The name Louie Zamparini probably doesn’t ring a bell with very many people today, unless you are a real sports nut.  In the middle thirties Louie had become a world class distance runner and probably would have been the first person to break the four minute mile.  His sights were set on the 1940 Olympics to be held in Tokyo. That’s where it could have happened except those Olympic games were canceled by Japan as they had other goals in mind.

Louie enlisted in the Army Air Corp and became a bombardier making many successful missions in his B-24 Liberator, dubbed Super Man.  In it’s last mission, it was shot up so badly it was a miracle that it remained airborne, 594 bullet holes were counted in its’ fuselage and wings.  It limped back to its base with the fuel gauges reading empty, doors missing and the hydraulic system destroyed, which meant no brakes for landing.  Several of the crew members had been wounded and were hospitalized.  With minor injuries, the bombardier and pilot survived.  With the two of them being healthy they were ordered to fly a rescue mission for a plane that had just been shot down.

With a new crew and a plane with a bad performance record, named the Green Hornet, they left for the area where the plane was believed to have gone down.  They never reached their destination and crashed in the ocean.  Only the pilot, one crew member and Louie survived.  For forty-seven days and 2000 miles, they drifted helplessly in a rubber raft with blood thirsty sharks, baring their teeth, circling them day and night, smelling their blood, just waiting for the opportune time to attack. Finally they drifted ashore in their disintegrating rubber raft, only to be rescued by the Japanese and sent to a prison camp, a fate almost as bad as being lost at sea.

They were in very poor condition from their ordeal at sea but were shown no mercy by the Japanese.  Their rations were so limited they continued to lose weight.  They were humiliated, beaten and interrogated by the guards every day.  Dysentery and Beri Beri were a constant battle for the prisoners.  In searching Louie’s few possessions they discovered his celebrity status as a world-class runner and he became a favorite for the guards to berate and beat with their fists and clubs.  One guard named Kawamura, showed some compassion for Louie and made an effort to be friendly.  The guard spoke a little French and some broken English.  To aid in communicating he would draw pictures and attempt to write in trying to express himself.

After the Japanese surrendered and the war was over, many of the guards were tried for war crimes, with some of them being executed, many committed hari kari.  Some, of the others, who did abide by the rules of the Geneva Convention, went on to be successful in business and politics, one becoming a Prime Minister of Japan.

My wife & I lived in Japan in 1957 and rented a home in the city of Kamakura, from a wealthy Japanese individual who spoke some French and a little broken English and quite often would write a message to me with pictures he had drawn, to show what he was trying to convey.  He was always very congenial and polite.

His name was Kawamura. Could this person have been Louie’s Zamparini’s prisoner of war guard?  Coincidence? Maybe!    I’ll never know.

Epilogue

While trying to forget the difficulties he had endured, Louie turned to alcohol.  With his marriage to his debutante wife almost destroyed, she persuaded him to go to a revival meeting in Los Angeles.  The first meeting he stormed out of the tent, part way through the sermon.  She begged him to go back one more time.  He reluctantly agreed.  Something registered, or maybe he remembered the pact he had made with God and what he would do if his life would be spared from those man eating sharks and his prisoner of war guards.

Today, Louie Zamparini is a 94 years old motivational speaker with a religious message.

The evangelist who helped turn his life around was a young man named Billie Graham.