Lou

This past Sunday I was sharing with the folks about Captain Lou Zamperini. I first became aware of Lou’s story when I was in my early twenties and a book I was reading told some of his amazing life. There is much in his story that is inspirational as it relates to his survival of a plane crash in the Pacific, 47 days in a life raft at sea, most of it without food or water, and then 2 years in a Japanese torture camp. I don’t want to detract at all from the significance of those events, but for me, the most inspiring part of all Louis’ story is what Christ did in his life after the war.

I was surprised that no one else in the room Sunday morning had even heard of him. He is no doubt going to become much more famous soon enough though as a movie based on his life story is said to be in the works. The film will be based on a new book by Pulitzer Prize winning author Laura Hillenbrand (author of ‘Sea Biscuit’) released in November of 2010. The title of the book is ‘Unbroken’ but I don’t think they have a title for the movie as of yet. I sure hope Hollywood gets this one right, though. They don’t have a very good track record when it comes to genuinely portraying Christians.

I’m going to post a little of Lou’s story here; enough to wet your appetite maybe, and you can check out the link at the end if you would like to see a five minute news video clip. And for those of you who are readers, the book is getting rave reviews.

Louis Silvie Zamperini was born January 26, 1917 in Olean, New York to Italian immigrants Anthony and Louise Zamperini. The family later moved to Torrance, California where Lou became the target of bullies and ended up becoming quite a ‘rascal’. He got in a lot of trouble up until the day he became a long distance runner. Lou was fast. So fast that he made the Olympic team. He met with considerable success breaking a number of records, however, his running career got cut short by the outbreak of World War II and Lou found himself deployed to Hawaii as a B-24 bombardier.

His plane went down in the Pacific on May 27, 1943. After spending 47 days adrift in the shark infested ocean, Lou and the only other surviving crew member, pilot Russ Phillips, were ‘rescued’ by the Japanese Navy. Lou was held in captivity through the end of the war and suffered immensely at the hands of his captors. His family thought he had been killed in action, but after the war, Lou received a hero’s welcome home. However, tortured still by painful nightmares, Lou turned to alcohol as his life began to spiral downward. His wife had recently given her heart to Christ so she encouraged Lou to attend some meetings to hear Billy Graham preach the gospel. Lou did just that and he too accepted Christ personally as his Lord and Savior at that time.

And what happened next is so obviously supernatural. He went back to Japan. Many of the war criminals who committed the worst atrocities were being held in the Sugamo prison in Tokyo. In October 1950, Zamperini went to that prison and gave his testimony and preached the gospel to them. The colonel in charge of the prison encouraged any of the prisoners who recognized Lou to come forward and meet him again. Are you ready for this? Lou then threw his arms around each one of them telling them (and showing them) that he had forgiven them completely and telling each one again about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Lou Zamperini is alive and well today living in Hollywood, California. He is 93 years of age and still serving Christ.

Five Minute Fox News Clip