Two inspirational stories

Louis Zampirini in a bomber jacket. Zampirini, once expected to be the first man to run a four-minute mile, was shot down in a B-24, endured 47 days in a raft on the Pacific, only to be captured by the Japanese.
www.louiezampirini.com

When Laura Hillenbrand was researching her 2001 best-selling book Seabiscuit, she noticed another fast creature was appearing in the 1930s sports pages along with America's favorite racehorse: University of Southern California track miler Louis Zampirini.

In fact, his coach said in a 1938 interview that Louie, whose mile time was 4:13.7, would be the first man to  break the 4-minute mile. He remarked that the only runner who could beat Louie was Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand was intrigued, and Louie Zampirini became the subject of her next book: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.


If a screenwriter proposed Louie's story, it would be dismissed as too over the top and unbelievable. Any one part of his adventures would be enough for a blockbuster movie: the scrappy juvenile delinquent kid from Torrance whose running talent led to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and a handshake from Hitler; the World War II bombardier who survived 47 days on a life raft in the Pacific after ditching a crippled B-24, harassed by sharks and shot at by Japanese planes; survival in a string of Japanese prisoner of war camps after subjection to the most inhumane treatment imaginable; and the difficulty of returning to civilian life and overcoming the crippling nightmares where every night Louie returned in his dreams to be beaten, starved, and tortured.


I didn't pick up this book to read Louie Zampirini's story; I didn't know who he is and hadn't heard any of his story. I bought it because of Hillenbrand. Seabiscuit is a nonfiction book that reads like a novel. She has a novelist's eye for detail, for pacing, and for setting scenes. I would go anywhere this author wants to take me, and this time, it was World War II.

Hillenbrand's research is impeccable, and is even more remarkable because she does it all from home. She has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome since age 19, and rarely leaves her house. She does research on the internet, interviews subjects from home, and carefully budgets her time and energy to be able to write. She has never met Louie in person, although they consider themselves the best of friends.

In a Washington Post article, Hillenbrand recounts that when she approached Zampirini, he warned her that he had already written two books about his ordeals, and a biographer had done another. He didn't see that there were any details left to be mined. But he underestimated her skills as a researcher: she uncovered journals that fellow POWs had kept, and found out what happened to many of the key players in Louie's story.

The result is a gripping, page-turning blockbuster of a book that includes a surprising amount of suspense, considering that we know how it turns out: Zampirini is 93 and still lives in Southern California. He is an inspirational speaker and is irrepressibly cheerful and active. But there are times in the book when you doubt that anyone can live through what he did.

One of the effects of the book was to make me rethink our bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a Baby Boomer teenager, I read John Hersey's book Hiroshima and was appalled. It seemed impossible that unleashing that kind of horror on the Japanese people could possibly be warranted. But when you read about what our POWs went through, and that the civilian population of Japan were drilling for a possible invasion even though we had razed most of their major cities with conventional bombs, it makes the argument that the atom-bomb actually saved lives seem more credible. It seems Japanese surrender was a distant hope before their deployment.

I won't give you any more details, because I want you to experience the book for yourself. But if you are interested in the story, you can read about Zampirini in the Wall Street Journal article about the book here. There are only a few modern books that after I read them I want everyone to read, and this is one.

Louie's story is inspirational and makes you proud to be an American, but as a writer, Hillenbrand's story is amazing too. If she can accomplish what she does with her disability, what is holding people like me back from realizing our dreams and honoring our talent? Lack of time? It's a paltry excuse.