Louis Zamperini Research Papers

Chapters 6–11 relate the beginnings of Louie’s WWII career in the American military. In September 1941, Louie was drafted and eventually assigned to the Army Air Corps. He trained as a bombardier, flying in the clunky but powerful B-24 Liberator planes. Stationed in Oahu, Hawaii, Louie and his crewmates joined in the fight against Japan that was taking place all across the Pacific Ocean (referred to as the “Pacific Theatre”).

It was apparent, throughout the story, that Louie was a survivor. There were countless events throughout the story in which Louie´s ability to survive is seen clearly. One of these occurred when Louie clocked the fastest time for the mile in NCAA history. Louie was able to do this despite being spiked, clubbed, and trapped from moving forward in the race. This is apparent when Hillenbrand writes, “He burst through, blew past the race leader, and, with his shoe torn open, shins streaming blood, and chest aching, won easily”(44). Another example of his survival trait appearing strongly in the story occurred in the raft. After lying in a raft for weeks, Louie was still

Louies hardships after crashing the Green Hornet cause him to suffer as a POW while his odds continues to be against him. After crashing the Green Hornet that

During a bomb raid Louie and his crewmates were in Super Man, their assigned plane when Japanese fighting planes called Zeros, were all around them and attacking them. “Louie had his aim, and the first bombs dropped, spun down, and struck their targets.” Even with the chaos of the zeros Louie was determined to make it out alive and finish the mission. Zeros managed to strike and gravely wound Super Man and some of Louie’s crewmates. Louie and the remaining crewmates were assigned to a new plane, Green Hornet and a new squadron which included six new men, which included Sergeant Francis McNamara who went by Mac.

First off, In the story Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand Louie is brave by joining the war and trying to survive.The first piece of evidence is “The military was going to make him a bombardier. That fall, Louie was on his way to becoming an airman”(HillBrand 45). According to the quote how that shows bravery is becoming an airman in the 1940’s is very dangerous.Because planes are good, but not very reliable. So Louie had to be very brave to become an airman especially a bombardier. The second piece of evidence is “Below very close something exploded and superman rocked. A shell burst by the left wing, another by the tail.Louie could see tracers cutting neat lines in the sky to the right.”(HillBrand 74-75) This quote means right now the main character Louie is in his bomber plane named Superman. They are on

Zamperini and his crew were told to fly the Green Hornet in the hunt for Clarence Corpenings’s crew, who left the day before for Canton and had never landed. Before they were asked to do that, Zamperini had gone up in the Green Hornet for a short hop. He came away referring to it as “the craziest plane,” and hoped he would never have to fly in it again (Hillenbrand 113). Now Zamperini and his

Louie survives, even when a sadistic guard nicknamed “the Bird” who especially attacked Louie personally. The Bird singles Louie out and tortures him mentally and physically abuses him the most of everyone, including the infamous scene where Louie is forced to hold a large wooden log above his head until told other wise and if he dropped it a guard was ordered to kill him on the spot. After the war is declared over, American planes dropped food and other supplies to the camps including Louie’s. Back home being a very different man malnutritioned and unable to run, Louie reunites with his family, who have all worried themselves almost to death about him being missing or presumed dead. Later Louie married Cynthia Applewhite. They have a daughter, but Louie now has an alcohol addiction and has flashbacks of the war and his time spent on the raft and in the prison camps he was trapped in. Louie still cannot run or find a new career; he only wants to murder the Bird because of what he did to him and because he singled him out to inflict pain upon. When Cynthia files for divorce, Billy Graham comes to town and starts some tent preaching

The Brave and Forgiving Louie Zamperini survived on a raft in the middle of the ocean, for 47 days, with a finite supply of water, and no food! Louie was born in 1917, and was a troublemaker from the beginning. Louie’s older brother, Pete, encouraged Louie to run. Eventually Louie was on his way to the Olympics in Japan. However, fate had different plans for Louie, instead of Louie going to the Olympics, he was stranded on a raft for 47 days in the middle of the Ocean, and was sent to brutal POW camps for 2 1/2 years.

Louie was able to survive in the raft because of his brother Pete, his Olympic experience and he was smart and papered, to a degree. Pete influenced his survival because before Louie joined the war Pete helped train him for the Olympics, when Pete pushed and encouraged him to never stop and to always keep his head up, which help Louie not give up on the raft and keep fighting for his life. The text states on pages 15, “from that day on Pete was all over Louie for him to train,” this proves that Pete pushed Louie, which thought Louie to never stop and to always keep going. The Olympic experience helped Louie survive because it thought him to take the pain and keep going. The text states on page 44, “…as he neared the final turn he saw a tiny

Everyone who experienced being a Prisoner of War were followed by physical, psychological and spiritual affects, and also affects that made them feel less than a person. Louie’s journey was no different. The physical affects were terrible, Louie had little food and water so he lost an extreme amount of weight. This was compounded with beating with first and kicks. The prison guards didn’t care, they made the POW’s work long, free labor hours. There were no medicines to treat any sick or injured so, if you were hurt you would most likely end up dead. All this horrible treatment truly affected Louie psychological as well. During the imprisonment he managed to stay strong mentally by not going crazy enough to kill himself and also by staying sane enough to be strategically incompliant in the interrogation rooms to let the interrogators feel satisfied while not relinquishing U.S. security. This psychological strength didn’t last long after Louie got out of the prison camps though, for he had constant reminding of “The Bird” and the evils that happened to him by daydreams and nightmares. This is commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder. After he found out bird was still alive, Louie tried to forget and put the past behind him but the feeling of anxiety was just too great. Louie called for a meeting with the Bird to no avail. Although there were almost overwhelming negative effects, there were very

In chapter eight of Unbroken, the narrator follows the description of Super Man’s bombing of Wake by describing the dangers of war, specifically in the American Air Corps. After describing multiple instances of Louie’s friends who have died in combat and the very real risks that are associated with flying in combat, the narrator follows with this quote, emphasizing how unlikely rescue at sea was. Although “the military was dedicated to finding crash and ditching survivors” (90), “the improbability of rescue, coupled with the soaring rate of accidental crashes, created a terrible equation” (91). This quote, and much of this chapter, is a foreshadowing of the events that occur with Phil, Louie, and the rest of the crew of the Green Hornet. By

Louie did move forward. In fact, he moved so far forward that he was eventually able to forgive each and every one of his captors, including the most sadistic of them all, the Bird. However, Louie’s forgiveness did not come without struggle. When he returned from the war, his immediate feelings involved elation caused by being home, having survived the war, seeing his family again, and soon after, meeting a Cynthia, women whom he loved and would make his wife. For some time, the public was given a glimpse at this happy and grateful Louie Zamperini. He was backed into speaking at event after event, talking to various news teams, and being photographed countless times. “In his five weeks at home, staying with his parents, he gave ninety-five

Beginning with the crash of the Green Hornet B-24 aircraft in the Pacific Ocean, Zamperini, with Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips and Francis "Mac" McNamara, the latter of whom eventually died at sea, were the only survivors of the impact. While Mac tended to have panic attacks, repeating, “We’re going to die!” (p. 105) Zamperini remained calm, addressing hunger with ingenious hunting strategies, including the use of his own fingers as bait (p. 155), and devising a plan for food and water rations. After drifting for fourty-seven days and two thousand miles, the men reached the Marshall Islands, Japanese territory, where they were captured, loaded onto a ship, and eventually sent to their first hell-on-earth, Kwajalein, the place where they would be beaten, intensely questioned, and surrounded by maggots and mosquitos; soon, they would be sent to Ofuna, an interrogation camp, then to Omori, where Zamperini would meet Mutshuiro “The Bird” Watanabe, the main source of his post-war nightmares and a future war criminal, and, finally, Naoetsu, a prisoner-of-war camp, also inhabited by The Bird, where Zamperini and others were subjected to back-breaking slave

Bill Harris first encountered Louie in a japanese POW camp. Here they try to plan an escape from the camp. Bill steals a map from “the quack” but gets cuaght. He was beat by the japanese until he was unrecognizable by his friends. He survived the world war 2, but later went missing in the Korean war.

When louie was younger he was rebellious, stealing, drinking, and bullying. In chapter 1, when louie was five ¨he started smoking, picking up cigarette butts while walking to kindergarten¨(7). This shows that Louie is a turbulent kid, smoking underage on his way to kindergarten. Also ¨he began drinking one night when he was eight; he hid under the dining room table, snatching glasses of wine, drank them all dry, staggered right off the front porch, and fell into a rose bush¨(7). This demonstrates that louie is drinking underage, and going behind his parents backs. When