There were more than 140,000 American, European, and Australian prisoners in Japanese Prisoner Of War camps. Of these, one in three died from starvation, work, punishments, or from diseases. ("HistoryOnTheNet"). Louis Zamperini was a survivor of these dreadful camps. Zamperini signifies moral courage during his childhood and career in track, his time stranded in he Pacific ,in the POW camps, as well as his life after the war.
Louis Zamperini was born on January 26th, 1917, in Olean, New York. He grew up in Torrance, California where he smoke, drank, and stole on a regular basis. After attempting to run away from Torrance, Zamperini joined his high school track team. He focused his energy and time into running, and not long after joining, …show more content…
In May 1943, Zamperini and his crew went on a search and rescue mission to find a plane that crashed in the Pacific. Whilst searching for the crashed plane, one of the B-24's engines went down, causing for the plane to ram into the water. Zamperini's crew consisted of 11 men, of those men only three survived the crash. Louis and two other of his crewmen floated on a raft for 47 days. The men were exposed to the harsh sun, Japanese bombers, circling sharks and little to no drinking water. For food and drink, they collected water from occasional rain showers and killed birds. Unfortunately, one of the men died before Zamperini and his best friend, Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips, washed ashore. Although they were saved from their harsh time at sea, Louis and Phil washed ashore on a Japanese controlled island in the Pacific. For the next two years, Louis and Phil were separated as they went from several Prisoner Of War camps. Zamperini was tortured, starved, and beaten endlessly by a camp sergeant named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, also referred to as "The Bird". Used as propaganda because he was a former Olympian athlete, Zamperini used this situation to save him from execution
Louis Zamperini was born on January 26th, 1917, in Olean, New York. He grew up in Torrance, California where he smoke, drank, and stole on a regular basis. After attempting to run away from Torrance, Zamperini joined his high school track team. He focused his energy and time into running, and not long after joining, …show more content…
In May 1943, Zamperini and his crew went on a search and rescue mission to find a plane that crashed in the Pacific. Whilst searching for the crashed plane, one of the B-24's engines went down, causing for the plane to ram into the water. Zamperini's crew consisted of 11 men, of those men only three survived the crash. Louis and two other of his crewmen floated on a raft for 47 days. The men were exposed to the harsh sun, Japanese bombers, circling sharks and little to no drinking water. For food and drink, they collected water from occasional rain showers and killed birds. Unfortunately, one of the men died before Zamperini and his best friend, Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips, washed ashore. Although they were saved from their harsh time at sea, Louis and Phil washed ashore on a Japanese controlled island in the Pacific. For the next two years, Louis and Phil were separated as they went from several Prisoner Of War camps. Zamperini was tortured, starved, and beaten endlessly by a camp sergeant named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, also referred to as "The Bird". Used as propaganda because he was a former Olympian athlete, Zamperini used this situation to save him from execution