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By Root 1614 0

guys”, or maybe, I dunno, maybe I’m really unlucky … Anyway … here’s me, Louis Zamperini, age 27, hometown Los Angeles, California, good ole United States of America speaking. What I mean by lucky is that I’m still alive and healthy … Yes, and it’s a funny thing … I’ve heard and also saw with my own eyes that I’m washed-up that is I was reported to have died in combat.… Yes, one of those who died gallantry [sic] fighting for the cause … I think the official report went something like this … ‘First Lieutenant Louis S. Zamperini, holder of the national interscholastic mile record, is, listed as dead by the War Department … The former University of Southern California miler was reported missing in action in the South Pacific in May 1943’… Well, what do you know?… Boy.… that’s rich.… Here I am just as alive as I could be.… but hell I’m supposed to be dead.… Yeah and this reminds me of another fellow who’s in the same boat as me or at least he was.… Anyway he told me that he was officially reported as ‘killed in action’ but in reality was a prisoner-of-war.… After several months he received a letter from his wife in which she told him that she had married again since she thought he was dead … Of course, she was astonished to hear that he was safe and held in an internment camp.… She however, consolated him by saying that she was willing to divorce again or marry him once again when he gets home.… Boy, I really feel sorry for a fellow like that.and the blame lies with the official who allow such unreliable rports [sic].… After all the least they can do is to let the folks back home know just where theri boy are [sic]…

Anyway thats not my worry but I hope the folks back home are properly notified of the fact that I am alive and intend to stay alive … It’s certainly a sad world when a fellow can’t even be allowed to live, I mean when a fellow is killed off by a so-called ‘official report.… How about that?…

Louie was aghast. He had long wondered why he’d been spared from execution on Kwajalein, after the nine marines had been killed, and why he’d been subjected to the will-weakening torment of Ofuna yet not interrogated, even though everyone else had been. At last, the Japanese had made their intentions clear. On Kwajalein, after Louie’s execution had been ordered, an officer had persuaded his superiors to keep Louie alive to make him into a propaganda tool. A famous American Olympian, he’d reasoned, would be especially valuable.* The Japanese had probably sent Louie to the crucible of Ofuna, then to Omori under the Bird, to make his life in camp unbearable so he’d be willing to do anything, even betray his country, to escape it. They had hidden him from the world, keeping his name off Red Cross rosters, and waited until his government had publicly declared his death before announcing that he was alive. In doing so, they hoped to embarrass America and undermine American soldiers’ faith in their government.

Louie refused to read the statement. Still smiling, the producers asked him to join them on a little tour. They brought him to a cafeteria and served him a delicious American-style meal, then took him to a private living area that had beds with mattresses and sheets. If Louie would make the broadcast, the producers said, he could live here, and he’d never have to see Omori again. Finally, Louie was introduced to a group of men, Australians and Americans. These men, the producers said, were helping them make broadcasts. As Louie held out his hand, the propaganda prisoners dropped their eyes to the floor. Their faces said it all; if Louie agreed to make this broadcast, he would be forced into a life as his enemy’s propagandist.

Louie was taken back to the studio and urged to do the broadcast. He refused. The smiles evaporated; the faces hardened. The producers ordered him to do it. He said no. The producers left the room to meet in private.

Louie was alone in the studio. In front of him were several copies of the message that they wanted him to deliver. He slid his hand through a tear in his pocket, snagged a copy, and pulled