Louis Zamperini's Foolish Mistake

Around November 1941, the great Olympic runner Louis Zamperini regretted his life, for they had found out that is his hastiness he had made a foolish mistake. He had signed a paper which stated that if needed for assistance in the Air Corps, and was being asked for the call of duty. He was to be assigned a bombardier, just during the brink of the next world war. This simple mistake would forever emotionally devastate him for the rest of him long living life.

As it snowed Louie expected at any moment for Mutsuhiro Watanabe “The Bird” to rush in screaming and beating fellow Prisoners of War. Louie wanted to know why such an easy mistake could do such a harmful thing to him. It was the winter of 1944. One day as a rescue went on for a crashed plane, an old un-airworthy plane

engine went out. That plane happened to have Louis Zamperini along with other crew as it dived for the ocean.

The Next thing louie knew was climbing into a raft with his captain Allen Phillips and Francis McNamara being in the ocean for months with little to no food and surviving on the rare seagull and rain water, then Francis passing away. Then one day as Louie saw land and started to swim towards it, the Japanese navy saw him and captured as a prisoner of war furthermore sending him to a prisoner of war camp. Now here he was and the shell of the once famed track runner was deteriorating of what was left of him as the days went on. It was a struggle for him waking up next day and hoping that he wouldn’t be killed by the “Kill All Act,” which said to eliminate all the Prisoners if allies came to rescue the camp. But what was the worst fear of the “Bird.” The Bird would relentlessly beat any prisoner that did anything wrong, but would go out of his way to make Louie miserable. He would do almost anything, from holding up logs for 30 minutes or making him clean a pig pen with his bare hands. The Bird was the fear of anyone but Louie despised him more than anything. So when Louie though about if he would have spent an extra 5 minutes he would

have noticed he was agreeing to rejoin the corps. Every day he hoped that his parents would worry over him, for they thought he could be dead. And if that wasn’t enough, the horrid living conditions topped it all off. All of the Prisoners were underfeed, only being given merely one rice ball a day (Or around 500 calories) and treated with horrible living conditions. On the wall was a pile of boxes with the remains of twelve Australian Men that starved from hunger. Louie only slept with a thin bedsheet at night when it could drop below 0 degrees. Most men at least lost 100 pounds leading some men to insanity and some wanting to simply end their life.

As Louie rejoiced to be home with the people that he hadn’t seen in years, his sister began to put on a record of propaganda that Louie was forced to say during his capture as part of the effort to demine America’s citizens view towards the government. Since Louie began to refuse to say what he was being forced to say, the Japanese forced back to the rigors of one of the most difficult prisoners of war camp. When Louie began to hear his distraught voice, he just simply began to go deranged. The post war would leave a forever lasting scar on Louie, no matter what he did to try to forget. Even we he married Cynthia Applewhite, the memories of The Bird kept flooding his brain. As Louie tried to forget, he began to turn to alcoholism to rid of his memories. Though it began to turn away some of his memories, it left a bad influence of his personality. Soon he would go drinking evening and his wife began to ponder the stability of Louie. All Louie thought about was how a simple mistake made him go from a famed track star to a shambles. Slowly but surely Louie began to turn around his life around. At a religious revival Louie began to steer away from alcohol and more towards God. He even for gave the Bird for all the cruel punishment. But to consider that he could have just not sign another paper and never had to deal with it shows that while it may seem the easiest way it may not be the most beneficial

Collin Skiba