't give him a filthyame.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
We simply call him the Bird because if he did
find out to struggle, but that we named him a
certain name, then we're really in for trouble.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
And you've been listening to Louise Zamporini tell the story
of his capture by the Japanese forty seven days in
the ocean. The sharks were tough, the gunfire from enemy
Japanese planes was tough. What was tougher is surviving a
wicked storm with thirty five foot plus waves. Then he's
transferred to execution island. He catches a glimpse of himself
(26:57):
and all he saw was a skeleton frame and he
just started crying. Every morning he thought about one thing,
his execution, and then he's transferred to another camp where
he meets his tormentor the Bird. When we come back
more of this remarkable life story, Louis Zamporini's story here
on our American stories, and we returned to our American
(27:39):
stories into Louise Zamporini's story when we last left off.
In his story, he described a Japanese interment prison guard
known as the Bird. The Bird was so deranged that
General Douglas MacArthur named him as one of the most
wonted war criminals in Japan. Let's continue with Louise Zamporini.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Now he was the son of a wealthy family. He
thunked out our officers schools.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
They had him for officers, and I can remember when
we have a be twenty nine ready, call all Americans out,
and he separated the officers from the enlisted men. And
then he had all the lost rank and listed them
just to shame us. Buck privates faced us and each
one had to punch us and off of down. Then
they wouldn't hit us hard. He'd hit us easy and
(28:26):
then mediate hit for the club. Hey, hit us hard,
knock us down and get.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It over with.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
So we had to take a full blow on the face,
down on the ground. And so that's the way he was.
He took it out our officers. Always officers got the punishment.
But about another week when I and I believe there
were six or seven us lined up put in a
train and now we're crossing Tokyo. But see in the
meantime they had the big fire rate on Tokyo, which
(28:53):
we saw from our banish point. We saw the sky
at blow all night and half the next day, and
to put on the train and we go right to
that charred ways and all we could say for miles
nineteen square miles of charred you know, mamboo huts or whatever,
wooden shacks. But the only thing we were able to
identify were the hundreds of laides that the Japanese did.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
They did like the Germans.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
The factory was bombed, but it didn't slow them down
because the big factory, the industrial complesh at the point
of Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
They only had part of their machinery there. The rest
of it was in the civilian homes.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
And I remember going to the shaterhouse to pick up
our meat, which was horse guts in a wheelbarrow, and
they used to see these transformers, and my goll it
to this little house I looked back at I'd see
a laid great, big twenty five thousand dollars laith and
the guys working making.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Parts and all down the street.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Though it was really strange to see the only thing
not were all those machines, and that was the raising
Truman had the fire bombing of Tokyo was because that
was the industrial comp legs. So I were going north
twelve hours to right to Nagano and down to the
ocean to the Lectu. And we get to the prison Cownpound.
(30:09):
We have to stand there at detention and wait for
further order. And we waited and watched the thief front
door of the guard shack, and whoever was in there
was making us wait purposely, and we waited and waited
and waited, and the door opened and up sets the bird. Well,
my knees buckled. I just I just couldn't believe. I
just thought, you know, my.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Guide, it never gives up.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
When I got to the point, I just thought, it's hopeless, hopeless.
I can't escaped this guy. So I got back to attention,
and then I had to pull up him all over again.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
So then about eight days before the war's over, we get.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
One of the guards came to me and and said,
a sad thing happened in Japan, a city call Hiroshima.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Power broke out.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
No one's allowed to go in this quarantine.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
And yeah, we thought that was sad.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
So the whole nation of Japan knew that Hiroshimo was
a city quarantine with collar. And then about eight days
later we're told a paint p w on the rope.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
We'd heard rumors about.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The war being over it for two years, so they didn't
mean much, but we wouldn't believe until we saw a
TVF fly over the river and they saw all the
pregnants in the river and they flashed on the red
light dah da Dad and the radio man picked it up.
The war's over. So then we rushed up to the
compound and began to wave up. The plane circled and circle.
(31:40):
Then they dropped the red ribbon. On the end of
it was a candy bar with a bite out of it,
and the pack of cigarettes were two cigarettes gone, and
yet three hundred and fifty men got a puff of
cigarette and we all had a shiver of candy pretty good.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That evening. He came back and we looked like a
body folly.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
There was a pair of navy pants tied at the
bottom on top and carted the cigarettes and candy, and
Commander Fitzhild of the Grenadear submarine, the ranking officer. He
opened the pants and right on the top was a
magazine and he just stood there silently looking at that
picture of the toomic bomb, because we'd never heard of it,
(32:21):
and he kept looking at it, and the other officers
walked up.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We all looked over his shoulder and looked at that picture.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And then I realized the date of the collar as
Hiroshima that the same date for actually what happened with
the bomb. And the Japanese pulled the eyes over the
general public by chilling him up with his collar, which
was the best thing he could have done. So finally,
the bird two days before we knew, actually knew the
(32:50):
wall was over. The bird disappeared, and because we had
a seventy pound walk on the second floor right over
the river and a rope we had hidden away in
the bulk of the building, and we were going to
grab him, tie the rock on him, and throw him
over into the river. That was our intention, but he
flew the coops, so we didn't see him again. Near
(33:13):
The guards all started bounding scraping, and we talked to
for him, and we knew that family home that weren't
eating too well, and typical American. We started giving the
guards food to take home to their children and stuff
that got candy. In fact, when the war was over,
sleeping in tenth on the way home, I still had
nightmares about the bird.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I'm Italian.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I have to have revenge, and when he's torturing me
and punishing me, going revenge in my heart and my
hands are hunched.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I got him by the throat.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And that was in my dreams every night, every night,
every night I got home, it was the same thing
at home. I got married, I still had the nightmares.
In the meantime, I started drinking because of that. But
before I started drinking heavily, I started training for the
forty eight Olympics, and I did get.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
In good shape.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And then when I had my knee give out, my
ankle and a muscle spasm or like an explosion in
my cap, I couldn't train anymore and I gave that up,
and that really hurt me. And TRUST started drinking more
and more, and my wife decided sign for a divorce.
And somebody in our apartment house was telling us about
(34:22):
a fellow.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Named Billy Graham. We never heard him.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
They talk my wife into going down to here Billy Graham.
He made a decision for the Lord. Came home that
night try to talk me into him, and I said,
cable wife, and I don't want to hear any more
about religion. And but she said something that really struck
me in the heart, and that was and because of
my decision, I'm not going to get a divorce. So
that was good news. But the next days she was
(34:47):
all over man. I refused to go. Finally they more
or less tricked me into going down to here Billy
and there he's preaching, you know, for all of sin.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Well I knew I was a sinner. Well, I didn't
like the idea. Yeah, him reminding me, and.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
It just gave you and give me the ecues to leave.
I got mad, grabbed my wife, poled her home, and
the next day should all over me again. And so
I finally consented on a return trip. And I said, well,
when he finishes his shortman and says every how hit bowed,
I'm getting out.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Okay, So back we went and.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Kept quoting scripture from the Bible, and uh, I knew
what I should do, but I didn't want to do it.
And uh then as I started to lead the camp,
I started thinking back on the on the raft when
our lives were spared, we did pray morning, noon, and night,
and we prayed constantly on the raft Uh. My prayer
was always God saved my life, and I'll seek you
(35:44):
and serve you, and here I am home alive. My
prayers were answered, and they completely turned my back on
those promises.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That hit me pretty hard.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Before I got to the aisle where I decided to
turn out, no, I stopped, momentarily, made my decision, went
back to the prayer room, and I made my confessional
faith in Christ. And there a miracle took place. My
life completely changed. I had to turn about. I knew
that I was true getting drunk. I knew it obviously
for myself. I knew I'd forgiven all my guards. I
(36:16):
knew I'd forgiven the bird. And I think proof of
that was that that night I didn't have a nightmare
for the first time. And it's been two and a
half years and I haven't and since the war, and
I had a nightmare every night, and now from nineteen
forty nine till this day, I still never had a nightmare,
or even the spy just ankling of a nightmare. And
(36:38):
so when I met with the studio to make the
movie with Universal, the producer was hearing all the things
the bird did to me. I'm sitting at this meeting
like this, listening to these fellows talk, and finally he's
getting really up tight and he jumped up.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
And said, Louis, how could you forgive that?
Speaker 3 (36:52):
So and so? Then I stood up and I said, well,
I can only give you one version of the Bible.
Why I could forgive him? Therefore, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new person. All things are
passed away, the whole, all things will become new. And
hey looked at me. I didn't know what he'll do.
And they rushed over and grab me around the ways,
(37:13):
picked me up and said we're gonna make this inter
all measure film. So I thought that was pretty neat him.
They're Jewish, and I'll mention it in Christ. So that
was the crimash.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
That was just beautiful. Tell us my story, And what
a voice you just heard.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
That is Louis Zamporini from the grave in heaven sharing
his story for all to hear about how Jesus saved
his life, made those nightmares disappear, and renewed his life
and his marriage. And a special thanks to Greg Hangler
as always for the editing on that piece and thanks
to Vision Video, they have nineteen hundred video titles of uplifting,
(37:50):
family friendly content. Go to Vision video dot com. God
saved my life and I will seek and serve you.
He prayed on that boat. I turned my back on God,
on my promises. But then I came to Christ. My
life completely changed. I forgave the bird. My nightmares ended.
A beautiful story. Louis Zamparini's here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And we love our listeners stories. Send them to our
American Stories dot com. That's our American stories dot com.
There's some of our favorite Our next story was made
into a twenty fourteen motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie,
(00:34):
based on the twenty ten non fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken,
a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption.
While some of the most remarkable parts of Zamparini's story
were left out of the film, you will be hearing
them told now by the man himself. We'd like to
(00:55):
thank the folks at Vision Video for giving us access
to the footage you're about to hear. Checked out their
selection of nineteen hundred video titles of uplifting, family friendly
videos at Vision video dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
My name is Louis Zamparini. I was born January twenty sixth,
nineteen seventeen in Oley and New York and moved to
California for my health. I had pneumonia and so ever
since I was two years old, I lived in tornch
California is a south of LA about twenty miles and
(01:33):
I'm afraid I was in constant conflict with the Tornch police.
I was a rascal, and I think it all started
with the I couldn't speak English, and the other kids
were teasing me. They wanted to hear me swear in Italian.
You know, these were your bullies they call them today.
And so my dad got me some weights, punching bag
and I started getting in shape. And so then after
(01:54):
a few months, I start fighting back. When I started
fighting back, they stopped teasing me. In the meantime, time
I continued with my errant ways, and I had been dissipating.
I started smoking when I was five, and during that
time it was proibition.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But everybody made beer.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Wine and other things, and we knew who made it,
and when they're at the movies on Saturday night, we
would hijack the stuff. And even if they knew we
took it, they couldn't turn a sent to the police
or they'd go to jail. So that was my life
as a teenager until my brother got mew on the
track what they call an inner class track meet and
(02:33):
the pains of exhaustion that's the worst.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And that was it. No more running.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
So a week later, we're having our first bull meet
with Narbon Narbonn High School and everybody assisted. I represent
the school in this race, the same six hundred and
sixty yard run, and they finally talked me into it.
The first two runners from Narbon had finished and the
third Manzon headed me about fifty years ago. I wasn't
(02:59):
about to, you know, until the students, a thousand students
from my high school started screaming, come on, Louie. Well
those were beautiful words to me because I had no
idea that anyone at.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
All knew my name.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Here a thousand students of Hallering, come on, Louie, And
that tasted pretty good, and I just got up a
little adrenaline. I suppose I finally nipped this guy at
the tape about six INSes and came in third. So
after that I thought about that recognition. That was important
to me, and I think it's important to all athletes.
(03:36):
The thing that inspires you and creates the desire to
go ahead and become a champion is a recognition. And
so that night I had to make a decision, and
that was no doubt. The first wise decision of my life.
I decided to go all out to become a runner.
Considering my life, you think that was an impossibility. My
(03:57):
family thought it was an impossibility, my brother thought. But
I made up my mind and I became a dramatic trainer.
No more dessert. I ran everywhere, no hitch hiking, rynd
On back four miles or most of them back. I
run like twelve miles on a Saturday. I hit the mountain,
run around the lakes, jump on, and I got so
I liked it. I was not getting tired anymore and fatigued,
(04:19):
and I enjoyed mainly not running around the track, with
running in the wilderness and jumping over streams. I can
remember on a number of occasions chasing deer down the
hill just for the part of it.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And so all that running and in no days.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
There were no stopwatches around, so I had no idea
how fast I was running, didn't even care. I just
started enjoying running. And finally, at the end of the summer,
the first running race was a far west Au cross
country at use to La, two miles, about one hundred
and one runners. When the race was over, I won
(04:54):
by a quarter a mile or over a quarter and
I couldn't believe it. I said, no, I'm sure I
can corner. I wouldn't take credit for winning, and the
official said, no, all the challenges are in. You passed
every checkpoint. And they said, by the way, you WoT
all three records, Class A, Class B, and Class C,
and you ran the two miles in nine fifty seven,
(05:16):
which was comparable to college running.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And I was sophomore in high school. So that did it.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I knew that hard work was the answer and from
then on I never lost a race for three and
a half years. The best, the second best five thousand
meter runner in America was coming to California to run,
to draw a big crowd and so forth, and my
brother said, I want you to train.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You got two weeks.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I want to should have run against this guy, now
we had no hopes of the Olympics. Just run against
him to see how close you can get to a
fellow who's going to make the Olympic team. And that
would have been a victory in itself. And I got.
I caught him at the table about two inches, So
I knew that I could beat the second best runner
in America and This gave me the power stability of
(06:00):
making the team.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I didn't think about the team at that time until
the next day when I got a call from the
newspaper that the Olympic Committee had called Taunch to tell
them that I qualified for the Olympic tryouts at Ramlos Island,
New York. And again it wasn't important to win. I
made the team and the trill and I'm on this
(06:23):
ship now with all these great athletes and they were
all my heroes and number one around meeting all the
athletes and go off the ship at Hamburg and off
to Berlin. And then they took us into the most
beautiful Olympic village ever made, and it was gorgeous, Finstein
animals running loose lakes, stormtroopers walking through and we'd give
(06:43):
them the Hile hitter salute with the big laugh on
our face, and they knew we were kidding. They'd salute back.
If we said highlight up, they stay Hile Hitler, or
vice versa. And so they were a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And you're listening to the voice of the one and
only Louis Zamparini raised in Torrance, California, as he said,
a self proclaimed rascal in his youth. But hearing those
words come on, Louis get chanted by students. That recognition.
While that was all the fuel he needed, it lit
a fire in this young man, and he said it
(07:17):
was the first wise decision in my life of a
comer runner. When we come back more of this remarkable
life story Louis Zamporini's story here on our American Stories.
Here are our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
(07:37):
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
we can't do it without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
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go to our American Stories dot com and click the
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
(07:58):
dot Com and we're back with our American Stories. Let's
return to Louis Zamparini and where he left off with
his arrival to Berlin, Germany to compete as a nineteen
(08:19):
year old distance runner in the nineteen thirty six Summer Olympics,
also known as the Nazi Olympics.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So I got in the semi finals, and fortunately I
made the final. And the last lap comes and I'm
fifty yards behind the leaders. Something my brother had taught
me when I was I used to complain about the
third lap.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Of the mile being.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Tired, and he said, some of the other runners, they're
all human beings, they're all tired.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But think of it this way.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You got a lap to go about one minute here
isn't one None of the pain worth a lifetime of glory.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And I never forgot that. And so I opened up
the last lap.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
And I caught the leaders coming down on the homestretch,
so I did come in with the leaders then doing so,
the coach said, you just ran the last quarter in
fifty six seconds, which was considered impossible for a distance runner.
And uh, that evidently cast the attention of Adolf Hitler.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
He was there every day.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And I go back to my box after my shower
and officer comes over and says, Hitler wants to meet you. First,
he asked her my name. I said, I, you didn't
do anything, you know, he was taking hands of the
gold medal. He said, well, he wants to meet you.
So I went over to him, and he just reached down,
shook my hand and simply said the boy with ah
He said, oh yeah, the boy with the fast finished
(09:35):
and that with it, so met The fur didn't mean anything.
But my opinion of him was the same opinion that
Martin Luckman had and all the others. You look like
a comedian and the way he acted, stopping his feet,
pounding his legs, and face a mustache and all that.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Uh so that was my opinion of him. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Well, the games are over and we collectedirs. All the
Olympians did remind them of their Olympic trip. And now
I'm back home entering USC as a freshman, and now
nineteen forty Tolkville Olympics. We're all aiming for that, and
(10:15):
suddenly we get the announcement headlines of papers the Olympics
are canceled. Well, it was quite a blow, you know, adults.
Billy couldn't understand it. For a kid who's been aiming
for four years for one race and you're going to
hit your peak of your life at that particular year,
that was hard to take. Until Pearl Harbor was hit,
(10:37):
and of course we forgot all about being athletes and
like all other Americans. We are one mind of one accord,
one purpose, getting the war quickly, get it over with
as fill as possible. However, I did run in Hawaii to.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Keep in shape.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And even though General Arnold, Charge of the Air Force
through a friend, he was a friend of mine indirectly,
but they wouldn't allow me to go back. Because our
bomb group was a special bomb group and experimental. We
were the first to use the heaviest bombing of the
war for dive bombing. So we had a lot of
missions up and down the Marshall and Gilberts bombing Macon
(11:13):
and Chiragua and Woji and all those islands, you know.
And now we had a few local search missions looking
for submarines. And then we came back and after a mission,
you get a couple of days off and we're heading
for the main gate on the way to Honolu ruined
and the operations officers comes skidding up in the jeep
(11:34):
and says, we just got a report of each twenty
five is gone down two hundred miles north of Palmyra.
Now the cloud cover broken, Sauser at one thousand feet
that's our search mission height and swinging here on here
and they're looking for debris and the water, rife, rath,
anything we could find. And suddenly the RPMs dropped on
(11:55):
one motor, oil pressure to zil and the pie had
immediately called the new engineer, and he was so excited
to do his job. He came up and nervously feathered
the wrong motor and all this plane could not fly
normally on four motors. He couldn't get off the ground
of the bomb load. It was the green Hornet was
(12:17):
a lemon, and with one motor out, the plane was
having trouble. And now when he feathered the wrong motor,
the plane just healed over and went down left wing
first forty five degrees at the water and exploded. The
pilot and tail gunner were fortunately blowing free at the wreckage.
And then the tail snapped off the control wires, which
(12:38):
are heavy wires that are springing. So when the wires
made it coiled up and they so when they snapped.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
The wires coiled around the tripod. I'm in the middle.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I can't get loose now with the wires, there's no
Hoper's situation, and so I just thought.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, this is it, this is dead.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I'm dead, And so I started sinking. My ears popped,
and that usually happened around twenty five thirty feet. And
then as I stand deeper something I never had happened before.
I felt like someone in the signers with a sledgehammer.
And then I lost consciousness, and of course I'm thinking.
(13:16):
I'm still thinking, so the pressure has got to be
getting greater. And when then I lost consciousness and if
for some unknown ring, I'm cautious again, I'm free. I'm
loosening from that section of the ship. I'm fairly around
my arms trying to find something to grab onto and
fortunately my USA ring, which was on this finger, was
(13:38):
bearing the white stars still there. U snagged down to
the waste window, and I knew that was a waste
window by the field. I grabbed with my other hand,
watched my back out of the window, and played my
lifejacket and palped to the surface, and there I saw
my two buddies, who were now hanging out to a
gas tank. They were both in the state of shock,
(13:58):
screaming help, and the pilot's head was bleeding profusely with
a hot ivy and there's no way.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I can help them.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
If I swim over, they help them we're all dead.
I saw a life wrap that had ejected from the
plane automatically, and so there's one hundred foot cord dragging
behind the life wrap.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So I'm trying to swim to the.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Life raft with shoes on clothes, and it's impostuble even
in a swim suit. I couldn't have caught that light
that the currents were that vicious. But as I almost
gave up swimming, this cord was going by my face.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I couldn't see it in the water.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I grabbed the last two or three feet and I
reeled in the raft and I got to.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
The pilot. Co pilot pulled him aboard.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
But a three I took two T shirts, made a
wet contest, put on the cuts, tied it with the
other T shirt very tightly so it wouldn't breede anymore,
and I laid him back. And then I started thinking
about that escape.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That really bugged me.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And I kept thinking of any kind of a logical
answer for my escape, and I just couldn't find one,
so I gave up thinking about it. Instead, I started
praying a thanking God for sparing my life. Well, my
buddy saw this. They started to pray with me, and
then it wasn't long after that the tail down her
panics and began to scream, and I suddenly dawned on
(15:17):
him what happened. We're all going to die, then, I said,
mac nobody's going to die. We're gonna die. I said,
mac Nobody's going to die. And then I told him
to shut off. I said, if you don't shut up,
I'm going to make a report on you to the
military when we get back. And uh, he still kept screaming.
So I tried to use child psychology and that didn't work.
(15:39):
So I thought I'd give my double shock, and this
is the last resort a good shock treatment. So I
turned my back on then I came around with the
back of my hand and cracked him hard across the face.
He laid back in the raft contempt and he was
okay for maybe five days a week, and then I
had to do it again. But it always seemed to work,
and he never adracted. I just laid back and see
(16:00):
enjoy it. So our menu of course now is for
the next forty seven days is what birds, fish and
water we could cast and a course the burge and
the fish we simply ate raw three albatross. Well, we
actually caught four albums, and we caught the first only caught.
We just ripped it open and the smell was enough.
We threw it overboard. The second one we caught, I said,
(16:21):
we got to eat some part of it, you know,
and so we took the breast. We tried to take
a bite out of the breast of piece and try
to chew.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
It up and swallow. We just barely swallowed one.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Mouthfall again we where we stood over board and used
parts of it to bait, and we did catch a
small fish. We divided bad freeways and that wasn't bad
raw fish. And then uh, a lot of time went
by before we got another albatross now at all.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, there's another albatross.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
We open it up and may I'll say it was
like a hotspodge funny with nuts on it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
We ate everything eyeballed.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And what a story you're hearing. Louis Zamparini. Tell Hitler
wants to meet you. He was told after that last
final burst of speed. And by the way, he did
not tell the story here of him seizing the Nazi
flag and stealing it and taking it home. That's a
heck of a story. We couldn't tell every bitten part
(17:14):
of this story, but he did it, and he did
it because well why not? He was still well a rascal.
In the end, he goes to usc he wants to
compete in the nineteen forty Olympics. That doesn't happen, They're canceled.
Then comes Pearl Harbor. His life is changed. He takes
on dangerous missions and soon finds himself stranded in the
(17:36):
Pacific with a few buddies forty seven days, hanging on
for dear life to be rescued. When we come back
more of this remarkable life story, the voice of Louis
Zamperini from the grave. He's in heaven now he's smiling,
loving this story here on our American stories. And we
(18:08):
returned to our American stories and to Louise Zamparini's story.
The year is nineteen forty one. While serving as Obama
deer on a search and rescue mission in the B
twenty four Liberator in the Pacific, Zamporini's plane experienced mechanical
difficulties and crashed into the ocean. Let's pick up where
we last left.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Off before we went seven days without water on the
twenty seventh day. We heard mortars and you can imagine
our excitement with shot players through water. Guy in the
ocean flickered our mirrors. The plane came down and through
Lords they came to Wargis. We had our shirts off,
you know, waving our shirts. Care's my eyes all. We're
(18:50):
going to be with the Maurice to Knight on Palmyra.
And then machine gun it water splash off, you know,
coming out and just missed us. And then I saw
the red circle. It was a Sally bomber, which was
comparable to our be twenty five. And so that went on.
They stretched us for about thirty minutes. I was in
the water with two sharks while there was two stayed
in the raft, and every time I came up, I
(19:13):
knew they were dead, but they were alive. And they
weren't touched. Missed by an eighth of a minute, quarter
as half ince. And this was just unbelievable. And I'm
in the water with two sharks, and of course I'm
taught how to evade sharks. The last resort is straight on.
You stay there, they'll come up. Surely, they'll stop size
you up, and then they'll come at you and you
(19:33):
got plenty of time to get your hand up there
and catch them on the end.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Of the nose, and they usually just take off. And
that worked.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
But after about thirty minutes we decided we were in
a hopeless situation.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
The raft is now wrinkle, laying flat in the water.
There's no chance.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
We got to pretend we're dead. So we pretend we
were dead, and the plane evidently bypasses that round but
made a big circle, and we thought they were going
back to but they decided on one more run at
this time as they came up directly on course, there's time,
said the off course. I looked out of the corner
of my eye and I saw the bombay door open,
(20:10):
and ours is it. They dropped the depth charge. It
was a canister. Now we dropped bombed on submarine. They
dropped the canister and it lit about fifty feet away,
which would have killed us, But the canister was improperly
armed and shrank to the bottom harmlessly. And they did
turn around then and leave us a bore water relief.
(20:32):
And then we had to start pumping that raft with
sharks around, and we're right level with the water. We're
pumping like mad, taking turns and barely got the raft
up again. And now the holes are about the size
of a twenty two hole. He had a seven point
seven millimeter I think, And if you saw that inner
two pull a hole to the swimming pool, it would
(20:53):
not sink.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And that's the way.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
That was our situation there as we saddled back in
the raft after eight days, which took us about eight
days to get the reft decently patched subb and then
the only real big storm we had during the entire time,
and it was monsterus. The ways were like twenty five
or forty feet and that was far more fighting than
the Japanese airplane and far more fighting than the sharks.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And we survived that well, I should say the two
of us survived.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
That the tail gun had died on the thirty third
day and we buried him at seed and so the
next day, of course, there are big swells and we're
on top of the swore. I see lamb for the
first time, and we knew we were going to drift
into the island, but we also knew these were held
by the Japanese, so we had to be real careful
and try to find a jujula island and we were
(21:43):
about to land on one island when the Japanese patrol
boats came around a point and s followed us, and
you know, you got about twenty five guys with rifles
aimed at you.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
One guy the machine gun.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
You know, we were so bushed that we couldn't really laugh,
but inside we were laughing.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Then they threw us the rope and pulled us aboard.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We couldn't even crawl over that week and sat us
on the deck of the ship. And here's for the
percol in the face. But they did get us a
drink of water and a biscuit. They were taking the
wood in there. Weighed in at thirty plo buck I
don't know sixty five pounds, so I lost about almost
one hundred. And there we were treated decently. They pulled
(22:25):
the raft out of the from the boat and counted
the whole forty eight holes. And I told him, I
told him to day the twenty seventh day on the raft,
the date that the Japanese pilot straped us, he should
be able to find out who that pilot was or
no Japanese pilot wouldn't do that, but he did it.
So they wouldn't accept that even with the evidence. Two
(22:47):
days later, we're told we're going aboard a steamer heading
for another island, and after you leave this island, we
cannot guarantee your life. So we're heading for a quadch
and we knew through the scowar, but that it was
considered the execution island. We were blindfolded the ocean forty
(23:10):
seven days out there, all you saw was that endless sky,
and the Pacific Ocean is what sixty five million square
miles the endless ocean. Now I'm blindfolded, and when I
menside that cell, which is two paces wide by six
feet deep and six feet long, they take my blind
poles off. My eyes just jumped all over the place.
I couldn't believe where I was. And this had a
(23:31):
terrible effect on me. I just in the corner of
that stall. I just sat there and I looked at
my scoutsful fame and just started to cry. And it was,
you know, here I am a two months ago, I
was a vigorous athlete, and here I am a skeleton.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
And then.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Our knew guard came on duty and after about a
week and he simply looked in and said, you Christian,
me Christian, so they can say, well in Japan at
that time, didn't admit you were a Christian, not in Japan,
and uh, of course I thought I wasn't ill me
Christian Christian. So we started a chat on paper, who
(24:11):
draw a picture for the name.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
To and so forth?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
And uh two days later he got his monthly candy
rash and shared it with me.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Unbelievable. Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Every day, of course we in the morning we would
think about execution. Will this be the morning? We'll list
be the morning?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And then.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
An officer came in one day and said, you will
go to Yoklahama's Pidness war on the Japany with the
Japanese fleet, up to a sacred camp in the hild
of old Una. And uh there him shoved into a
room and told us stand away for for the orders.
And uh, so I stand there. I see the back
(24:49):
of the man's head and then he turns around men's
back in the chair and looks at him, laughs, and
he didn't have to say remember me.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I know him well. At USC for three and a
half years.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
James Sosaki and Riley says I came back to Japan
after USC and became admiral Socati, that civilian rank of
admiral ahead of all interrogation all over Japan, ninety one
prison county, and we talked about USC the making an
(25:23):
eight bactress on the campus. He was talking about that
kind of food chili, weren't getting it, and then he said, well,
we'll see each other from time to time. They called
him Jimmy. Jimmy Sosaki had a high ficency transmitter just
off of Towns Boulevard, a short distance from the Edison
sub station where he made broadcast.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Daily to the Japanese government.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Then it said he left by boat two days before
or raked by the FBI and CIA. I'm finally transferred
to what they call headquarterstab on Mary between Alma, Tokyo
or a man made island, and there I'm a nightmare
in my life. The bird I command there, he lies
us up to and by him looks at me, and
(26:05):
I couldn't look in his eye that looked away, and
he said, why you don't look at my eyes? Buy
So I'm knockdown, I get up knock down again. So
I'm punched out every day for the first ten days.
And I knew who who the bosh was, that's for sure,
and so he was there so brutal the other guards
we gave him by a filthy names.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It didn't give him a filthyame.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
We simply call him the Bird because if he did
find out to struggle, but that we named him a
certain name, then we're really in for trouble.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
And you've been listening to Louise Zamporini tell the story
of his capture by the Japanese forty seven days in
the ocean. The sharks were tough, the gunfire from enemy
Japanese planes was tough. What was tougher is surviving a
wicked storm with thirty five foot plus waves. Then he's
transferred to execution island. He catches a glimpse of himself
(26:57):
and all he saw was a skeleton frame and he
just started crying. Every morning he thought about one thing,
his execution, and then he's transferred to another camp where
he meets his tormentor the Bird. When we come back
more of this remarkable life story, Louis Zamporini's story here
on our American stories, and we returned to our American
(27:39):
stories into Louise Zamporini's story when we last left off.
In his story, he described a Japanese interment prison guard
known as the Bird. The Bird was so deranged that
General Douglas MacArthur named him as one of the most
wonted war criminals in Japan. Let's continue with Louise Zamporini.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Now he was the son of a wealthy family. He
thunked out our officers schools.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
They had him for officers, and I can remember when
we have a be twenty nine ready, call all Americans out,
and he separated the officers from the enlisted men. And
then he had all the lost rank and listed them
just to shame us. Buck privates faced us and each
one had to punch us and off of down. Then
they wouldn't hit us hard. He'd hit us easy and
(28:26):
then mediate hit for the club. Hey, hit us hard,
knock us down and get.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It over with.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
So we had to take a full blow on the face,
down on the ground. And so that's the way he was.
He took it out our officers. Always officers got the punishment.
But about another week when I and I believe there
were six or seven us lined up put in a
train and now we're crossing Tokyo. But see in the
meantime they had the big fire rate on Tokyo, which
(28:53):
we saw from our banish point. We saw the sky
at blow all night and half the next day, and
to put on the train and we go right to
that charred ways and all we could say for miles
nineteen square miles of charred you know, mamboo huts or whatever,
wooden shacks. But the only thing we were able to
identify were the hundreds of laides that the Japanese did.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
They did like the Germans.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
The factory was bombed, but it didn't slow them down
because the big factory, the industrial complesh at the point
of Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
They only had part of their machinery there. The rest
of it was in the civilian homes.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
And I remember going to the shaterhouse to pick up
our meat, which was horse guts in a wheelbarrow, and
they used to see these transformers, and my goll it
to this little house I looked back at I'd see
a laid great, big twenty five thousand dollars laith and
the guys working making.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Parts and all down the street.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Though it was really strange to see the only thing
not were all those machines, and that was the raising
Truman had the fire bombing of Tokyo was because that
was the industrial comp legs. So I were going north
twelve hours to right to Nagano and down to the
ocean to the Lectu. And we get to the prison Cownpound.
(30:09):
We have to stand there at detention and wait for
further order. And we waited and watched the thief front
door of the guard shack, and whoever was in there
was making us wait purposely, and we waited and waited
and waited, and the door opened and up sets the bird. Well,
my knees buckled. I just I just couldn't believe. I
just thought, you know, my.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Guide, it never gives up.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
When I got to the point, I just thought, it's hopeless, hopeless.
I can't escaped this guy. So I got back to attention,
and then I had to pull up him all over again.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
So then about eight days before the war's over, we get.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
One of the guards came to me and and said,
a sad thing happened in Japan, a city call Hiroshima.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Power broke out.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
No one's allowed to go in this quarantine.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
And yeah, we thought that was sad.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
So the whole nation of Japan knew that Hiroshimo was
a city quarantine with collar. And then about eight days
later we're told a paint p w on the rope.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
We'd heard rumors about.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The war being over it for two years, so they didn't
mean much, but we wouldn't believe until we saw a
TVF fly over the river and they saw all the
pregnants in the river and they flashed on the red
light dah da Dad and the radio man picked it up.
The war's over. So then we rushed up to the
compound and began to wave up. The plane circled and circle.
(31:40):
Then they dropped the red ribbon. On the end of
it was a candy bar with a bite out of it,
and the pack of cigarettes were two cigarettes gone, and
yet three hundred and fifty men got a puff of
cigarette and we all had a shiver of candy pretty good.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That evening. He came back and we looked like a
body folly.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
There was a pair of navy pants tied at the
bottom on top and carted the cigarettes and candy, and
Commander Fitzhild of the Grenadear submarine, the ranking officer. He
opened the pants and right on the top was a
magazine and he just stood there silently looking at that
picture of the toomic bomb, because we'd never heard of it,
(32:21):
and he kept looking at it, and the other officers
walked up.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We all looked over his shoulder and looked at that picture.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And then I realized the date of the collar as
Hiroshima that the same date for actually what happened with
the bomb. And the Japanese pulled the eyes over the
general public by chilling him up with his collar, which
was the best thing he could have done. So finally,
the bird two days before we knew, actually knew the
(32:50):
wall was over. The bird disappeared, and because we had
a seventy pound walk on the second floor right over
the river and a rope we had hidden away in
the bulk of the building, and we were going to
grab him, tie the rock on him, and throw him
over into the river. That was our intention, but he
flew the coops, so we didn't see him again. Near
(33:13):
The guards all started bounding scraping, and we talked to
for him, and we knew that family home that weren't
eating too well, and typical American. We started giving the
guards food to take home to their children and stuff
that got candy. In fact, when the war was over,
sleeping in tenth on the way home, I still had
nightmares about the bird.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I'm Italian.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I have to have revenge, and when he's torturing me
and punishing me, going revenge in my heart and my
hands are hunched.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I got him by the throat.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And that was in my dreams every night, every night,
every night I got home, it was the same thing
at home. I got married, I still had the nightmares.
In the meantime, I started drinking because of that. But
before I started drinking heavily, I started training for the
forty eight Olympics, and I did get.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
In good shape.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And then when I had my knee give out, my
ankle and a muscle spasm or like an explosion in
my cap, I couldn't train anymore and I gave that up,
and that really hurt me. And TRUST started drinking more
and more, and my wife decided sign for a divorce.
And somebody in our apartment house was telling us about
(34:22):
a fellow.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Named Billy Graham. We never heard him.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
They talk my wife into going down to here Billy Graham.
He made a decision for the Lord. Came home that
night try to talk me into him, and I said,
cable wife, and I don't want to hear any more
about religion. And but she said something that really struck
me in the heart, and that was and because of
my decision, I'm not going to get a divorce. So
that was good news. But the next days she was
(34:47):
all over man. I refused to go. Finally they more
or less tricked me into going down to here Billy
and there he's preaching, you know, for all of sin.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Well I knew I was a sinner. Well, I didn't
like the idea. Yeah, him reminding me, and.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
It just gave you and give me the ecues to leave.
I got mad, grabbed my wife, poled her home, and
the next day should all over me again. And so
I finally consented on a return trip. And I said, well,
when he finishes his shortman and says every how hit bowed,
I'm getting out.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Okay, So back we went and.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Kept quoting scripture from the Bible, and uh, I knew
what I should do, but I didn't want to do it.
And uh then as I started to lead the camp,
I started thinking back on the on the raft when
our lives were spared, we did pray morning, noon, and night,
and we prayed constantly on the raft Uh. My prayer
was always God saved my life, and I'll seek you
(35:44):
and serve you, and here I am home alive. My
prayers were answered, and they completely turned my back on
those promises.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That hit me pretty hard.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Before I got to the aisle where I decided to
turn out, no, I stopped, momentarily, made my decision, went
back to the prayer room, and I made my confessional
faith in Christ. And there a miracle took place. My
life completely changed. I had to turn about. I knew
that I was true getting drunk. I knew it obviously
for myself. I knew I'd forgiven all my guards. I
(36:16):
knew I'd forgiven the bird. And I think proof of
that was that that night I didn't have a nightmare
for the first time. And it's been two and a
half years and I haven't and since the war, and
I had a nightmare every night, and now from nineteen
forty nine till this day, I still never had a nightmare,
or even the spy just ankling of a nightmare. And
(36:38):
so when I met with the studio to make the
movie with Universal, the producer was hearing all the things
the bird did to me. I'm sitting at this meeting
like this, listening to these fellows talk, and finally he's
getting really up tight and he jumped up.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
And said, Louis, how could you forgive that?
Speaker 3 (36:52):
So and so? Then I stood up and I said, well,
I can only give you one version of the Bible.
Why I could forgive him? Therefore, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new person. All things are
passed away, the whole, all things will become new. And
hey looked at me. I didn't know what he'll do.
And they rushed over and grab me around the ways,
(37:13):
picked me up and said we're gonna make this inter
all measure film. So I thought that was pretty neat him.
They're Jewish, and I'll mention it in Christ. So that
was the crimash.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
That was just beautiful. Tell us my story, And what
a voice you just heard.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
That is Louis Zamporini from the grave in heaven sharing
his story for all to hear about how Jesus saved
his life, made those nightmares disappear, and renewed his life
and his marriage. And a special thanks to Greg Hangler
as always for the editing on that piece and thanks
to Vision Video, they have nineteen hundred video titles of uplifting,
(37:50):
family friendly content. Go to Vision video dot com. God
saved my life and I will seek and serve you.
He prayed on that boat. I turned my back on God,
on my promises. But then I came to Christ. My
life completely changed. I forgave the bird. My nightmares ended.
A beautiful story. Louis Zamparini's here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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