Wingfoot Magazine Nov-Dec 2010
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26 November/December 2010 WINGFOOT Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption By Laura Hillenbrand Random House, 2010 496 pages Berlin, 1936. The best 5,000-meter run- ners in the world, including defending gold medalist Lauri Lehtinen and Finnish teammate Ilmari Salminen, are driving around the track before 100,000 specta- tors, the German Führer among them. Far back in the pack runs a 19-year-old neophyte American named Louis Zam- perini. He has no hope for a medal, but on the last lap begins a stunning accelera- tion. He finishes eighth, but sets an eight- second PR and runs the fastest 5,000 me- ters by an American that year. His final lap is a stunning 56 seconds. After the race, he is invited by Joseph Goebbels to meet the Führer, who shakes his hand and calls him “the boy with the fast finish.” Born in Olean, N.Y., in 1917, Louis Zamperini is from the start, restless and defiant, driven by childhood ungainliness, the prejudice then prevalent towards his heritage, and above all, by a nameless self-torment. After his family’s move to Torrance, Ca- lif., at the age of two, he becomes the scourge of the town, con- stantly fighting, vandalizing, stealing and running away. Running begins to bear fruit when Louis is 14. Suspended from school yet again, he finds himself on the track team cour- tesy of his brother Pete, who thinks positive attention will stop Louis’ downward spiral—and also knows his brother’s getaway speed. In his first race, Louis sullenly labors to last place, but Pete keeps on him, biking beside him on runs and applying a stick to his backside when he falters. Eventually, the applause— and the stick—finally light a fire in Louis, and he begins to excel in distances from 1,500 meters to two miles. It pays off. Over the next two years he shaves 42 seconds from his time and goes from being the terror of Torrance to its great- est hero. The 1936 Olympic 1,500 meters becomes his goal, but his inexperience renders it an unreachable dream until Pete pre- vails on him to try the 5,000 meters instead. Louis has never tried the distance and there are only two months until the Trials, but he throws himself into it, training until his feet bleed. He punches his ticket to Berlin with a second place Trials finish. Louis returns home with the 1940 Tokyo Games fixed like a beacon before him, and speculation is that he will break the 4-min- ute mile barrier. At the 1938 NCAA Nation- als, despite being spiked and suffering a cracked rib, he runs 4:08.3, the fifth fastest outdoor mile ever and the NCAA record for 15 years. But that same year, in response to Japan’s growing belligerence, the IOC pulls the Games from Tokyo and awards them to Helsinki. In the end, they never take place. Louis is deployed to the Pacific as an Army Air Corps bombardier in 1941. He survives heavy fire on several missions, but like all airmen, dreads a worse and all too common fate: to go down at sea, knowing that most searches yield only drifting wreckage and circling sharks, if that. Remote but even more terrifying is the possibility of surviving to be captured by the Japanese. In May 1943, a search mission lifts off from Kualoa Beach, Oahu, Louis on board. Over thousands of miles of ocean, one left-wing engine fails, then the other. The B-24 Liberator hits the water, cartwheels and disintegrates. Thus begins Louis Zamperini’s descent into hell. Forty-seven days of drifting, with no food, water or shelter for three men, the life raft slowly deteriorating beneath them. Finally, land appears, but a boat intercepts, manned by armed Japanese. Two years in a nightmare series of prison camps, officially a dead man to the outside world. And besides starvation, torture, and illness, “The Bird,” a psychopathic official infamous for his savagery, senses Louis’ defiance and makes it his mission to break him. It becomes a battle not just for Louis’ life, but also for his soul. As in her previous book, “Seabiscuit,” Hillenbrand deftly frames her subject’s story against history as a whole, her lyrical prose highlighting the drama inherent in sensitive reportage. Memorable and highly readable, the book transcends the genres of history, sports and war. A stellar achievement, “Unbroken” is a story that will humble and inspire. He has no hope for a medal, but on the last lap begins a stunning acceleration. He finishes eighth, but … runs the fastest 5,000 meters by an American that year. Book Review By Michelle Bourg
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Transcript of Wingfoot Magazine Nov-Dec 2010
26 November/December 2010 WINGFOOT
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and RedemptionBy Laura HillenbrandRandom House, 2010496 pages
Berlin, 1936. The best 5,000-meter run-ners in the world, including defending gold medalist Lauri Lehtinen and Finnish teammate Ilmari Salminen, are driving around the track before 100,000 specta-tors, the German Führer among them. Far back in the pack runs a 19-year-old neophyte American named Louis Zam-perini. He has no hope for a medal, but on the last lap begins a stunning accelera-tion. He finishes eighth, but sets an eight-second PR and runs the fastest 5,000 me-ters by an American that year. His final lap is a stunning 56 seconds. After the race, he is invited by Joseph Goebbels to meet the Führer, who shakes his hand and calls him “the boy with the fast finish.”
Born in Olean, N.Y., in 1917, Louis Zamperini is from the start, restless and defiant, driven by childhood ungainliness, the prejudice then prevalent towards his heritage, and above all, by a nameless self-torment. After his family’s move to Torrance, Ca-lif., at the age of two, he becomes the scourge of the town, con-stantly fighting, vandalizing, stealing and running away.
Running begins to bear fruit when Louis is 14. Suspended from school yet again, he finds himself on the track team cour-tesy of his brother Pete, who thinks positive attention will stop Louis’ downward spiral—and also knows his brother’s getaway speed. In his first race, Louis sullenly labors to last place, but Pete keeps on him, biking beside him on runs and applying a stick to his backside when he falters. Eventually, the applause—and the stick—finally light a fire in Louis, and he begins to excel in distances from 1,500 meters to two miles.
It pays off. Over the next two years he shaves 42 seconds from his time and goes from being the terror of Torrance to its great-est hero. The 1936 Olympic 1,500 meters becomes his goal, but his inexperience renders it an unreachable dream until Pete pre-
vails on him to try the 5,000 meters instead. Louis has never tried the distance and there are only two months until the Trials, but he throws himself into it, training until his feet bleed. He punches his ticket to Berlin with a second place Trials finish.
Louis returns home with the 1940 Tokyo Games fixed like a beacon before him, and speculation is that he will break the 4-min-ute mile barrier. At the 1938 NCAA Nation-als, despite being spiked and suffering a cracked rib, he runs 4:08.3, the fifth fastest outdoor mile ever and the NCAA record for 15 years. But that same year, in response to Japan’s growing belligerence, the IOC pulls the Games from Tokyo and awards them to Helsinki. In the end, they never take place.
Louis is deployed to the Pacific as an Army Air Corps bombardier in 1941. He survives
heavy fire on several missions, but like all airmen, dreads a worse and all too common fate: to go down at sea, knowing that most searches yield only drifting wreckage and circling sharks, if that. Remote but even more terrifying is the possibility of surviving to be captured by the Japanese. In May 1943, a search mission lifts off from Kualoa Beach, Oahu, Louis on board. Over thousands of miles of ocean, one left-wing engine fails, then the other. The B-24 Liberator hits the water, cartwheels and disintegrates.
Thus begins Louis Zamperini’s descent into hell. Forty-seven days of drifting, with no food, water or shelter for three men, the life raft slowly deteriorating beneath them. Finally, land appears, but a boat intercepts, manned by armed Japanese. Two years in a nightmare series of prison camps, officially a dead man to the outside world. And besides starvation, torture, and illness, “The Bird,” a psychopathic official infamous for his savagery, senses Louis’ defiance and makes it his mission to break him. It becomes a battle not just for Louis’ life, but also for his soul.
As in her previous book, “Seabiscuit,” Hillenbrand deftly frames her subject’s story against history as a whole, her lyrical prose highlighting the drama inherent in sensitive reportage. Memorable and highly readable, the book transcends the genres of history, sports and war. A stellar achievement, “Unbroken” is a story that will humble and inspire.
He has no hope for a medal, but on the last lap begins a stunning acceleration. He finishes eighth, but … runs
the fastest 5,000 meters by an American that year.
Book ReviewBy Michelle Bourg
