When he returned a week later to speak to the crowd, he was quoted as declaring “I have accepted Christ and from now on I am going to be an honest-to-God Christian.” 4
Newspapers across the country were reporting on the Crusade, and many ran articles on Zamperini’s conversion. 23, 1949: “ Why God Allows Communism to Flourish”
Louis Zamperini was a new creation in Christ Jesus. He poured all his alcohol down the drain the night he was saved. The nightmares–which had been so frequent and so intense that Louis came to fear going to bed–stopped. In Christ, Zamperini found eternal, life-changing salvation that would save his soul and rescue him from his downward spiral. This time, salvation was not from shark-infested waters or from the horrors of a POW camp. However, he was talked into going to hear Graham preach the next night also.Īfter again hearing of the forgiveness and salvation of Jesus Christ, Louis Zamperini gave his life to the Lord and was saved. Louis Zamperini and Billy Graham at the 1949 Los Angeles Crusade where Zamperini made a life-changing decision for Christ When this fellow says, ‘Every head bowed and every eye closed,’ I’m getting out.” She said, “Fine.” 3 I said, “Okay, I’ll go under one condition. Don’t ever bring me back to a place like this again.” But the next day she persuaded me in going back. I got under conviction and got mad because of the Scriptures he read, grabbed my wife and said, “Let’s get out of here. It was the first extended Crusade event that Graham ever held, and it was the one which propelled him to become a nationally-known figure.Īfter the first night he went, Louis was upset and did not want to attend any similar events in the future. In 1949 Louis Zamperini grudgingly attended a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles at the urging of his wife. “Pretty soon I found myself fading away, to the point where I realized that I was in serious need of help.” 2 From Brokenness to Redemption “I got married, I had a little girl and I continued to drink and continued to party, and my wife refused to go with me,” Louis said. Louis was on the verge of losing his family.
The rest of the story free#
This was the only way Louis felt he could finally be free of him.Īs he continued to withdraw into depression and alcoholism, he would also lash out unpredictably. Zamperini found that he was in many ways still under the control and power of The Bird.įilled with anger, anxiety, and hatred, Zamperini found solace in alcohol and in concocting plans to return to Japan to murder The Bird. Watanabe was a constant figure in his nightmares. Louis was struggling to cope with his horrific experiences during his two years as a POW. But despite outward appearances, Zamperini’s life was falling apart. He went on speaking tours and was treated as a war hero. In his words, “after being declared dead and finding that we’d crashed and survived the 47 day drift and nearly 2,000 miles, you get quite a bit of publicity.” 1 Louis was now married and was rather famous–he was after all, a renowned athlete who came back to life after being declared dead by the War Department.
Unlike the book, the film does not depict the great struggle that followed Zamperini’s return to the United States after the war ended and his prison camp was liberated. It is an inspiring tale of how with courage and determination he persevered through it all.īut the story doesn’t end there. It vividly depicts his time in a hellish POW camp.
The rest of the story movie#
The movie Unbroken does an excellent job chronicling the trials that Zamperini experienced as a downed airman adrift at sea.
The rest of the story trial#
However, after years of hiding from the authorities (and being thought to have killed himself) he would never face trial for his actions. Watanabe was so notorious in his abusiveness, he was listed as number 23 on General MacArthur’s list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan after the war. He especially had it out for the Olympic athlete, whom he had regarded as his ‘number one prisoner.’ As such, Louis experienced even worse treatment than the other prisoners. His real name was Mutsuhiro Watanabe, and he was by all accounts a sadistically cruel and abusive Japanese soldier who terrorized the prisoners. Louis endured constant brutality at the hands of a man the prisoners referred to as The Bird. Sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe abused prisoners at POW camps in Omori, Naoetsu and Mitsushima.Īfter being rescued from the water by enemy forces, both men became prisoners of war and were eventually sent to Japanese POW camps.
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