A WW2 story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption about Louis Zamperini 398 pages 11/9/2020
by the writer of Seabiscuit
1929 the dirigible Graf Zeppelin flew over. also went onto Tokyo. The story starts in Torrance California
Eugenics was in vogue in the states and undesirable or mental patients were sterilized.
He was a bad boy looking for attention till his brother encouraged him to do track running.
1934 He ran a race and did a mile in 1 minute 18 in Southern California , this record was not broken for 15 years. and got the name the Torrence tornado. He tested and could stay under water for 1 minute 45seconds
1936 A heat wave in NY killed a thousand people, when he was in the US Olympic trials.
In Berlin he was complemented by Hitler for his fast finish.
1937Japan goes into China.
1940 Olympics were set to take place in Helsinki, Finland, the stadium destroyed by Soviet bombs.
1941 Dec7th Attack on Pearl Harbour. Thailand Shanghai , Malaya , Philippines Guam, Midway. Wake
1942 Doolittle raid on Tokyo,15 planes 80 men of which 60 were saved in China. 30 thousand Chinese troops and 250thousand Chinese civilians were executed as a result.
1942 Loie is now a bombardier 2nd Lieutenant on a B24 called "Superman". During WW2 35,933 Planes, that is 52,173 men of the AA F were lost in battle and training accidents.
Fiorello de Guardiia was Civil Defence. Minister .
Only about 30% of men who crashed landed at sea were saved. Many planes sent out to rescue also were lost.
1943 Life vests were called Mae West later after 1970 called Dolly Partens as they looked like big boobs.
They attacked Canton in Gilbert Islands and also Nauru, a phosphate island, they were based at Funafuti and were attacked there by the Japanese. We are given details of a mission where they just had enough fuel to return after and the mechanics counted 594 holes in the plane's body. Half the crew were badly wounded and the Superman never flew again.
They were on the Green Hornet when an engine failed and they crashed the pilot Phil, Mac and Louis survived he was pulled down but managed to escape, he swam for the rafts lucking it hal along rope trailing behind and he grabbed it. The other 2 were wounded. All they found was D rathion of bitter chocolate,a brass mirror , flare gun, sea dye fishhooks, fishing line, screwdriver, pliers and a few tine of water, glue and patch kit.
Mac ate all the chocolate later on he died more through depression than other reasons. The Search missions passed and did not see their signals. Some rain they trapped and filled their tines. An albatross landed on his head and caught it and used it for bait but sharks stole their hooks. He managed to hook a pilot fish which swam with sharks.
A Japanese plane flew over then straffed them; they repaired one raft and used the 2nd raft to cover them. At one stage sharks jumped and them and they hit them they caught smaller sharks and knew you can only eat the liver, the rest is ammonia poison.
After 47 days at sea at Kwajalein Marshall Islands they tried to land on a small island but were seen by a Japanese ship and taken into custody. They had travelled 2000 miles. Louis was locked in a prison cell on the wall he saw 9 American names of prisoners who were killed there. He added his own name later when the American captured the island it was recognised. Japanese POW used to commit suicide or run into machine gun fire. On the island of Ballale 98 US POWS were executed as the Japs thought an invasion was imminent. The Japanese like the Nazi's did biological experiment on native islanders and US POWs. On the island of Tinian 5 thousand Korean slave conscripts were murdered before the US invaded.
He and Phil were transferred to Japan to Ashio camp. The book goes into detail of the cruelty of the Japanese, the starvation, the fact that they were allwoed to write letter that were never sent,Red Cross parcels arrived and were not given to them but distributed to the guards who were seen smoking US cigarettes. One particular guard took a dislike to Louie. There is a list of the diseases they fell victim to dysandtry beri beri, typhus, malaria.
1944 at the end of the year Louie under guard was wheeling offal from the butcher under guard to the camp and noted that the village. There were no young men in the village not much food in the market and children were tearing down houses to make firebreaks and digging slit trenches. The starving population would fight to the last.
Tokyo Rose broadcast propaganda in English and was taken to broadcast a message that he was alive and well. This was picked up in South Africa and by a shortwave fan and transcribed it and sent a card. When asked again to read Japanese propaganda he refused.
1944July.B-29s Superfortress could fly at 445mph started bombing Japan in mass
1945 May German capitulated and the Philippines were reoccupied.
1945 Sept 15 was the day that all POWs were to be eliminated and the guards were had plans and were waiting for instruction to do thisOn the Tinian island 5 thousand Korean captives were massacred.
1945 Aug 6th Little Boy on Hiroshima , Fat Man on Aug 9th Nagasaki Atomic bombed. A Silverplate B29 with fuel injection Enola Gay piloted byPaul Tibbets from Tintian Island, of the Northern Mariana Islands.
1945 Aug 15thTheir guards were all in the office listening to the Emperor speech after that Louie received 5 letters Now the Japanese spoke to them as friends who needed to fight the "Red Menace of the Soviets taking Japan's Kuril Islands.
A plane flew over and its light morse coded the war was over. They marked on the ground "We need food" A day later pallets of food started being dropped on a place they had marked.
1945 Sept2 Japan signed a treaty of surrender on the Missouri. MacAuthor and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signed for the Japanese government, while Gen Umezu for the Japanese armed force. There were 215 thousand POWs under Japanese control..
In the villages in private homes they saw large industrial machines. Commander Fitgerald ask the railway official for a 10 coach train to take them to Tokyo and was told no. He punched the manager and the next day a train was waiting. They were flown to Hawaii where the got medical attention to be able to arrive home healthy.
5400 Japanese were tried for crimes against humanity,4400 were convicted and 920 were executed.
1948 He wanted to compete as a runner in the London Olympics but hurt his ankle in training.
By 1952 When the US ended her occupation of Japan it was agreed that war criminals who had not been executed would no longer be searched for and those in prison would be paroled.
In 1998 Louie was invited to carry the flame at the Tokyo Olympics.
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