This story starts off with the young delinquent Louie Zamperini who has been tested in

many ways throughout his life. This book takes you into the intense and detailed life of
Zamperini during his young adult life where he has managed to remain unbroken no matter how
hopeless the situation presents itself to be.
In Louie's young life he was seen as the pest of the community. On the average day
louie would either throw a rock through a window or steal a pie off of someone's windosill. Some
days he would go out of his way to try and fight a cop or someone that he doesn't like just to
fight them. It wasn't until high school where Louie's brother Pete realized he had potential and
told him to join the high school cross country team. This realization would change Louie's life
forever in a positive manner and give Louie's family hope that one day he may be a success.
They would later find out how much of an understatement this would be.
Louie's early years of high school weren't completely uneventful. Within his first few
years Louie was already breaking school records and making a positive name for himself in the
community. His teammates started to have faith in him and loved it when he carried the team to
victory. Every meet you could expect his close friends to cheer him on till the end. People were
starting to believe that louie was worth more than just the average day thug and hoped that one
day he would bring great pride to his town and high school.
Louie's last years of high school were littered with college scholarships and the
possibility of going to the olympics, but neither of these pushed Louie to be better. The thing that
pushed him so hard was another kid from the that was crushing his records and attempting to
take his spot on the olympic team. This was also a major problem because Louie was
recovering from a small injury. After personal battles and a lot of willpower he became the top
dog once again and won the spot.
Louie described his time competing at the olympics as some of the most challenging
times in his life. Some days he was training in weather that was so ridiculously hot that people
all over were passing out from heat exhaustion or dehydration. Louie said that some days he
would sleep on the concrete floor because it was colder than the bead most people slept in.
Even though the weather was near unbearable Louie still decided that he would push himself
everyday and no take a day off so he could get ahead of the people that were.
Louies hard work paid off in the long run. He ended up crushing his enemies in the races
and winning high honors. When Louie came back home he was praised for how hard he worked
to achieve his goals. This was a great feeling for Louie because he knew no matter how bad
things good he would always have a home and community to come back to that would take him
in with open arms. This would be a very important thing or louie on his quest for survival later in
the book and would be one of the biggest reasons that he remained unbroken.
In 1941 louie became a bombardier in the US air force. Louie was stationed in Oahu
Hawaii. He spent most of his time at the Kualoa air strip where him and his friends would start
air missions together and do maintenance on their planes. Louie flew in the Green Hornet
whenever he was on a mission. This was the starting point for Louie's intense adventure and
would soon push him and many others to their breaking point.
As a bombardier Louie's job was to fly in an American bomber and drop bombs on the
enemy. Most of Louie's missions consisted of him and his fellow soldiers being escorted over
Japanese camps and dropping bombs. Their specialty was long non stop flights. These flights
consisted of some of the longest flights ever recorded during this war. The longest flight they

took was the longest ever taken and was the one that they crash landed on. During this flight
they flew alongside the plane nicknamed Superman. Both planes went down in a flurry of
japanese bullets. Both planes took 600+ .50cal bullets to the hall making them unflyable.
Unfortunately soon after the sustained damage their plane went down and only a lucky three
were able to survive including Louie.
Upon landing in the ocean most of the crew was either killed instantly or drown after
being knocked out. Louie and two other crew members managed to get a life raft set up and
tried in vain to find other survivors. When they came to their scenes on the raft and realized
what had just happened they were thrown into shock and depression shock. They were in
disbelief and wondered why them; why were they the ones to survive. This situation was not in
any way ideal and it took them days to get back to a normal thought process and would soon
realize that if they were to survive they would have to work together and fight hard.
The month on the raft would come with many unpleasant surprises that they would be
forced to hang onto any hope and in some cases fight for their lives. The first of these surprises
was when a survivor named Francis McNamara started going crazy after the first night putting
his life and his raft mates in terrible danger. During his fit of insanity he managed to eat all the
chocolate on the raft that was meant to sustain them throughout the situation. This caused the
other two to have doubts as to if they were going to survive in the raft for much longer. Francis
would cause later issues during this ride to survive that would further complicate the situation.
The second unpleasant surprise was when they heard a plane fly over several days into
their voyage. The raft mates being desperate used the bright rescue die to get the plane to
notice them. The unfortunate part was when they realized that they had just got a Japanese
plane to notice them. Immediately they realized how severe the situation had just become and
that they needed to act fast in order to survive. As the planes came back around they opened
fire on the crew forcing them to duck in cover and pray that none of the bullets would hit them.
The first pass had managed to strike none of them down but they knew that was not the end.
The planes as expected turned to come back for more and once again opening fire on the
helpless crew. At this point it was nothing less than a miracle that none of the crew was hit but
once again they saw the planes turn to try again. This time they knew that they were coming in
closer in an attempt to confirm kills on the crew. Quick thinking by Louie managed to keep them
alive by dragging them into the dye filled water away from the raft making the plane think that
they had all died. This plan worked for the time being but now the crew had to act fast so their
raft wouldn't sink.
When they got back to the raft they immediately started patching holes trying to keep the
raft afloat so they wouldn't drown. This was quickly complicated once again by Francis who was
completely unable to help because of his newly developed mental condition. To make matters
worse during the next day while they were still patching holes a school of sharks started to
swarm them attacking at every chance. Alan and Louie quickly took action and started smacking
the sharks with whatever they could find. After this things remained calm until a naval war ship
from Japan came and picked them up. Unfortunately only Louie and Alan survived the voyage
on the raft.
The first day with the Japanese crew they were treated with extreme respect which to
them was completely unexpected. The crew gave them showers, fed them, and clothed them.
They were also treated for any cuts or sickness they obtained on the raft. After about a weak

Louie and Alan had slightly recovered and were now able to stand and walk on there own,
unfortunately this would be about as good as it gets until the near end of the war. Once the ship
they were aboard landed they knew the horrors they had heard about would soon meet them
face to face.
On the day they landed at Nauru they were immediately taken to a POW camp on the
island where they would soon spend about a month. They described this process as being
similar to sheep being lead to a slaughter. All the frail helpless bodies of their new comrades
only brought sorrow and hopelessness to them, But Louie knew that if he were going to survive
this he couldn't ever give up hope no matter how hard things got. He knew that he would always
have something to fight for and that was his family and friends back home.
Louie quickly fell into line with all the other prisoners and did as he was told. Each task
was grueling and normally brought the people carrying them out to their knees, But not Louie.
Louie no matter the conditions did all the work he could in hopes the guards would show him
mercy. I turns out in some cases this worked but in others the guards realized that he was doing
this in an attempt not to get beaten so the natural response for them was to just beat him. Either
way this would never stop Louie from accomplishing his goal of becoming free from the the
people who were keeping him captive.
Louie's hard work brought hope to the other prisoners and was even starting to spark
plans of rebellion. When the guards at the camp saw this they immediately took action splitting
the prisoners from their new made friends and would soon after transfer a small amount of the
captives to a new camp. This camp was infamous for being nicknames the execution camp. It
was given this name because of the high mortality rate of the POWs. Most of the POWs saw
this unfortunate change coming, Louie was not one of them. Overnight he was striped of his
clothes beaten and thrown on a ship that would soon land at this camp of death.
When they arrived They were put right to work hauling things like sugar and rice for the
enemy soldiers. After a few days of this Louie was able to meet the POWs that ran a small
underground operation that would be able to get small portions of extra food from the cargo they
hauled. The way they would accomplish this would be with a complex system that involver
socks pants and straws. The basic concept was they hide the rice and sugar in their pants then
would later drain it with a straw into a sock that they would hide in the ground for later. No
friendly prisoner would ever be selfish with their food. It was almost like there was an unspoken
rule that you had to share with those who weren't able to get any that day. This system was set
up to try and help every POW in the camp no matter the cost. Another unspoken rule was if you
got caught you would take your punishment without naming anyone else while maintaining your
pride. Once again the guards caught on after a bit of time and forced Louie once again to switch
camps.
The next camp Louie was brought to was one located on the island of Ofuna. This camp
was known for having the biggest POW underground of the entire was and like always Louie fit
right in because of his thieving expertise from his early childhood. This to Louies surprise made
him happy and brought him more hope and strength. He described it as reliving the memory of
his childhood but with more and new friends. He also noted that he enjoyed it because for once
stealing was a good thing and wa his own way of still fighting the war. In fact little to his
knowledge at the time most of the POWs felt the same way. To them it was their way of
supporting their country during the war even if they were captured.

Instead of moving these POWs camp to camp whenever there was suspicion of an
underground they would just put them in solitary confinement and not allow them to talk. This
would only slow down the underground slightly. Over time they were able to develop a type of
code that consisted of coughs heavy breathing moans and taps. Using this code they were
easally able to keep things running on the outside even if the people running it were in solitude.
This would also lead to confusion between the guards whenever they tried to figure out who was
running the operation.
Another benefit of being in this camp was Louie was able to see first hand what the
bombings did to cripple the Japanese forces. This brought ever more hope to louie and would
prove very helpful for what was to come next.
Louie was once again transferred to another camp leaving his new found alliance
behind. This camp was in Naoetsu and would soon be the hardest camp for Louie to endure.
Here he would meet his new enemy known as The Bird. The Bird was known for his extreme
cruelty and then following right after the wave of guilt he would feel for the POWs. Almost every
time he attacked Louie it would be followed by a meeting in his office where he would give Louie
candy and talk about current events. The constant meeting would later allow Louie to obtain
newspapers on how the was was going. These newspapers would soon spark rebellion against
The Bird when the end of the war was near.
One day when they got the news that the war was ending soon a small group decided to
hunt the bird down and kill him. When the plan was executed a lot went wrong but no matter the
cost Louie promised that he would kill The Bird and he would follow through with his promise
no matter what. Louie ended up pushing him out of a window where The Bird would spend the
last moments of his life suspended in the air that he loved so much.
On the day the war ended the guards surrendered control of the POWs and retreated.
Louie decided to act with honor and courage when one of the guards that had been kind to him
was being attacked by fellow POWs. He managed to Save his life and would later vouch for him
in court when that time came.
Louie had finally managed to meet his goal of survival and no matter what was
happening he never gave up no matter what. He stated that the most important thing he was
able to hold onto was the thought of returning home to his family. Like most of the POWs he
would find it hard to go back to normal life in the city but would none the less be extremely
grateful for the gift of a second chance.
Throughout this book there was always one theme present and that was to never give
up hope. No matter what Louie faced he always managed to keep in mind what he was fighting
for. That fight and that hope is something that no matter what hell you go through no one will
ever be able to take. If you were in Louie's position do you think that you would have the
strength he did and manage to remain unbroken?