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Incredible tale of long shot’s unlikely survival, triumphs

Reviewed by: Jim Blanchard

Posted: 12/31/2010 11:30 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Unbroken
A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
By Laura Hillenbrand
Random House, 473 pages, $31

AMERICAN author Laura Hillenbrand fascinated by long shots who come from behind to win the day. Her own successful writing career is something of a long shot, given that she suffers from debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome.

In the bestselling Seabiscuit, she told the story of a racehorse that overcame injuries to become a champion. In her new biography Unbroken, she writes about Louis Zamperini, whose life has seen a series of triumphs over seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Hillenbrand introduces us to Zamperini when he was still a boy in Torrance, Calif.

A skinny kid with enormous amounts of energy, he was often in trouble for stealing and seemed to be headed for a life of crime.

Then his older brother Pete convinced the boys’ school principal to allow Louie to compete in track events, arguing that he only wanted attention and would be better off getting it for something positive.

As it turned out, Louis proved to be a natural runner, and at the early age of 19 he qualified for the American Olympic Team headed for the 1936 Games in Berlin. Louis did well considering his lack of experience. He placed eighth in the 5,000-metre event, coming from behind to make a dramatic finish that brought the crowd to its feet and attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler, who shook his hand.

Zamperini returned to the States and the University of Southern California where he trained hard, preparing for the 1940 Tokyo Olympics. Unfortunately the games were never held because of the war.

Zamperini joined the air force in 1941 and was trained as a bombardier, flying missions over the Pacific in a B-24 Liberator. In May 1943, Zamperini’s plane crashed in the ocean. He and the two other survivors, lying in an open inflatable life raft, drifted 3,200 kilometres for an incredible 46 days with little food or water. They fought off sharks and survived on rain water and fish. They finally sited land in the Marshall Islands and were captured by the Japanese.

Although they were well treated by the servicemen who picked them up, the two Americans were soon transferred to the brutal prison camp system where they suffered for a little over two years from overwork, starvation and disease.

The account of Zamperini’s time as a PoW is difficult to read and at times seems to give more details about the mistreatment of prisoners than necessary. But his refusal to be broken by the cruelty of the guards and one tormentor in particular is inspiring.

Hillenbrand attempts to explain the brutality with which prisoners were treated, relating it to extreme nationalism and racism of the wartime Japanese regime and the contempt the Japanese military had for any soldier who allowed himself to be captured.

She also records how some of the Japanese guards attempted to protect prisoners from beatings and torture.

When Zamperini returned to his family, who had been told he was dead, he exhibited all the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress and his explosive rages, insomnia and drinking made life unbearable for his wife.

But he found strength in religion and put his life back together, building and operating a camp for troubled boys. He has had a long career as a motivational speaker and has carried the Olympic torch before many Olympic Games, including the summer games in Nagano. On that occasion he ran with the torch through the site of one of the camps in which he had been imprisoned, the ultimate symbolic triumph over adversity.

Jim Blanchard is a librarian and historian. His most recent book is Winnipeg’s Great War.

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