Analysis Of Louis Zamperini's Execution Island

Surviving two plane crashes and forty-seven days on a raft helped Louis Zamperini survive being held captive for two years by the Japanese. Louis Zamperini was taken to four camps during World War II, and at each camp he was brutally treated. Zamperini and Phillips, who now weighed about one hundred pounds, were taken to Execution Island after they were "rescued" by the Japanese boat (173). Few captives lived to tell about their experience at Execution Island, which is how the island got its name. Zamperini, and the rest of the captives were treated worse than animals. They were put in cells the size of dog kennels, starved, dehydrated, used as test subjects for experiments in biological and chemical warfare, and beaten on the daily (187).

Zamperini was greeted by the Bird, upon which he fainted (276). One of the punishments the Bird gave to Zamperini was when he forced him to crawl on his hands and knees in a pig's sty and pick up feces (286). The Bird forced each POW in camp to punch Zamperini in the face as hard as they could, and there were roughly one hundred men in camp. A two-hour beating ended in Zamperini getting punched about two hundred and twenty times (290). Zamperini was once ordered by the Bird to hold a six-foot wooden beam over his head, and if he dropped the beam, he would be shot. Driven by anger and hatred, Zamperini lifted the beam for thirty-seven minutes (295). Two years after being taken captive, a navy torpedo bomber flew over Naeostu blinking its red lights to signal that the war was over (AwesomeStories.com). Louis Zamperini was filled with relief because he had survived the hardest thing imaginable. Louis Zamperini was a hero to the world because he survived being tortured, starved, and beaten continuously for two years. Luck does not get one through something like this, but perseverance, bravery, strength and persistence

Thousands of soldiers returning from war struggled with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, Zamperini was one of those soldiers. Right away after returning from the war, Zamperini had constant nightmares about the Bird. In his dreams, he would kill the Bird and torture him. This is where Zamperini got the idea that the only way to stop the nightmares would be to kill Mutshiro Watanabe and watch him die in his hands. Aside from the nightmares, Zamperini was depressed because he could no longer run due to the way the war affected his body. This depression led Zamperini to start drinking, which allowed him to go numb and forget about everything, but with drinking comes anger and erratic behaviors. Zamperini blamed God for ruining his life (Zamperini 129). Cynthia Zamperini, Louis Zamperini's wife couldn't deal with him anymore. Cynthia pleaded for him to come with her to an Evangelist named Billy Graham because she thought he could help Zamperini turn his life around (132). Miraculously, this worked. The moment Zamperini heard Billy Graham speak and met him face-to-face, Zamperini decided to put his life on a new path. After meeting Graham, Zamperini's desire to kill the Bird diminished, and he no longer hated his tormentors. In fact, Zamperini went back to Japan in 1950 and forgave his captors in person, all of them except Mutshiro Watanabe