Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Bill Harris with his daughter Katey in 1950. He disappeared a few months later. Courtesy of Katherine H. Meares

When dawn came, no one could find Harris. The last time anyone had seen him, he’d been heading up a road, carrying two rifles. His men searched for hours but found no trace of him. They concluded that he’d again been captured.

For his actions that night, Harris won the Navy Cross, an award second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. General Clifton Capes kept the medal in his desk in hopes that Harris would come home to receive it. He would not. Thirty-two-year-old William Harris was never seen again. When America’s Korean War POWs were released, none of them reported having seen him. He was simply gone.

Many years later, Harris’s family received a box of bones, apparently returned by North Korea. The remains inside were said to match those of Harris, but the reports were so incomplete that the family was never sure if it was really Bill whom they buried in a church cemetery in Kentucky. What actually happened on that morning in 1950 remains unknown.

——

After the war, Pete married a Kansas City beauty named Doris, had three kids, and devoted his life to the work he’d been born to do. He coached football at Torrance High, winning the league championship, then moved on to Banning High, in Wilmington, to coach track and football. In thirty years of Banning track, he had only one losing season. Coach Zamperini was so beloved that upon his retirement in 1977, he was feted by eight hundred people on the Queen Mary.

“I’m retired; my wife is just tired,” Pete used to say, and he loved the motto so much that he had it printed on his business cards. But in truth, retirement never really took. At ninety, Pete had the littlest kids in his neighborhood in training, fashioning dumbbells out of old cans, just as his dad had done for Louie. He’d lead the kids onto his sidewalk and cheer them on through sprints, handing out a dime for each race run, a quarter for a personal best.

Pete was more troubled by Louie’s war experience than Louie was. In 1992, he served as escort for a group of students on an ocean fishing trip. Though the vessel was a spanking new, ninety-foot ship, the prospect of being at sea terrified Pete. He showed up with a ridiculously comprehensive assortment of safety items, including a heavy-duty plastic bag to use as a flotation device, a floatable flashlight, a six-foot lanyard, a whistle, and a pocketknife, which he imagined flailing at any sharks who tried to eat him. He spent the trip staring ambivalently at the water.

At the end of his life, Pete remained as dedicated to Louie as he’d been in boyhood. He assembled a scrapbook thick with clippings and photographs of Louie’s life, and would happily give up his afternoons to talk about his brother, once spending nearly three hours on the phone with a reporter while sitting in a bath towel. At ninety, he still remembered the final times of Louie’s races, to the fifth of a second, three-quarters of a century after Louie had run them. Like Payton Jordan, who went on to coach the 1968 U.S. Olympic track and field team, Pete never stopped believing that Louie could have run a four-minute mile long before Roger Bannister became the first man to do it, in 1954. Many decades after the war, Pete was still haunted by what Louie had endured. When describing Louie’s wartime ordeal to an audience gathered to honor his brother, Pete faltered and broke down. It was some time before he could go on.

On a May day in 2008, a car pulled to a stop before Pete’s house in San Clemente, and Louie stepped out. He had come to say good-bye to his brother; Pete had melanoma, and it had spread to his brain. Their younger sister Virginia had died a few weeks before; Sylvia and Payton Jordan would follow months later. Cynthia, as gorgeous and headstrong as ever, had succumbed to cancer in 2001, drifting off as Louie pressed his face to hers, whispering, “I love you.” Louie, declared dead more than sixty years earlier, would outlive them all.

Pete was on his bed, eyes closed. Louie sat beside him. Softly, he began to talk of his life with Pete, tracing the paths they had taken since pneumonia had brought them to California in 1919. The two ancient men lingered together as they had as boys, lying side by side on their bed, waiting for the Graf Zeppelin.

Louie spoke of what a feral boy he had once been, and all that Pete had done to rescue him. He told of the cascade of good things that had followed Pete’s acts of devotion, and the bountiful lives that he and Pete had found in guiding children. All of those kids, Louie said, “are part of you, Pete.”

Pete’s eyes opened and, with sudden clarity, rested on the face of his little brother for the last time. He couldn’t speak, but he was beaming.

——

In the fall of 1996, in an office in the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, a telephone rang. Louie, then a nudge short of eighty, picked up the receiver.

The voice on the telephone belonged to Draggan Mihailovich, a producer for CBS television. The 1998 Winter Olympics had been awarded to Nagano, and Louie had accepted an invitation to run the torch past Naoetsu. Mihailovich was filming a profile of Louie, to be aired during the Olympics, and had gone to Japan to prepare. While chatting with a man over a bowl of noodles, he had made a startling discovery.

Mihailovich asked Louie if he was sitting down. Louie said yes. Mihailovich told him to grab hold of his chair.

“The Bird is alive.”

Louie nearly hit the floor.

——

The dead man had walked out of the darkness late one night in 1952. He’d been gone for nearly seven years. Watanabe stepped off a train in Kobe, walked through the city, and stopped before a house with a garden bisected by a stone path. Before his disappearance, his mother had spent part of each year living in this house, but Watanabe had been gone for so long that he didn’t know if she came here anymore. He strode about, searching for a clue. Under the gate light, he saw her name.

In all the time in which he’d been thought dead, Watanabe had been hiding in the countryside. He’d spent the previous summer pedaling through villages on a bicycle fitted with a cooler, selling ice cream, envying the children who played around him. When summer had ended, he’d gone back to farm work, tending rice paddies. Then, one day in March 1952, as he read a newspaper, his eyes had paused over a story. The arrest order for suspected war criminals had been lifted. There on the page was his name.

The lifting of the apprehension order was the result of an unlikely turn in history. Immediately after the war, there was a worldwide outcry for punishment of the Japanese who had abused POWs, and the war-crimes trials began. But new political realities soon emerged. As American occupiers worked to help Japan transition to democracy and independence, the Cold War was beginning. With communism wicking across the Far East, America’s leaders began to see a future alliance with Japan as critical to national security. The sticking point was the war-crimes issue; the trials were intensely unpopular in Japan, spurring a movement seeking the release of all convicted war criminals. With the pursuit of justice for POWs suddenly in conflict with America’s security goals, something had to give.

On December 24, 1948, as the occupation began to wind down, General MacArthur declared a “Christmas amnesty” for the last seventeen men awaiting trial for Class A war crimes, the designation for those who had guided the war. The defendants were released, and some would go on to great success; onetime defendant Nobusuke Kishi, said to be responsible for forcibly conscribing hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Koreans as laborers, would become prime minister in 1957. Though American officials justified the release by saying that it was unlikely that the defendants would have been convicted, the explanation was questionable; more than two dozen Class A defendants had been tried, and all had been convicted. Even in Japan, it was commonly believed that many of the released men were guilty.

Ten months later, the trials of Class B and C defendants—those accused of ordering or carrying out abuse or atrocities—were ended. An army officer named Osamu Satano was the last man tried by the United States. His punishment fit the reconciliatory mood; convicted of beheading an airman, he was sentenced to just five years. In early 1950, MacArthur ruled that war criminals’ sentences would be reduced for good behavior, and those serving life sentences would be eligible for parole after fifteen years. Then, in 1951, the Allies and Japan signed the Treaty of Peace, which would end the occupation. The treaty waived the right of former POWs and their families to seek reparations from Japan and Japanese companies that had profited from their enslavement.^* Finally, in March 1952, just before the treaty took effect and the occupation ended, the order for apprehension of fugitive war criminals was lifted. Though Watanabe was on the fugitive list, hardly anyone believed that he was still alive.

When he saw the story, Watanabe was wary. Afraid that the police had planted the story as a trap, he didn’t go home. He spent much of the spring working as a fishmonger, all the while wondering if he was free. Finally, he decided to sneak back to his mother.

Watanabe rang the bell, but no one answered. He rang again, longer, and heard footfalls on the garden stones. The gate swung open, and there was the face of his youngest brother, whom he hadn’t seen since the latter was a boy. His brother threw his arms around him, then pulled him into the house, singing out, “Mu-cchan’s back!”

Mutsuhiro Watanabe’s flight was over. In his absence, many of his fellow camp guards and officials had been convicted of war crimes. Some had been executed. The others wouldn’t be in prison for long. In keeping with the American effort to reconcile with Japan, all of them, including those serving life sentences, would soon be paroled. It appears that even Sueharu Kitamura, “the Quack,” was set free, in spite of his death sentence. By 1958, every war criminal who had not been executed would be free, and on December 30 of that year, all would be granted amnesty. Sugamo would be torn down, and the epic ordeals of POWs in Japan would fade from the world’s memory.

Watanabe would later admit that in the beginning of his life in exile, he had pondered the question of whether or not he had committed any crime. In the end, he laid the blame not on himself but on “sinful, absurd, insane war.” He saw himself as a victim. If he had tugs of conscience over what he’d done, he shrugged them away by assuring himself that the lifting of the fugitive-apprehension order was a personal exoneration.

“I was just in a great joy of complete release and liberation,” he wrote in 1956, “that I was not guilty.”

——

Watanabe married and had two children. He opened an insurance agency in Tokyo, and it reportedly became highly profitable. He lived in a luxury apartment worth a reported $1.5 million and kept a vacation home on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Almost everyone who knew of his crimes believed he was dead. By his own account, Watanabe visited America several times, but he apparently didn’t encounter any former POWs. Then, in the early 1980s, an American military officer visiting Japan heard something about the Bird being alive. In 1991, Bob Martindale was told that a Japanese veteran had spotted a man he thought was Watanabe at a sports event. Among the other POWs, few, if any, heard of this. Louie remained in ignorance, convinced that the Bird had killed himself decades earlier.

In the summer of 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of his flight from Naoetsu, Watanabe was seventy-seven years old. His hair had grayed; his haughty bearing had bent. He seemed to be close to concluding his life without publicly confronting his past. But that year, he was at last ready to admit that he had abused men. Perhaps he truly felt guilty. Perhaps, as he approached his death, he had a troubling sense that he’d be remembered as a fiend and wished to dispel that notion. Or perhaps he was motivated by the same vanity that had consumed him in wartime, and hoped to use his vile history, and his victims, to draw attention to himself, maybe even win admiration for his contrition. That summer, when London Daily Mail reporter Peter Hadfield came calling, Watanabe let him in.

Sitting in his apartment, his pawlike hand clutching a crystal wine glass, he finally spoke about the POWs.

“I understand their bitterness, and they may wonder why I was so severe,” he said. “But now my feeling is I want to apologize. A deep, deep apology … I was severe. Very severe.”

He made a fist and waved it past his chin. “If the former prisoners want, I would offer to let them come here and hit me, to beat me.”

He claimed that he’d used only his hands to punish POWs, an assertion that would have riled the men who’d been kicked, clubbed with his kendo stick and baseball bat, and whipped in the face with his belt. He said that he’d only been trying to teach the POWs military discipline, and asserted that he’d been acting under orders. “If I had been better educated during the war, I think I would have been kinder, more friendly,” he said. “But I was taught that the POWs had surrendered, and this was a shameful thing for them to have done. I knew nothing about the Geneva Convention. I asked my commanding officer about it, and he said, ‘This is not Geneva, this is Japan.’

“There were two people inside me,” he continued. “One that followed military orders, and the other that was more human. At times I felt I had a good heart, but Japan at that time had a bad heart. In normal times I never would have done such things.

“War is a crime against humanity,” he concluded. “I’m glad our prime minister apologized for the war, but I can’t understand why the government as a whole doesn’t apologize. We have a bad cabinet.”

After the interview, a Daily Mail reporter tracked down Tom Wade and told him that Watanabe had asked for forgiveness. “I accept his apology and wish him contentment in his declining years,” Wade said. “It’s no good hanging on to the hatred after so long.”

Asked if he’d like to accept Watanabe’s offer to let the POWs beat him, Wade said no, then reconsidered.

“I might just have one good blow,” he said.

The Daily Mail article apparently ran only in England. It wasn’t until almost a year later that Louie learned that Watanabe still lived. His first reaction was to say that he wanted to see him.

——

In the decades after the war, the abandoned Naoetsu campsite decayed, and the village residents didn’t speak of what had transpired there. Over time, the memory was largely lost. But in 1978, a former POW wrote a letter to teachers at Naoetsu High School, beginning a dialogue that introduced many locals to the tragedy that had taken place in their village. Ten years later, former POW Frank Hole journeyed back to the village, which had joined another village to form Joetsu City. He planted three eucalyptus seedlings outside city hall and gave city leaders a plaque in memory of the sixty Australians who had died in the camp.

As they learned the POWs’ stories, Joetsu residents responded with sympathy. Residents formed a group dedicated to building a peace park to honor the dead POWs and bring reconciliation. Among the founding members was Shoichi Ishizuka, a veteran who’d been held as a POW by the Americans and treated so kindly that he referred to the experience as “lucky prison life.” When he learned what his Allied counterparts had endured in his own village, he was horrified. A council was formed, fund-raising began, and exhibits were erected in town. If the plan succeeded, Joetsu would become, among the ninety-one cities in Japan in which POW camps once stood, the first to create a memorial to the POWs who had suffered and died there.

Though 85 percent of Joetsu residents donated to the park fund, the plan generated heated controversy. Some residents fought the plan vehemently, calling in death threats and vowing to tear down the memorial and burn supporters’ homes. In keeping with the goal of reconciliation, the memorial council sought the participation of relatives of the guards who’d been convicted and hanged, but the families balked, fearing ostracism. To honor the grief of families on both sides of the war, the council proposed creating a single cenotaph for both the POWs and the hanged guards, but this deeply offended the former POWs. At one point, the plan was nearly given up.

Eventually, the spirit of reconciliation prevailed. In October 1995, on the site of the former Naoetsu camp, the peace park was dedicated. The focal point was a pair of statues of angels, flying above a cenotaph in which rested Hole’s plaque. In a separate cenotaph a few yards away was a plaque in memory of the eight hanged guards. At the guards’ families’ request, no names were inscribed on it, only a simple phrase: Eight stars in the peaceful sky.

——

In early 1997, CBS TV’s Draggan Mihailovich arrived in Tokyo to search for Watanabe, armed with an address and a phone number. CBS’s Japanese bureau chief called the number and reached Watanabe’s wife, who said that her husband couldn’t speak to them—he was gravely ill and bedridden. Mihailovich had the bureau chief call again to convey his wishes for Watanabe’s recovery. His wishes did the trick: Mrs. Watanabe said that her husband had left the country on business and she didn’t know when he’d return.

Seeing that he was being dodged, Mihailovich staked out Watanabe’s apartment building and office. He waited for hours; Watanabe didn’t appear. Just as Mihailovich was losing hope, his cell phone rang. Watanabe had returned the bureau chief’s call. Told that the producers had a message from Louis Zamperini, Watanabe had agreed to meet them at a Tokyo hotel.

——

Mihailovich rented a room at the hotel and set up a camera crew inside. Doubting that Watanabe would agree to a sit-down interview, he rigged his cameraman with a tiny camera inside a baseball cap. At the appointed hour, in walked the Bird.

They sat down in the lobby, and Watanabe ordered a beer. Mihailovich explained that they were profiling Louis Zamperini. Watanabe knew the name immediately. “Six hundred prisoner,” he said. “Zamperini number one.”

Bob Simon, CBS’s on-air correspondent for the story, thought that this would probably be his only chance to question Watanabe, so there in the lobby, he began grilling him about his treatment of Louie. Watanabe was startled. He said something about Zamperini being a good man, and how he—Watanabe—hated war. He said that his central concern had been protecting the POWs, because if they had escaped, civilians would have killed them. Asked why he’d been on the list of most wanted war criminals, he puffed with apparent pride. “I’m number seven,” he said. “Tojo number one.” Exile, he said, had been very painful for him.

They asked Watanabe if he’d come upstairs for an on-camera interview. Watanabe asked if the interview would air in Japan, and Mihailovich said no. To Mihailovich’s surprise, Watanabe agreed.

Upstairs, with cameras rolling, they handed Watanabe a photograph of a youthful Louie, standing on a track, smiling. Simon dug in.

“Zamperini and the other prisoners remember you, in particular, being the most brutal of all the guards. How do you explain that?”

Watanabe’s right eyelid began drooping. Mihailovich felt uneasy.

“I wasn’t given military orders,” Watanabe said, contradicting the assertion he’d made in the 1995 interview. “Because of my personal feelings, I treated the prisoners strictly as enemies of Japan. Zamperini was well known to me. If he says he was beaten by Watanabe, then such a thing probably occurred at the camp, if you consider my personal feelings at the time.”

He tossed his head high, jutted out his chin, and directed a hard gaze at Simon. He said that the POWs had complained of “trifle things” and had used epithets to refer to the Japanese. These things, he said, had made him angry. With hundreds of prisoners, he said, he’d been under great pressure.

“Beating and kicking in Caucasian society are considered cruel. Cruel behavior,” he said, speaking very slowly. “However, there were some occasions in the prison camp in which beating and kicking were unavoidable.”

When the interview was over, Watanabe looked shaken and angry. Told that Zamperini was coming to Japan and wanted to meet him to offer his forgiveness, Watanabe replied that he would see him and apologize, on the understanding that it was only a personal apology, not one offered on behalf of the Japanese military.

As they packed up, Mihailovich had a last request. Would he agree to be filmed walking down the street? This, it seemed, was what Watanabe had come for. He donned his cap, stepped to the sidewalk, turned, and walked toward the camera. He moved just as he had in parades before his captives, head high, chest thrust out, eyes imperious.

——

One day nine months later, as he prepared to return to Japan to carry the Olympic torch, Louie sat at his desk for hours, thinking. Then he clicked on his computer and began to write.

——

To Matsuhiro [

sic

] Watanabe,

As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it

was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance.

Under your discipline, my rights, not only as a prisoner of war but also as a human being, were stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war’s end.

The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, “Forgive your enemies and pray for them.”

As you probably know, I returned to Japan in 1952 [

sic

] and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo Prison … I asked then about you, and was told that you probably had committed Hara Kiri, which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.

Louis Zamperini

He folded the letter and carried it with him to Japan.

The meeting was not to be. CBS contacted Watanabe and told him that Zamperini wanted to come see him. Watanabe practically spat his reply: The answer was no.

When Louie arrived in Joetsu, he still had his letter. Someone took it from him, promising to get it to Watanabe. If Watanabe received it, he never replied.

Watanabe died in April 2003.

——

On the morning of January 22, 1998, snow sifted gently over the village once known as Naoetsu. Louis Zamperini, four days short of his eighty-first birthday, stood in a swirl of white beside a road flanked in bright drifts. His body was worn and weathered, his skin scratched with lines mapping the miles of his life. His old riot of black hair was now a translucent scrim of white, but his blue eyes still threw sparks. On the ring finger of his right hand, a scar was still visible, the last mark that Green Hornet had left in the world.

At last, it was time. Louie extended his hand, and in it was placed the Olympic torch. His legs could no longer reach and push as they once had, but they were still sure beneath him. He raised the torch, bowed, and began running.

All he could see, in every direction, were smiling Japanese faces. There were children peeking out of hooded coats, men who had once worked beside the POW slaves in the steel mill, civilians snapping photographs, clapping, waving, cheering Louie on, and 120 Japanese soldiers, formed into two columns, parting to let him pass. Louie ran through the place where cages had once held him, where a black-eyed man had crawled inside him. But the cages were long gone, and so was the Bird. There was no trace of them here among the voices, the falling snow, and the old and joyful man, running.

*

America’s War Crimes Acts of 1948 and 1952 awarded each former POW $1 for each day of imprisonment if he could prove that he wasn’t given the amount and quality of food mandated by the Geneva Convention, and $1.50 per day if he could prove that he’d been subjected to inhumane treatment and/or hard labor. This made for a maximum benefit of $2.50 per day. Under the Treaty of Peace, $12.6 million in Japanese assets were distributed to POWs, but because America’s POWs had already received meager War Crimes Acts payments, first claim on the assets was given to other nations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“I’ll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit,” Louie once told me, “because I can talk.”

When I finished writing my first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, I felt certain that I would never again find a subject that fascinated me as did the Depression-era racehorse and the team of men who campaigned him. When I had my first conversation with the infectiously effervescent and apparently immortal Louie Zamperini, I changed my mind.

That conversation began my seven-year journey through Louie’s unlikely life. I found his story in the memories of Olympians, former POWs and airmen, Japanese veterans, and the family and friends who once formed the home front; in diaries, letters, essays, and telegrams, many written by men and women who died long ago; in military documents and hazy photographs; in unpublished memoirs buried in desk drawers; in deep stacks of affidavits and war-crimes trial records; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. By the end of my journey, Louie’s life was as familiar to me as my own. “When I want to know what happened to me in Japan,” Louie once told his friends, “I call Laura.”

In opening his world to me, Louie could not have been more gracious. He sat through some seventy-five interviews, answering thousands of questions with neither impatience nor complaint. He was refreshingly honest, quick to confess his failures and correct a few embellished stories that journalists have written about him. And his memory was astounding; nearly every time I cross-checked his accounts of events against newspaper stories, official records, and other sources, his recollections proved accurate to the smallest detail, even when the events took place some eighty-five years ago.

A superlative pack rat, Louie has saved seemingly every artifact of his life, from the DO NOT DISTURB sign that he swiped from Jesse Owens in Berlin to the paper number that he wore as he shattered the interscholastic mile record in 1934. One of his scrapbooks, which covers only 1917 to 1938, weighs sixty-three pounds. This he volunteered to send me, surrendering it to my late friend Debie Ginsburg, who somehow manhandled it down to a mailing service. Along with it, he sent several other scrapbooks (fortunately smaller), hundreds of photographs and letters, his diaries, and items as precious as the stained newspaper clipping that was in his wallet on the raft. All of these things were treasure troves to me, telling his story with immediacy and revealing detail. I am immensely grateful to Louie for trusting me with items so dear to him, and for welcoming me into his history.

Pete Zamperini, Sylvia Zamperini Flammer, and Payton Jordan didn’t live to see this book’s completion, but they played an enormous role in its creation, sharing a lifetime of memories and memorabilia. There were many joys for me in writing this book; my long talks with Pete, Sylvia, and Payton ranked high among them. I also thank Harvey Flammer, Cynthia Zamperini Garris, Ric Applewhite, and the late Marge Jordan for telling me their stories about Louie and Cynthia.

Karen Loomis, the daughter of Russell Allen Phillips and his wife, Cecy, walked me through her family’s history and sent her father’s wartime love letters to her mother, scrapbooks, photographs, clippings, and her grandmother’s memoir. Thanks to Karen, I was able to peer into the life of the quiet, modest pilot known as Phil and uncover the brave and enduring man underneath. Someday I’ll make it down to Georgia for long-promised muffins with Karen. My thanks also go to Bill Harris’s daughter Katey Meares, who sent family photographs and told me of the father she lost far too soon, remembering him standing on his head in his kitchen to summon giggles from his girls. I also thank Monroe and Phoebe Bormann, Terry Hoffman, and Bill Perry for telling me about Phil and Cecy.

For the men who endured prison camp, speaking of the war is often a searing experience, and I am deeply grateful to the many former POWs who shared their memories, sometimes in tears. I shall never forget the generosity of Bob Martindale, Tom Wade, and Frank Tinker, who spent many hours bringing POW camp and the Bird to life for me. Milton McMullen described Omori, the POW insurgency, and the day he knocked over a train. Johan Arthur Johansen told of Omori and shared his extensive writings on POW camp. The late Ken Marvin spoke of the last pancakes he ate on Wake before the Japanese came, Naoetsu under the Bird, and teaching a guard hilariously offensive English. Glenn McConnell spoke of Ofuna, Gaga the duck, and the beating of Bill Harris. The late John Cook told me of slavery at Naoetsu and shared his unpublished memoir. I also send thanks to former POWs Fiske Hanley, Bob Hollingsworth, Raleigh “Dusty” Rhodes, Joe Brown, V. H. Spencer, Robert Cassidy, Leonard Birchall, Joe Alexander, Minos Miller, Burn O’Neill, Charles Audet, Robert Heer, and Paul Cascio, and POW family members J. Watt Hinson, Linda West, Kathleen Birchall, Ruth Decker, Joyce Forth, Marian Tougas, Jan Richardson, Jennifer Purcell, Karen Heer, and Angie Giardina.

Stanley Pillsbury spent many afternoons on the phone with me, reliving his days aboard his beloved Super Man, the Christmas raid over Wake, and the moment when he shot down a Zero over Nauru. Frank Rosynek, a born raconteur, sent his unpublished memoir, “Not Everybody Wore Wings,” and wrote to me about the bombing of Funafuti and Louie’s miraculous return from the dead on Okinawa. Lester Herman Scearce and the late pilots John Joseph Deasy and Jesse Stay told of Wake, Nauru, Funafuti, and the search for the lost crew of Green Hornet. Martin Cohn told of squadron life on Hawaii; John Krey told of Louie’s disappearance and reappearance. Byron Kinney described the day he flew his B-29 over Louie at Naoetsu and listened to the Japanese surrender as he flew back to Guam. John Weller described the fearfully complex job of a B-24 navigator.

I am deeply indebted to several Japanese people who spoke candidly of a dark hour in their nation’s history. Yuichi Hatto, the Omori camp accountant and a friend to POWs, was an indispensable source on the Bird, Omori, and life as a Japanese soldier, answering my questions in writing, in his second language, when we were unable to speak on the telephone. Yoshi Kondo told me about the founding of the Joetsu Peace Park, and Shibui Genzi wrote to me about Japanese life in Naoetsu. Toru Fukubayashi and Taeko Sasamoto, historians with the POW Research Network Japan, answered my questions and pointed me toward sources.

The delightful Virginia “Toots” Bowersox Weitzel, Louie’s childhood friend, made me cassette tapes of the most popular songs at Torrance High in the 1930s, narrating them with stories from her days as a school cheerleader. Toots, who passed away just before this book went to press, told of tackling Louie on his sixteenth birthday, cheering him on as he ran the Torrance track with Pete, and playing football with him in front of Kellow’s Hamburg Stand in Long Beach. She was the only ninetysomething person I knew who was obsessed with American Idol. Olympians Velma Dunn Ploessel and Iris Cummings Critchell vividly described their experiences aboard the USS Manhattan and at the Berlin Games. Draggan Mihailovich told me of his remarkable encounter with the Bird. Georgie Bright Kunkel wrote to me about her brother, the great Norman Bright.

——

As I traced Louie’s path through history, many people went out of their way to help me find information and make sense of it. With the assistance of former USAAF bombardier Robert Grenz, William Darron of the Army Air Forces Historical Association brought a Norden bombsight to my house, set it up in my dining room, put a rolling screen of Arizona beneath it, and taught me how to “bomb” Phoenix. As I worked on my book, Bill was always happy to answer my questions. Gary Weaver of Disabled American Veterans climbed all over a B-24 to film the interior for me; thanks to Gary Sinise for putting me in contact with Mr. Weaver. Charlie Tilghman, who flies a restored B-24 for the Commemorative Air Force, taught me about flying the Liberator.

When I was too ill to get to the National Archives, Peggy Ann Brown and Molly Brose went there for me, wading into voluminous POW and war-crimes records and coming back with some of my most critical material. John Brodkin typed up my citations to save me from my vertigo and climbed on my dining room table to photograph images out of Louie’s scrapbook. Nina B. Smith translated POW documents from Norwegian, and Noriko Sanefuji translated my letters to and from Japanese sources. Julie Wheelock transcribed many of my interviews, straining to hear elderly voices taped on my nearly-as-elderly recorder. Gail Morgan of the Torrance High School Alumni Association dug through the school archives in search of photographs of Louie.

I also want to send thanks to Draggan Mihailovich, Christopher Svendsen, and Sean McManus of CBS, who kindly got me permission to view unaired videotape from CBS’s 1998 feature on Louie. Roger Mansell’s Center for Research, Allied POWs Under the Japanese (http://www.mansell.com/pow-index.html) was a comprehensive source of information on POW camps; thanks also to historian Wes Injerd, who works with Mansell’s site. Jon Hendershott, associate editor at Track and Field News, helped me decipher confusing 1930s mile records. Paul Lombardo, author of The One Sure Cure: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell, and Tony Platt, author of Bloodlines: Recovering Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws, taught me about eugenics. Rick Zitarosa of the Naval Lakehurst Historical Society answered questions about the Graf Zeppelin. Janet Fisher of the Northeast Regional Climate Center, Janet Wall of the National Climatic Data Center, and Keith Heidorn, PhD, of the Weather Doctor (http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/doctor.htm), answered weather-related questions. Fred Gill, MD, helped me understand Phil’s head injury. Charles Stenger, PhD, cleared up my confusion on POW statistics.

Working with Yvonne Kinkaid and Colonel J. A. Saaverda (Ret.) of the Reference Team, Analysis and Reference Division, Air Force Historical Research and Analysis, Bolling Air Force Base, the wonderfully helpful Colonel Frank Trippi (Ret.) unearthed heaps of AAF documents for me. I am also grateful to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clark, USAF (Ret.), at the Air Force Historical Studies Office, Bolling Air Force Base; Will Mahoney, Eric Van Slander, and Dave Giordano of the National Archives; Cathy Cox and Barry Spink of the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base; and Carol Leadenham, assistant archivist for reference at the Hoover Institution Archives. I also thank my dear friend Colonel Michael C. Howard, USMC (Ret.), who worked with Captain William Rudich, USN (Ret.), Lieutenant Colonel Todd Holmquist, USMC, Major Heather Cotoia, USMC, Boatswain’s Mate Chief Frank Weber, USN (Ret.), and Jim Heath, PhD, professor emeritus, Portland State University, to find information on Everett Almond, the navigator who was killed by a shark while trying to save himself and his pilot.

Thanks also to Pete Golkin, Office of Communications, National Air and Space Museum; Midge Fischer, EAA Warbirds of America; Patrick Ranfranz, Greg Babinski, and Jim Walsh of the 307th Bomb Group Association; Lieutenant Commander Ken Snyder of the National Naval Aviation Museum; Rich Kolb and Mike Meyer of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; Helen Furu of the Norwegian Maritime Museum; Siri Lawson of WarSailors.com; Phil Gudenschwager, 11th Bomb Group historian; Justin Mack, Web developer, 11th Bomb Group; Bill Barrette, Sugamo historian; Wayne Weber of the Billy Graham Center archives at Wheaton College; Melany Ethridge of Larry Ross Communications; Tess Miller and Heather VanKoughnett of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Shirley Ito, librarian, LA84 Foundation; Victoria Palmer, Georgetown Public Library; Edith Miller, Palo Alto High School; Wayne Wilson, vice president, Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles; Lauren Walser of USC Trojan Family magazine; Cheryl Morris, Alumni Records, Princeton; Parker Bostwick of the Torrance News Torch; and Eric Spotts of Torrance High School.

Others who assisted me include my dear friend Alan Pocinki, who has helped me in more ways than I can count; Linda Goetz Holmes, author of Unjust Enrichment; Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers; Morton Janklow; Dave Tooley; Karen and Russ Scholar; William Baker, professor emeritus, University of Maine; John Powers of NorthChinaMarines.com; Ken Crothers; Christine Hoffman; Bud Ross; John Chapman; Robin Rowland; Ed Hotaling; Morton Cathro; Chris McCarron; Bob Curran; Mike Brown; Richard Glover; Jim Teegarden of pbyrescue.com; Tom Gwynne of Wingslip; Cheryl Cerbone, editor, Ex-POW Bulletin; Clydie Morgan, Ex American Prisoners of War; Mike Stone of accident-report.com; Dr. Stanley Hoffman; Kathy Hall; Jim Deasy; Captain Bob Rasmussen, USN (Ret.); Thorleif Andreassen; Janet McIlwain; Gary Staffo; Lynn Gamma; Patrick Hoffman; and Gene Venske.

——

There are several people to whom I owe special thanks. My brother John Hillenbrand, a longtime private pilot, reviewed the aircraft and flying sections of my book with an extraordinarily careful eye and helped me understand the arcane details of aeronautics. My sister, Susan Avallon, read and reread the manuscript, offered invariably brilliant suggestions, and talked me through the places that had me stumped. Susan and John, I am so lucky to be your little sister. I also thank EQUUS magazine editor Laurie Prinz and my old Kenyon friend Chris Toft, who read my manuscript and gave me insightful suggestions.

The author of the beautifully written Finish Forty and Home: The Untold Story of B-24s in the Pacific, Phil Scearce, knows the world of the AAF’s Pacific airmen better than any other historian. As I wrote this book, Phil was singularly generous, sharing his voluminous research, directing me to sources, and helping me sort through many a quandary. I am forever in his debt.

I have great gratitude for B-29 navigator and former POW Raymond “Hap” Halloran. As I wrote this book, Hap became my almost daily email correspondent, offering me research help, sharing his photographs, telling of his experiences, sending gifts to cheer my sister’s children after their father’s death, and simply being my friend. Very few human beings have seen humanity’s dark side as Hap has, and yet he is ever buoyant, ever forgiving. Hap’s resilient heart is my inspiration.

From the beginning of this project, I worked with two translators in Japan. They did so much more for me than mere translation, teaching me about their culture, helping me to understand the war from the Japanese perspective, and offering their thoughts on my manuscript. Because the war remains a highly controversial issue in Japan, they have asked me not to identify them, but I will never forget what they have done for me and for this book.

If I had a firstborn, I’d owe it to my editor, Jennifer Hershey. Jennifer was infinitely kind and infinitely patient, offering inspired suggestions on my manuscript, making countless accommodations for my poor health, and ushering me from first draft to last. I also thank my spectacularly talented agent, Tina Bennett, who guides me through authordom with a sure and supportive hand, and my former editor, Jon Karp, who saw the promise in this story from the beginning. Thanks also to Tina’s assistant, Svetlana Katz, and Jennifer’s assistant Courtney Moran.

In the many moments in which I was unsure if I could bring this book to a happy completion, my husband, Borden, was there to cheer me on. He spent long hours at our kitchen table, poring over my manuscript and making it stronger, and, when illness shrank my world to the upper floor of our house, filled that little world with joy. Thank you, Borden, for your boundless affection, for your wisdom, for your faith in me, and for always bringing me sandwiches.

Finally, I wish to remember the millions of Allied servicemen and prisoners of war who lived the story of the Second World War. Many of these men never came home; many others returned bearing emotional and physical scars that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. I come away from this book with the deepest appreciation for what these men endured, and what they sacrificed, for the good of humanity. It is to them that this book is dedicated.

——

Laura Hillenbrand

May 2010

NOTES

All letters to or from Louis Zamperini, or to or from his family members, as well as diaries, are from the papers of Louis Zamperini, except where noted otherwise.

All letters between Phillips family members, as well as Kelsey Phillips’s unpublished memoir “A Life Story,” are from the papers of Karen Loomis.

All interviews were conducted by the author, except where noted otherwise. As some seventy-five interviews were conducted with Louis Zamperini, citations of these interviews are not dated.

ABBREVIATIONS

AAFLA

Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles

AFHRA

Air Force Historical Research Agency

BGEA

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

HIA

Hoover Institution Archives

NACP

National Archives at College Park, Maryland

NHC

Naval Historical Center

NPN

No publication named

NYT

New York Times

RAOOH

Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters

RG

Record Group

SCAP

Supreme Commander of Allied Powers

Preface

1

Raft: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

2

Four-minute mile: Charlie Paddock, “Sportorials,” April 1938 newspaper article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; George Davis, “For Sake of Sport,”

Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express

, undated 1938 article from Zamperini scrapbook; George Davis, “Cunningham Predicts Zamperini Next Mile Champ,” undated article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; Paul Scheffels, “4 Minute Mile Run Is Closer,”

Modesto

(Calif.)

Bee

, February 14, 1940.

PART I

Chapter 1: The One-Boy Insurgency

1

Graf Zeppelin:

Douglas Botting,

Dr. Eckener’s Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel

(New York: Henry Holt, 2001), pp. 146–88; “Zeppelin Shatters Record,”

Salt Lake Tribune

, August 11, 1929; “Zeppelin at L.A.,”

Modesto News-Herald

, August 26, 1929; “Zep to Sail Tonight for N.Y.,”

San Mateo Times

, August 26, 1929; “Graf Zeppelin Bids Adieu and Soars Homeward,”

Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune

, August 8, 1929; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, March 2, 2006; Rick Zitarosa, Navy Lakehurst Historical Society, email interview, April 25, 2006; Lyle C. Wilson, “Eckener Follows Lindbergh Trail on Homeward Trip,”

Daily Northwestern

(Oshkosh, Wisc.), August 8, 1929; W. W. Chaplin, “Graf Zeppelin on Long Trail around World,”

Jefferson City Post-Tribune

, August 8, 1929; “Big German Zep Starts World Tour,”

Moberly

(Mo.)

Monitor-Index

, August 8, 1929; “Zep’s Ocean Hop Starts in Midweek,”

Salt Lake Tribune

, August 20, 1929; Karl H. Von Wiegand, “Graf Zeppelin Rides Typhoon Trail to Port,”

Salt Lake Tribune

, August 20, 1929; Miles H. Vaughn, “Graf Zeppelin Scores Great Hit with Orient,”

Billings Gazette

, August 28, 1929; “In the Spotlight of Today’s News,”

Waterloo

(Iowa)

Evening Courier

, August 26, 1929; “Zeppelin Will Continue Flight Tonight,”

Waterloo

(Iowa)

Evening Courier

, August 26, 1929; “Mikado of Japan to Receive ‘Graf’ Voyagers at Tea,”

Waterloo

(Iowa)

Evening Courier

, August 20, 1929; “Stars Playing Hide and Seek with Zeppelin,”

Salt Lake Tribune

, August 25, 1929.

2

Hitler’s speech: David Welch,

Hitler: Profile of a Dictator

(London: Routledge, 1998), p. 80.

3

“like a huge shark”: Botting, p. 180.

4

Looked like monsters: Ibid., p. 181.

5

“fearfully beautiful”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

6

Family history: Peter Zamperini, telephone interviews, October 19, 22, 2004.

7

Boyhood stories: Art Rosenbaum, “Zamperini Cheated Death Nine Times,”

San Francisco Chronicle

Sporting Green, March 3, 1940; Maxwell Stiles, “Fire Threatened Career of Zamperini as Child,”

Los Angeles Examiner

, undated, 1938; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 22, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

8

“Pete never got caught”: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interview, October 25, 2004.

9

Italians were disliked: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 15, 2004.

10

“You could beat him”: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interview, October 25, 2004.

11

“Louie can’t stand it”: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 17, 2004.

12

Louie’s parents: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 15, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

13

“You only asked”: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 22, 2004.

14

“It was a matter”: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interview, October 25, 2004.

15

Louie’s troublemaking: Peter Zamperini, telephone interviews, October 15, 17, 19, 22, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004, and March 2, 2006.

16

Improvising meals: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 22, 2004.

17

Unemployment near 25 percent: United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce,

http://www.census.gov/rochi/www/fun1.html#1900

(accessed September 7, 2009).

18

Eugenics: Paul Lombardo, “Eugenic Sterilization Laws,” Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory,

http://www.eugenicsarchive.org

(accessed April 13, 2006); Paul Lombardo, email interview, April 13, 2006; Edwin Black, “Eugenics and the Nazis—the California connection,”

San Francisco Chronicle

, November 9, 2003; Anthony Platt, professor emeritus, California State University, email interview, April 13, 2006; Anthony Platt, “The Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement” (remarks made before California Senate Judiciary Committee, June 24, 2003).

19

Infecting patients with tuberculosis: Edwin Black, “Eugenics and the Nazis—the California Connection,”

San Francisco Chronicle

, November 9, 2003.

20

Torrance boy threatened with sterilization: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

21

He was “bighearted”: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 17, 2004.

22

Listening to train: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

Chapter 2: Run Like Mad

1

Pete gets Louie’s sports ban lifted: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 17, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

2

Pete’s athletic career: “Track Stars Graduate,” undated 1934 newspaper article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; “Pete Zamperini Sets Record,” undated 1934 newspaper article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; “Pete Zamperini Goes to USC,” undated 1934 newspaper article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

3

First race: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 17, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

4

Pete hits Louie with stick: Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Maxwell Stiles, “Switch Helped Troy Star Learn to Run,” undated 1937 newspaper article from Zamperini papers, NPN.

5

Running away, Cahuilla: Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

6

Training: Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 17, 2004; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Virginia Bowersox Weitzel, telephone interview, February 19, 2005.

7

Cunningham: Mark D. Hersey, “Cunningham Calls It a Career,” KU Connection, April 8, 2002,

http://www.kuconnection.org/april2002/people_Glenn.asp

(accessed June 7, 2006); Paul J. Kiell,

American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham

(Halcottsville, N.Y.: Breakaway Books, 2006), pp. 21–149.

8

Fall of 1932 training: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 19, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

9

Louie’s stride: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 17, 2004.

10

“

Smoooooth”:

Virginia Bowersox Weitzel, telephone interview, February 19, 2005.

11

Weenie bakes: Virginia Bowersox Weitzel, telephone interview, February 19, 2005.

12

Louie’s time improvement: “Louie ‘Iron Man’ Zamperini,” undated 1934 newspaper article from papers of Peter Zamperini, NPN.

13

“Boy!”: “Sport Winks,” March 10, 1933, NPN, from Zamperini scrapbook.

14

Two-mile race: “Crack Miler of Torrance Takes Distance Event,” October 28, 1933, no newspaper named, from Zamperini scrapbook.

15

UCLA race: “Iron Man Zamperini Wins,”

Torrance Herald

, December 16, 1933; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 15, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

Chapter 3: The Torrance Tornado

1

“sadly disheartened”: Undated 1934 article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

2

“the boy who doesn’t know”: Ibid.

3

Southern California Track and Field Championship: “Zamperini Runs Mile in 4m 21 3/5,”

Los Angeles Times

, May 24, 1934; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 15, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

4

Interscholastic records: Jon Hendershott, associate editor,

Track and Field News

, email interview, May 6, 2009; “Zamperini Runs Mile in 4m 21 3/5,”

Los Angeles Times

, May 24, 1934; “Mercersburg’s Great Trio,”

Fort Wayne Daily News

, June 3, 1916; Bert Dahlgren, “Reedley’s Bob Seaman Is Pushed to National Mile Record of 4:21,”

Fresno Bee-Republican

, May 30, 1953; “Dobbs Seeks World Mile Record,”

Oakland Tribune

, May 3, 1929.

5

“Torrance Tempest”: “Louis Zamperini of Torrance,”

Los Angeles Times

, December 31, 1934.

6

Herald

insures legs: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, July 10, 2006; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

Top milers peak in mid-twenties: Charlie Paddock, “Spikes,” undated 1938 article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

8

Cunningham world record, fastest high school mile, fastest career mile: “History of the Record for the Mile Run,” InfoPlease,

www.infoplease.com

(accessed July 9, 2004); Kiell, pp. 99–126, 266–67.

9

Compton Open preparation: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 15, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

10

“If you stay”: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 15, 2004.

11

“fifteen-minute torture chamber”: Louis Zamperini, letter to Louise Zamperini, July 14, 1936.

12

Compton Open: Undated articles from Zamperini scrapbook, no publications named; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 19, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

13

Final qualifying race: “Bright of San Francisco Club,” undated article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

14

Send-off to Olympic trials: Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

15

Heat: Janet Fisher, Northeast Regional Climate Center, Cornell University, email interview, July 7, 2006; Keith Heidorn, PhD, “How Hot Can It Get? The Great Heat Wave of 1936,” The Weather Doctor,

http://www.islandnet.com/weather/almanac/arc2006/alm06jul.htm

(accessed May 1, 2006); Janet Wall, National Climatic Data Center, email interview, July 7, 2006; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; “Cooler Weather in the East Is Delayed Again,”

Daily Messenger

(Canandaigua, N.Y.), July 13, 1936; William F. McIrath, “Heat Wave Deaths Pass 3,000 Mark,”

Dunkirk

(N.Y.)

Evening Observer

, July 15, 1936; Dr. James LuValle, interview by George Hodak, Palo Alto, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Malcolm W. Metcalf, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Claremont, Calif., February 1988, AAFLA; Archie F. Williams, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Santa Rosa, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Kenneth Griffin, interview by George Hodak, Carlsbad, Calif., August 1988, AAFLA.

16

Race preparations: Louis Zamperini, letter to Pete Zamperini, July 10, 1936.

17

Prerace coverage, “If I have any”: Louis Zamperini, letter to Pete Zamperini, July 1936.

18

Lash as unbeatable: Alan Gould, “Two New Records Fall Before Indiana’s Lash,”

Burlington

(N.C.)

Daily Times-News

, July 4, 1936; Alan Gould, “Lash Tops U.S. Distance Stars on Trail of First Olympic Title,”

Kingston

(N.Y.)

Daily Freeman

, June 27, 1936.

19

“made a wreck of me”: “Runner Tells,”

Torrance Herald

, September 3, 1936.

20

Olympic trial: “Local Boy Runs Dead Heat,”

Los Angeles Times

, July 12, 1936; Bob Lwellyn, untitled article,

Torrance Herald

, July 1936; “Twenty Californians,” undated article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; “Stars Fall in Games but Negro Contingent Shines,”

Helena Daily Independent

, July 13, 1936; George Kirksey, “Records Fall, Champions Beaten in Bitter Finals for American Games Team,”

Olean

(N.Y.)

Times-Herald

, July 13, 1936; Henry McLemore, “America Sends Strongest Team to the Olympics,”

Dunkirk

(N.Y.)

Evening Observer

, July 15, 1936; George T. Davis, “Zamperini Had Confidence in Ability,”

Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express

, July 11, 1936; “Torrance Tornado in Dead Heat,”

Torrance Herald

, July 16, 1936; Peter Zamperini, letter to Louis Zamperini, July 19, 1936.

21

“you couldn’t put a hair”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview, July 10, 2006.

22

“jackass eating cactus”: Telegram, Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Bishop to Louis Zamperini, July 14, 1936.

23

Bright’s injured feet: “Louie Says He Won,”

Torrance Herald

, July 16, 1936; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

24

Norman Bright’s running: Georgie Bright Kunkel, “My Brother Was a Long Distance Runner,”

West Seattle Herald

, August 21, 2008.

25

Telegrams: Louis Zamperini, letter to Louise Zamperini, July 14, 1936; Zamperini scrapbook;

Torrance Herald

, undated article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

26

“Am I ever happy”: Peter Zamperini, letter to Louis Zamperini, July 19, 1936.

27

Youngest distance runner: Bob Lwellyn, untitled article,

Torrance Herald

, July 1936.

Chapter 4: Plundering Germany

1

Stealing: Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

2

Mustache: Louis Zamperini, Olympic diary, July 22, 1936, entry.

3

“They had nothing on me”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

Training on ship: Iris Cummings Critchell, telephone interview, September 29, 2005; Iris Cummings Critchell, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Claremont, Calif., May 1988, AAFLA; Velma Dunn Ploessel, telephone interview, June 16, 2005; Louis Zamperini, Olympic diary; Velma Dunn Ploessel, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Downey, Calif., July 1988, AAFLA; Herbert H. Wildman, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Marina del Rey, Calif., October 1987, AAFLA; Arthur O. Mollner, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Westlake Village, Calif., May 1988, AAFLA.

5

Louie had eaten in restaurants only twice: Louis Zamperini, Olympic diary; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

6

Food on the

Manhattan:

Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Archie F. Williams, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Santa Rosa, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

7

“Of course, most of this was due,” Louie sitting with Jack Torrance: Dr. James LuValle, interview by George Hodak, Palo Alto, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

8

Dinner list: Jack Coleman, letter to Louis Zamperini, list and commentary written on back.

9

Weight gain: Kenneth Griffin, interview by George Hodak, Carlsbad, Calif., August 1988, AAFLA; Louis Zamperini, Olympic diary; “First Light Workouts,” article in Zamperini scrapbook, July 23, 1936, NPN; Malcolm W. Metcalf, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Claremont, Calif., February 1988, AAFLA.

10

Athletes stealing glasses: Joanna de Tuscan Harding, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Hollywood Hills, Calif., April 1988, AAFLA.

11

“

Wo ist Jesse?”:

Dr. James LuValle, interview by George Hodak, Palo Alto, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

12

Olympic Village: Arvo Vercamer and Jason Pipes, “The 1936 Olympic Games in Germany,”

www.feldgrau.com

(accessed July 19, 2006); Richard Mandell,

The Nazi Olympics

(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), pp. 88–92, 138; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

13

Japanese feeding deer: “Sports Parade,”

Los Angeles Examiner

, July 30, 1936.

14

Storks: Arvo Vercamer and Jason Pipes, “The 1936 Olympic Games in Germany,”

www.feldgrau.com

(accessed July 19, 2006).

15

Owens pursued by fans: Dr. James LuValle, interview by George Hodak, Palo Alto, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

16

Drive through Berlin: Mandell, pp. 139–43; Herbert H. Wildman, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Marina del Rey, Calif., October 1987, AAFLA.

17

Gliders: Iris Cummings Critchell, telephone interview, September 29, 2005.

18

Gypsies: “The Facade of Hospitality,” U.S. Holocaust Museum,

www.ushm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd062.htm

(accessed June 16, 2005).

19

Doves: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Iris Cummings Critchell, telephone interview, September 29, 2005; Mandell, p. 145.

20

Bulging eyes, Louie versus Finns: “Sport Shorts,” undated article in Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

21

German nationalism: Iris Cummings Critchell, telephone interview, September 29, 2005; Iris Cummings Critchell, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Claremont, Calif., May 1988, AAFLA.

22

“

Don’t let them see me!”:

Iris Cummings Critchell, telephone interview, September 29, 2005.

23

Qualifying round: “Owens in New Record,”

Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express

, August 4, 1936; “Zamperini Is In,”

Torrance Herald

, August 6, 1936.

24

“tired as hell”: Louis Zamperini, Olympic diary, August 4, 1936, entry.

25

Olympic final: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “Finn Star Wins 5,000 Meter Title,”

Waterloo Daily Courier

, August 7, 1936; “Archie Williams Wins 400 Meter Title,”

Galveston Daily News

, August 8, 1936; “Sweep in Sprints,”

Emporia Gazette

, August 7, 1936; “First American,” undated article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; “Three Americans,” undated article in Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; “Brown Skies,”

Los Angeles Times

, August 8, 1936; “Sports Parade,”

Los Angeles Times

, August 14, 1936; Stuart Cameron, “Finland Wins Clean Sweep in Distance Running by Taking 5000-Meter Finals,”

Dunkirk

(N.Y.)

Evening Observer

, August 7, 1936; “Olympic Games Results,”

Reno Evening Gazette

, August 7, 1936; “Archie Williams Wins 400 Meter Final,”

Chester

(Pa.)

Times

, August 7, 1936; “Williams Victory Gives U.S. Olympic Dash Sweep,”

Syracuse

(N.Y.)

Herald

, August 7, 1936; “Dusky Archie: United States Athletes Take One, Two, Three Lead in Olympics Decathlon,”

San Antonio Express

, August 8, 1936.

26

Hitler contorting himself: “Cunningham,”

Los Angeles Times

, August 8, 1936.

27

Final laps in distance races: Bill Henry, “Bill Henry Says,”

Los Angeles Times

, undated; Mandell, p. 40.

28

Meeting Hitler: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

29

Flag: “Zamperini Stormed Hitler’s Palace—Lived!,” undated article from Zamperini papers, NPN; “Bombardier Zamperini Seeks Return Trip to Germany,” article from Zamperini papers, August 13, 1942, NPN; “Zamp Will Try Again,” article from Zamperini papers, August 13, 1942, NPN; Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

30

Lubin sees anti-Semitism: Frank J. Lubin, interviewed by George A. Hodak, Glendale, Calif., May 1988, AAFLA.

31

Anti-Semitic signs,

Der Stürmer:

“The Facade of Hospitality,” U.S. Holocaust Museum,

www.ushm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content-facade_hospitality_more&lang=en

(accessed April 29, 2010).

32

Fürstner kills himself: Mandell, p. 92.

33

Sachsenhausen: “The Facade of Hospitality,” U.S. Holocaust Museum,

www.ushm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=facade_hospitality_more&lang=en

(accessed April 29, 2010).

34

Homecoming: “Zamperini Home,”

Torrance Herald

, September 3, 1936; “Invalid Woman,”

Torrance Herald

, undated article from Zamperini scrapbook; “Olympic Games Hero,”

Torrance Herald

, September 3, 1936; “Runner Tells,”

Torrance Herald

, September 3, 1936; “Cheering Mass,”

Torrance Herald

, September 4, 1936; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

35

“I didn’t only”: “Cheering Mass,”

Torrance Herald

, September 4, 1936.

36

Plans for 1940: “Runner Tells,”

Torrance Herald

, September 3, 1936; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Peter Zamperini, telephone interviews, October 15, 17, 19, 22, 2004.

37

Tokyo given 1940 Games: “Tokyo Prepares,” article from Zamperini scrapbook, August 1, 1936, NPN.

Chapter 5: Into War

1

Payton Jordan: Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004.

2

High jumper on her bed: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

3

Pranks: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

Sasaki: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004; Bruce Gamble,

Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington

(Novato, Calif.: Presidio, 2000), p. 323; the following Kunichi Sasaki and James Kunichi Sasaki records from RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division and Prosecution Division, NACP: Kunichi Sasaki, Isamu Sato, Kazuo Akane, 1945–1948, Investigation and Interrogation Reports; Nakakichi Asoma et al., trial, exhibits, appeal, and clemency files; Nakakichi Asoma et al., 1945–1952, POW 201 File, 1945–1952, Charges and Specifications, 1945–1948.

5

Sasaki’s true college record: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, USC registrar archives; inquiries with

Degreecheck.com

, April 2007.

6

Louie’s winning: George Davis, “Fresno Relays Are Next,” undated article in Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; “Zamperini Stars,”

Los Angeles Examiner

, May 8, 1938; “Zamperini, Day Smash Meet Marks,” undated 1938 article in Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

7

Coach predicts world record: Lee Bastajian, “Trojans Meet Stanford,” undated spring 1938 article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

8

Seabiscuit only runner to beat him: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

9

Cunningham prediction: George Davis, “Cunningham Predicts Zamperini Next Mile Champ,” undated 1938 article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN.

10

Fastest mile projected to be 4:01.6: Brutus Hamilton,

Amateur Athlete

, February 1935.

11

Louie training on stairs: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

12

First four-minute man: Charlie Paddock, “Sportorials,” undated April 1938 article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; George Davis, “For Sake of Sport,”

Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express

, undated 1938 article from Zamperini scrapbook; George Davis, “Cunningham Predicts Zamperini Next Mile Champ,” undated article from Zamperini scrapbook, NPN; “History of the Record for the Mile Run,” InfoPlease,

www.infoplease.com

(accessed July 9, 2004); Paul Scheffels, “4 Minute Mile Run Is Closer,”

Modesto

(Calif.)

Bee

, February 14, 1940.

13

Prerace warning: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

14

1938 NCAA Championship race: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004; “Zamperini’s Record Mile Beats Fenske,”

Minnesota Journal

, June 18, 1938; Charles Johnson, “Zamperini Sets Mark,”

Star Nighthawk

, June 18, 1938; “Mile Record Smashed at Collegiate Meet,”

Minneapolis Tribune

, June 18, 1938; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

15

Crowd gasps,

Woooo!:

Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004.

16

Japan drops Olympics, Finland takes over: Relman Morin, “Japan Abandons Olympics Plans,”

Appleton

(Wisc.)

Post-Crescent

, July 14, 1938; “Finland Okays Olympic Games,”

Lowell

(Mass.)

Sun

, July 19, 1938.

17

Louie’s indoor races: “Fenske Outruns Zamperini by Three Yards,”

Fresno Bee

, February 18, 1940; “Fenske Again Beats Best U.S. Milers,”

Oakland Tribune

, February 18, 1940; “Fenske’s Brilliant Millrose Victory Stamps Him ‘King of Milers,’ ”

Nebraska State Journal

(Lincoln), February 5, 1940; Paul Scheffels, “4 Minute Mile Run Is Closer,”

Modesto

(Calif.)

Bee

, February 14, 1940.

18

Indoor versus outdoor records: Jon Hendershott, associate editor,

Track and Field News

, email interview, May 6, 2009; Wally Donovan,

A History of Indoor Track and Field

(El Cajon, Calif.: Edward Jules Co., 1976), p. 294; “History of the Record for the Mile Run,” InfoPlease,

www.infoplease.com

(accessed July 9, 2004).

19

Japan’s economic plight, ambitions, preparations: David James,

The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire

(London: George Allen and Unwin, 1951), pp. 6–17, 119–27, 168, 173; Iris Chang,

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

(London: Penguin Books, 1998), pp. 25–38.

20

“There are superior”: John W. Dower,

War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War

(New York: Pantheon Books, 1993), p. 217.

21

“plant the blood”: Ibid., p. 277.

22

Military-run schools, soldier training: Chang, pp. 29–32, 57; James Bradley,

Flyboys

(New York: Little, Brown, 2003), pp. 34–36.

23

“Imbuing violence”: Chang, p. 218.

24

Stadium partially collapsed: Lon Jones, “War Cheats Trojans: Olympic Chances Lost,”

Los Angeles Examiner

, February 28, 1940.

25

Lehtinen gives medal: “Lauri Lehtinen,” All Experts,

http://en.allexperts.com/e/l/la/lauri_lehtinen.htm

(accessed September 11, 2009).

26

Bright, Cunningham enlist: Kiell, pp. 320–21; Georgie Bright Kunkel, “My Brother Was a Long Distance Runner,”

West Seattle Herald

, August 21, 2008.

27

Jittery and airsick: Louis Zamperini, letter to Virginia Zamperini, April 10, 1941; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

28

Candy bars: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

29

Informant’s report: Letters between J. Edgar Hoover and Brigadier General Sherman Miles, October–November 1941, FBI, acquired from Department of the Army, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, Freedom of Information/Privacy Office, Fort George G. Meade, Md.

30

Notes from police officer: Notes by Captain Ernie Ashton, Torrance police detective, written alongside a passage on Sasaki in Ashton’s copy of Zamperini’s 1956 autobiography,

Devil at My Heels

, from papers of Louis Zamperini.

31

Sasaki in Washington: The following Kunichi Sasaki and James Kunichi Sasaki records from RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division and Prosecution Division, NACP: Kunichi Sasaki, Isamu Sato, Kazuo Akane, 1945–1948, Investigation and Interrogation Reports; Nakakichi Asoma et al., trial, exhibits, appeal, and clemency files; Nakakichi Asoma et al., 1945–1952, POW 201 File, 1945–1952, Charges and Specifications, 1945–1948.

32

Hoover orders probe: Letters between J. Edgar Hoover and Brigadier General Sherman Miles, October–November 1941, Federal Bureau of Investigation, acquired from Department of the Army, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, Freedom of Information/Privacy Office, Fort George G. Meade, Md.

33

Pilot over Hawaii: Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya,

Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan

(Bluejack Books, 2001).

34

Activities on Oahu: William Cleveland, ed.,

Grey Geese Calling

(Askov: American Publishing, 1981), p. 203; Stetson Conn, Rose Engelman, and Byron Fairchild,

United States Army in World War II: Guarding the United States and Its Outposts

(Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1964), p. 191; Clive Howard and Joe Whitley,

One Damned Island After Another: The Saga of the Seventh

(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946), p. 25; Robert Cressman and J. Michael Wenger, “Infamous Day,” Marines in WWII Commemorative Series,

http://www.nps.gov/archive/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/

pcn-190-003116-00/sec3.htm

(accessed September 10, 2009).

35

Two planes lost: “Timeline Pearl Harbor,” Pearl Harbor Remembered,

http://my.execpc.com/~dschaaf/mainmenu.html

(accessed April 29, 2010).

36

Man killed during pillow fight, friend sees Japanese plane crash: Cleveland, p. 203.

37

Louie, Pete learn of Pearl Harbor: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 19, 2004.

PART II

Chapter 6: The Flying Coffin

1

Pancakes: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

2

“

Calm!”:

William Manchester,

The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932–1972

(New York: Bantam Books, 1974), p. 258.

3

Eleanor Roosevelt writes Anna: Doris Kearns Goodwin,

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt—the Home Front in World War II

(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), p. 289.

4

Butler overheard president: Ibid., p. 290.

5

Japanese staffers burning documents: “Japanese Embassy Burns Official Papers,”

Wisconsin State Journal

(Madison), December 8, 1941; Manchester, p. 258.

6

Days after December 7: Carl Nolte, “Pearl Harbor Was a Close Thing for the City in 1941,”

San Francisco Chronicle

, December 7, 2006; Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 25, 2004; “Entire City Put on War Footing,”

NYT

, December 8, 1941; “U.S. Cities Prove They Can Swing into Action,”

Wisconsin State Journal

(Madison), December 8, 1941; Adam Fjell, “ ‘A Day That Will Live in Infamy’: Buffalo County and the Attack on Pearl Harbor,”

Buffalo Tales

, November–December 2002, vol. 25, no. 6; Goodwin, pp. 295–96.

7

Wake’s defense: Lieutenant Colonel R. D. Heinl, Jr., USMC,

The Defense of Wake

, Marines in World War II: Historical Monograph (Historical Section, Division of Public Information Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1947).

8

Men on Wake singing: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

9

Louie’s test scores: Certificate of Proficiency, Air Force Preflight School (bombardier, navigator), Ellington Field, from papers of Louis Zamperini.

10

Norden bombsight: William Darron, Army Air Forces Historical Association, Oradell, N.J., interview and bombsight demonstration, courtesy of Robert Grenz, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “Bombardiers’ Information File,” War Department, Army Air Forces, March 1945.

11

Twice the price of a house: “The Year 1942,” The People History,

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1942.html

(accessed September 11, 2009); “The Norden M-1 Bomb Sight,” Plane Crazy,

http://www.plane-crazy.net/links/nord.htm

(accessed September 11, 2009).

12

Ephrata: Sam Britt, Jr.,

The Long Rangers, A Diary of the 307th Bombardment Group

(Baton Rouge: Reprint Company, 1990), pp. 4–5.

13

Phillips: Karen Loomis, telephone interview, November 17, 2004; Monroe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; Phoebe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir.

14

Sandblaster: Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005.

15

Cecy Perry: Karen Loomis, telephone interview, November 17, 2004; Monroe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; Phoebe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; letters from Russell Phillips to Cecy Perry, 1941–43.

16

Cecy’s ring: Russell Allen Phillips, letters to Cecy Perry, March 11, 21, 1942.

17

“I’ve wished 100 times”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Phillips, summer 1942.

18

Phil’s bomber crew: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006; Charles McMurtry, “Liberator, Hit 594 Times, Wings Home Safely,”

Richmond News Leader

, May 14, 1943.

19

Harry Brooks’s fiancée: “Sergt. H. V. Brooks Served in Pacific,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

20

B-24s: Charlie Tilghman, B-24 pilot, Commemorative Air Force, telephone interview, February 14, 2007; Consolidated Aircraft,

Flight Manual: B-24D Airplane (1942), Flight Manual for B-24 Liberator

, Aircraft Manual Series (Appleton, Wisc.: Aviation Publications, 1977); Martin Bowman,

Combat Legend: B-24 Liberator

(Shrewsbury, Eng.: Airlife, 2003); Frederick A. Johnsen,

B-24 Liberator, Rugged but Right

(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999); Fiske Hanley II, telephone interview, July 30, 2004; Byron Kinney, email interview, April 26, 2007.

21

“it was like sitting”: Byron Kinney, email interview, April 26, 2007.

22

Left arms stronger: Stephen E. Ambrose,

The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany

(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), p. 77.

23

Tails falling off: Johnsen, p. 28.

24

“It’s the Flying Coffin”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

25

Training: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006.

26

“I grew a little”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, August or September 1942.

27

“I guess you read”: E. C. Williams, letter to Louis Zamperini, July 1, 1941.

28

Stateside crash statistics:

Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, World War II

, Office of Statistical Control, December 1945, Tables 213 and 214.

29

Deaths of friends: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, October 1942.

30

Phil runs from meeting to write home: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, October 7, 1942.

31

Training for crashes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, Service Department,

Emergency Procedure: B-24 Airplane

(San Diego: Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, 1944), pp. 21–25.

32

“kind of silly”: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

33

“a damn swell pilot”: “Son of Pickett ‘Sky Pilot’ Pilots Bomber Over Wake I,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

34

Phil’s B-24: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

35

Phil’s dream of Cecy: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, August 15, 1942.

36

Phil misses Cecy by three days: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, November 2, 1942.

37

B-24 names: “Warpaint Photo Album,” Something About Everything Military,

http://www.jcs-group.com/military/war1941aaf/warpaint1.html

(accessed September 26, 2009).

38

Moznette names plane: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, February 13, 1943.

39

Phil says plane masculine: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, March 25, 1943.

40

Japan’s empire:

West Point Atlas for the Second World War, Asia and the Pacific

, map 22.

Chapter 7: “This Is It, Boys”

1

Oahu in 1942: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006; Cleveland, p. 158.

2

“one sees only about ⅓”: Cleveland, p. 158.

3

Barracks: Jesse Stay, “Twenty-nine Months in the Pacific,” unpublished memoir.

4

“You kill one”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, December 8, 1942.

5

“like a dozen dirty”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, April 2, 1943.

6

Water fight: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, May 12, 1943.

7

Beer fight: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

8

Pornography: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, December 29, 1942.

9

Greenhouse windows froze: Cleveland, 103.

10

Phil hits pole: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, March 27, 1943.

11

Gunnery, bomb scores: Louis Zamperini, war diary, January 20, 30, February 2, and March 21, 1943 entries.

12

Sea search: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 27, 2004; Louis Zamperini, war diary, March 14, 1943, entry; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

13

Diving over sub: Louis Zamperini, diary, March 14, 1943.

14

Practical jokes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interviews.

15

“kind of daring”: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

16

Leisure-time activities: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, war diary, November 1942–May 1943 entries.

17

Wake attack: Louis Zamperini, war diary, December 22–25, 1942, entries; Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005; “Son of Pickett ‘Sky Pilot’ Pilots Bomber over Wake I,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Walter Clausen, undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Delphi Flyer Is Given Medal for Pacific Bombing,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Former La Porte Youth Helps to Bomb Wake Isle,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Fledglings’ Raid on Wake Token of Things to Come,”

Berkshire Evening Eagle

, January 2, 1943;

St. Louis Globe

, undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Their Raid on Wake Biggest of Year,”

Mansfield News-Journal

, January 2, 1943; “Tells of Raid on Wake Island,”

Mansfield News-Journal

, January 2, 1943; “Nobody Scared in Raid on Wake Island, Ace Says,”

Ada Evening News

, January 2, 1943; Walter Clausen, “Hawaii Fliers Get Jap Planes in Wake Raid,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Britt, p. 12; Jesse Stay, “Twenty-nine Months in the Pacific,” unpublished memoir.

18

New Year’s: Louis Zamperini, war diary, January 1, 1943, entry.

19

STEEL FILLS JAP SOX:

Undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

20

“fled in terror”: “Tells of Raid on Wake Island,”

Mansfield News-Journal

, January 2, 1943.

21

Japan finished within the year: “U.S. Can Take Care of Japan, Halsey Thinks,”

Ada Evening News

, January 2, 1943.

22

“it’s a little premature”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, December 31, 1942.

Chapter 8: “Only the Laundry Knew How Scared I Was”

1

Coxwell’s crash: Louis Zamperini, diary, January 8–10, 1943; Missing Air Crew Report No. 16218, Air Force Historical Studies Office, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, February 13, 1943.

2

Buried in Honolulu: American Battle Monuments Commission.

3

Crashes over the past two months:

Army Air Forces Statistical Digest

, Table 64; Louis Zamperini, diary, December 27, 1942, and January 9, 1943; Britt, pp. 10, 13.

4

Crash, loss statistics:

Army Air Forces Statistical Digest

, Tables 100 and 161.

5

In the air corps, 35,946 personnel:

Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II: Final Report, 7 December 1941–31 December 1946

, Department of the Army, Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, p. 7.

6

Disease kills 15,779:

Preventive Medicine in World War II

, vol. IV:

Communicable

Diseases

, Office of Surgeon General, Department of Army, Washington, D.C., 1958, Table 1.

7

In the Fifteenth Air Force, 70 percent of KIA: Mae Mill Link and Hubert A. Coleman, “Medical Support of Army Air Forces in World War II,” Office of the Surgeon General, USAF, Washington, D.C., 1955, p. 516.

8

Super Man

flies into storms: Louis Zamperini, diary, January 1943; Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 18, 2006.

9

Planes land together, bulldozer: Frank Rosynek, email interview, June 15, 2005.

10

“The takeoff”: Frank Rosynek, “Not Everybody Wore Wings,” unpublished memoir.

11

Foot on “off” switch: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 18, 2006.

12

Plane hits mountain: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

13

Inadvertent release of life raft: Britt, p. 13.

14

Navigation difficulties: John Weller, email interview, September 21, 2006; John Weller, “The History and Flight Log, Jeter Crew,” unpublished memoir.

15

“We just sat there”: Martin Cohn, telephone interview, August 10, 2005.

16

Half of a Zero on B-24 wing: Cleveland, p. 103.

17

Japanese range finders: Louis Zamperini, diary, March 1, 1943.

18

B-24 drops mine into another: Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005; Cleveland, pp. 130, 137, 181–82.

19

AAF combat deaths:

Army Battle Casualties

, p. 7.

20

Odds of dying: Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005.

21

Ditching: W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate, eds.,

The Army Air Forces in World War II

, vol. XII:

Services Around the World

(Chicago: University of Chicago, 1966), p. 482.

22

Statistics on ditching: Johnsen, p. 29.

23

Death of Almond: John Henry, “Flier Wins 18-Hour Fight with Sharks,”

San Antonio Light

, July 13, 1943.

24

Rescue statistics: “Air Sea Rescue 1941–1952,” USAF Historical Division, Air University, August 1954, pp. 66–99; Air Force Historical Studies Office, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

25

Half of Catalinas crashed: Craven and Cate, p. 493.

26

September 1942 raft ordeal: Cleveland, p. 237.

27

Raft found off Christmas Island: Katharina Chase, “Unraveling a WWII Mystery,”

Defence

, November–December 2006.

28

Rape of Nanking: Chang, pp. 4–104; Yuki Tanaka,

Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II

(Boulder: Westview, 1996), p. 80.

29

Rumors of Japanese killing on Kwajalein: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

30

All but one man choosing to die in crash: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

31

Nervous airman: John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005.

32

Louie copes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, early 1943 entries; Russell Allen Phillips, letters to Cecy Perry, spring 1943.

33

Bracelet, silver dollar: Russell Allen Phillips, letters to Cecy Perry, August 20, 1942, and March 25, 1943.

34

“When I do get”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, March 10, 1943.

35

Tradition of drinking booze of lost men: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

Chapter 9: Five Hundred and Ninety-four Holes

1

Exploding sharks: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

Makin, Tarawa missions: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, February 17, 20, 1943; Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007.

3

Sharks circle: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, March 5, 1943; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, March 5, 1943.

4

Shooting sharks: Louis Zamperini, diary, April 3, 1943.

5

Nauru: Jack D. Haden, “Nauru: A Middle Ground During World War II,” Pacific Islands Report, Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawaii at Manoa,

http://166.122.164.43/archive/2000/April/04-03-19.htm

(accessed September 13, 2009); Jane Resture, “Nauru: A Short History,”

http://www.janeresture.com/nauru_history/index.htm

(accessed September 13, 2009); Britt, p. 34.

6

Nauru preparations: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, April 17, 19, 1943.

7

“We only hope”: Louis Zamperini, diary, April 15, 1943.

8

Nauru raid: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, April 20–22, 1943, and memoranda; Charles McMurtry, “Liberator, Hit 594 Times, Wings Home Safely,”

Richmond News Leader

, May 14, 1943; “Catonsville Air Gunner Has 95 Raids to Credit,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, May 1, 1943; “Shapleigh Youth, Injured, Credited with Downing Zero,” undated article from papers of Stanley Pillsbury, NPN; Cleveland, pp. 257, 349–50; Howard and Whitley, pp. 137–38; Charles P. Arnot, “Bombardier Zamperini Saves Lives in Shell-Riddled Plane,”

Oakland Tribune

, May 4, 1943; Charles P. Arnot, “Japanese Phosphate Plants Are Blown Up,”

Honolulu Advertiser

, May 1, 1943; “Gen. Landon, Bomber Commander, Tells the Story of Nauru Attack,” May 5, 1943, from papers of Louis Zamperini, NPN; “Two Southland Officers Classified as Heroes in South Pacific Dispatches,”

Long Beach Press-Telegram

, May 4, 1943; Charles P. Arnot, “Lt. Phillips on Another ‘Thriller,’ ” May 4, 1943, from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Brave Flying Son of Pickett Chaplain Bears Charmed Life,” May 1943, article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Yank Pilot, Son of Pickett Chaplain, Saves Crewmen,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Charles P. Arnot, “Lieut. Phillips Escapes Death on Pacific Raid,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “His Toughest Fight: Lou Zamperini, Former Track Star, Aids Five Wounded as Plane Limps Home,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Charles P. Arnot, “Track Star in Heroic Role,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Charles P. Arnot, “Raid on Nauru Told in Detail by Eyewitness,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; “Lou Zamperini Plays Great Role on Bombing Trip,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Charles P. Arnot, “Zamperini, S.C. Track Star, in Epic Air Adventure,”

Los Angeles Herald Express

, May 4, 1943; Charles P. Arnot, “Track Star Zamperini Hero in Jap Air Fight,”

Los Angeles Herald Express

, May 4, 1943.

9

“a volcano-like mass”: Charles P. Arnot, “Raid on Nauru Told in Detail by Eyewitness,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

10

Eight hundred rounds per minute: “Pistol Packin’ Warplanes,”

Popular Mechanics

, April 1944, p. 2.

11

If he’d just:

Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 26, 2004.

12

“

Ow!”:

Ibid.

13

One more pass:

Louis Zamperini, diary, April 1943, memoranda page.

14

I have to kill:

Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 26, 2004.

15

Japanese never retrieved phosphates: Jane Resture, “Nauru: A Short History,”

http://www.janeresture.com/nauru_history/index.htm

(accessed September 13, 2009).

16

Pillsbury’s injuries: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 26, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, April 20–22, 1943, and memoranda page.

17

Manual alternatives to flaps, gear:

Flight Manual: B-24D

, pp. 71–75.

18

standard landing speed: Charlie Tilghman, B-24 pilot, Commemorative Air Force, telephone interview, February 14, 2007;

B-24 Liberator Pilot Training Manual

.

19

B-24 without brakes needed 10,000 feet: Charlie Tilghman, B-24 pilot, Commemorative Air Force, telephone interview, February 14, 2007.

20

“all torn to pieces” Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 26, 2004.

21

Parachute idea: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 26, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, April 1943, memoranda page.

22

Belle of Texas:

Cleveland, pp. 183, 464; 11th Bomb Group (H),

The Gray Geese

(Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing, 1996), p. 73.

23

594 holes: Charles McMurtry, “Liberator, Hit 594 Times, Wings Home Safely,”

Richmond News Leader

, May 14, 1943.

24

“He didn’t make it”: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, March 9, 2005.

25

Brooks family informed: “Sergt. H. V. Brooks Served in Pacific,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

Chapter 10: The Stinking Six

1

Funafuti bombing: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, diary, April 21–23, 1943; John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005; Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005; Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005; Frank Rosynek, “Not Everybody Wore Wings,” unpublished memoir; Frank Rosynek, email interview, June 15, 2005; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, May 1, 1943; Cleveland, p. 346; Britt, pp. 36–37; Howard and Whitley, pp. 138–44; Jesse Stay, “Twenty-nine Months in the Pacific,” unpublished memoir; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

2

“I looked around”: John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005.

3

Man runs into ocean: Howard and Whitley, p. 140.

4

Ladd saves natives: Howard and Whitley, p. 139; Philip Scearce, email interview, July 11, 2008.

5

“This feels like it, boys”: Howard and Whitley, p. 140.

6

“like animals crying”: Ibid., p. 143.

7

“I wasn’t only scared”: Cleveland, p. 258.

8

Phil’s fear: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Reverend Russell Phillips, May 2, 1943.

9

“seemed like a railroad carload”: Frank Rosynek, “Not Everybody Wore Wings,” unpublished memoir.

10

“like the whole island”: Cleveland, p. 346.

11

Fourteen Japanese bombers: Britt, pp. 36–37.

12

“the Stinking Six”: Frank Rosynek, email interview, June 15, 2005.

13

Doctor works on Pillsbury: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007.

14

“hamburgered”: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 27, 2004, March 9, 2005, August 18, 2006, January 23 and April 21, 2007.

15

Lambert’s ninety-five missions: “Catonsville Air Gunner Has 95 Raids to Credit,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

16

Palmyra, depression, Kualoa: Louis Zamperini, diary, April–May 1943.

17

Francis McNamara: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

18

Green Hornet:

Cleveland, p. 159; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

19

Phil meets Smith: George Smith, letter to Cecy Perry, June 19, 1943.

20

Corpening’s plane: Missing Air Crew Report 4945, May 26, 1943 (National Archives Microfiche Publication M13801, Fiche 1767); Missing Air Crew Reports of the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942–1947; Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92; NACP.

Chapter 11: “Nobody’s Going to Live Through This”

1

Louie on May 27, 1943: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

“There was only one ship”: Louis Zamperini, diary, May 27, 1943.

3

If we’re not back in a week:

Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

Search preparations: John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Missing Aircraft Report 4945, Missing Air Crew Reports of the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942–1947; Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92; NACP; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

5

Preparing for takeoff: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

6

Planes side by side: Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005.

7

Phil tells Deasy to go ahead: Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir.

8

Searching: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

9

Phil and Cuppernell switch seats: Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

10

Engine dies, wrong engine feathered: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

11

“Prepare to crash”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

12

Plane falls: Ibid.

13

Nobody’s going to live through this:

Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

14

Louie and Phil’s experiences in crash: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Sandra Provan, “LP Man’s Part of Olympics,”

La Porte Herald-Argus

, February 18, 1988.

PART III

Chapter 12: Downed

1

Crash aftermath: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Sandra Provan, “LP Man’s Part of Olympics,”

La Porte Herald-Argus

, February 18, 1988.

2

“I’m glad it was you”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

3

Phil didn’t have bracelet, silver dollar: Ibid.

4

Contents of rafts: Ibid.

5

Contents of 1944 rafts:

Emergency Procedure: B-24

, pp. 26–27.

6

“Gibson Girl,” Delano Sunstill: Louis Meulstee, “Gibson Girl,” Wireless for the Warrior,

http://home.hccnet.nl/l.meulstee/gibsongirl/gibsongirl.html

(accessed August 8, 2005); Craven and Cate, pp. 486, 491.

7

“We’re going to die!”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

8

Hours after crash: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; “Mr. Phillips on CBS, Our Hero, Mr. Phillips,” undated article from papers of Karen Loomis, NPN; Gene Stowe, “He Shared Raft with Olympian,”

South Bend Herald Tribune

, March 2, 1998.

9

Phil shaking, sharks rubbing against rafts: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

Chapter 13: Missing at Sea

1

Events on Palmyra: John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005; Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005.

2

Search: John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005; Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005; “42nd Bombardment Squadron history,” AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

3

“we kept hoping”: Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005.

4

Chocolate incident: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview. For the sake of Mac and his family, Louie would not tell of the chocolate incident for many years, instead saying either that the chocolate had been eaten early in the journey or that it had been lost to the sea. Phil, too, would protect Mac, saying that the chocolate was lost in the sea.

5

B-25 flies over: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945; Louis Zamperini, POW diary (entered when Louie began keeping diary, after October 1943). In later years, Zamperini would speak of the B-24 flying over before the B-25, but in all of his early accounts, including the history he gave to his squadron upon repatriation and the diary he kept as a POW, he stated that the B-25 flew over first. In a 2008 interview, he confirmed that his early accounts were correct.

6

B-24 flies over: See note above, about B-25 flying over; also: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005; Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945; Louis Zamperini, POW diary, May 30, 1943 entry (entered when Louie began keeping diary, after October 1943).

7

“If we ever looked”: Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005.

8

Smitty sightings: 42nd squadron activity log, May 30, 1943, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

9

“Cuppernell, Phillips, Zamperini”: Cleveland, p. 159.

10

Mac snaps: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

11

Louie prays: Ibid.

12

Letters home, Zamperinis see Cuppernells: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Reverend Russell Phillips, May 15, 1943; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, May 15, 1943; Peter Zamperini, letter to Louis Zamperini, June 3, 1943; Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004; Louis Zamperini, letter to Payton Jordan, May 27, 1943.

13

“I sure hope”: Reverend Russell Phillips, letter to Martha Heustis, May 6, 1943.

14

Search ends: Lester Herman Scearce, Jr., telephone interview, March 11, 2005.

15

Krey visits cottage: Jack Krey, telephone interview, August 18, 2005.

16

Telegram to Kelsey Phillips: telegram, Adjutant General to Kelsey Phillips, June 4, 1943.

17

Zamperinis react: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004; Peter Zamperini, telephone interviews, October 15, 17, 19, 22, 2004.

18

“Life of Zamp”: George T. Davis, “Zamperini Career Brilliant, Life of Zamp,”

Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express

, June 5, 1943.

19

Jordan learns news: Payton Jordan, telephone interviews, August 13, 16, 2004.

20

Louise’s hand sores: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

21

Pillsbury and Douglas: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006.

22

Pillsbury’s remainder of war: Ibid.

23

Flag hung: Jack Cuddy, “Flag Hangs in Memory of Zamperini,”

Syracuse

(N.Y.)

Herald-Journal

, June 24, 1943.

Chapter 14: Thirst

1

Heat: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

2

Rain falls, catching water: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

3

Phil cold at night: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

4

Phil thought birds must have thought them jetsam: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

5

Catching albatross: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

6

Fishing: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

What more bad luck could they have?: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

8

Sniffing wax: Ibid.

9

Phil’s thoughts of Rickenbacker: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, March 10, 1943.

10

Rickenbacker’s ordeal: Edward Rickenbacker, “Pacific Mission, Part I,”

Life

, January 25, 1943, pp. 20–26, 90–100; Edward Rickenbacker, “Pacific Mission, Part III,”

Life

, February 8, 1943, pp. 94–106; Edward Rickenbacker,

Seven Came Through

(Garden City: Doubleday, 1951).

11

Navy men survive on raft in 1942: Robert Trumbull,

The Raft

(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1942).

12

Poon Lim: “Tells of 132 Days on Raft,”

NYT

, May 25, 1943 (title was incorrect as to number of days); “Poon Lim,” Fact Archive,

http://www.fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Poon_Lim

(accessed September 15, 2009).

13

Phil thinking of how long they’d been floating: Russell Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

14

Quizzing: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

15

Mac’s withdrawal: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

16

“If there was one thing left”: Russell Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997. 147 Phil’s faith: Karen Loomis, telephone interview, November 17, 2004.

17

“I had told Al”: Reverned Russell Phillips, letter to Martha Heustis, May 6, 1943.

18

Bodies declining: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

19

Cannibalism: Neil Hanson,

The Custom of the Sea: A Shocking True Tale of Shipwreck

,

Murder, and the Last Taboo

(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1999); Nathaniel Philbrick,

In the Heart of the Sea

(New York: Viking, 2000).

21

Cannibalism not considered: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

22

Praying, second albatross, catching fish, bandage rotting: Ibid.

23

Dolphins: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

24

Hooks on fingers: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

25

Catching birds: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

26

Lice, chasing rain: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

27

Phil overboard: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

28

Prayer followed by rain: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

Chapter 15: Sharks and Bullets

1

Strafing: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; “Mr. Phillips on CBS, Our Hero, Mr. Phillips,” undated article from papers of Karen Loomis, NPN; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Alberta H. Jones, “La Porte War Hero Takes Part in Zamperini Show,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN; Louis Zamperini, POW diary, June 23, 1943, entry.

2

Phil thinks America will win: “Mr. Phillips on CBS, Our Hero, Mr. Phillips,” undated article from papers of Karen Loomis, NPN.

3

Sharks attacking: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir.

4

Patching: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

5

Transforming Phil’s raft: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

6

Estimating distance from land: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

Chapter 16: Singing in the Clouds

1

Sharks try to jump into raft: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

Attempt to catch shark: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

3

Great white: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

Mac asking Louie if he would die: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

5

Death of Mac: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

6

Louie catches fish with lieutenant’s pin: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

Declining bodies: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

8

Doldrums: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

9

Sharpening intellect: Ibid.

10

Louie hears singing: Ibid.

11

More birds: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

12

More planes: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

13

Storm coming: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

14

Phil enjoys swells: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

15

Sighting island: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Louis Zamperini, POW diary, July 12, 1943, entry.

Chapter 17: Typhoon

1

Islands appearing: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

2

Discussing land matter-of-factly: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

3

Rowing parallel to islands: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

4

Storm hits: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

5

Catastrophic typhoon: Keith Heidorn, PhD, email interview, March 24, 2008; “Foochow Flooded After Typhoon,”

Nevada State Journal

(Reno), July 24, 1943.

6

Smelling land, listening to surf: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

Waking among islands: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

8

Seeing planes: Ibid.

9

Capture: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Louis Zamperini, POW diary, July 13, 1943, entry.

10

Swatting beard with bayonet, cigarettes burn beards: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

11

Questioned, taken into custody: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

12

“These are American fliers”: Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

13

Weight: Russell Allen Phillips, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, affidavit, November 1, 1945, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif. Notes that Louie made in 1946 state that he weighed 67 pounds, and in later interviews, he would say that he was told that his weight was 30 kilos, 66 pounds. But in at least three interviews given just after repatriation, he was quoted as saying that he had weighed 87 pounds, and in a signed affidavit made immediately after the war, he was quoted as saying that he weighed 79½ pounds. In one interview just after the war, he also said he weighed 79 pounds. Phil’s postwar affidavit stated that he weighed about 150 at the time of the crash and 80 at capture. In the CBS interview, Phil stated that he and Louie weighed the same—about 80 pounds—at capture.

14

First meal: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

15

Interviewed about journey: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

16

Told that they were in Marshalls: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Louis Zamperini, POW diary; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview. It is unclear which atoll they were told they were on. In one 1945 interview, a 1946 affidavit, and a 1988 interview, Louie stated that they were told that it was Maloelap, but in many other interviews, as well as in the POW diary that he began shortly after his capture, he stated that they were told they were on Wotje. Phil also stated that it was Wotje.

17

Forty-eight bullet holes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

18

They are our friends:

Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

19

“After you leave here”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

20

Sick on freighter: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

21

Conditions on Kwajalein: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Louis Zamperini and Russell Allen Phillips, affidavits, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

22

NINE MARINES:

Tripp Wiles,

Forgotten Raiders of ’42: The Fate of the Marines Left Behind on Makin

(Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2007), photo caption.

23

All I see:

Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

PART IV

Chapter 18: A Dead Body Breathing

1

Hardtack, tea: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

2

Meeting native: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

3

Forced to sleep by waste hole: Ibid.

4

Diarrhea: Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

5

Boiling water thrown in face: Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

6

Louie hears singing: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

Phil’s ordeal: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Russell Allen Phillips, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.

8

Carving name in wall: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

9

“What’s going to happen?”: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

10

Guards’ cruelty: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

11

“I was literally”: Raymond Halloran, email interview, March 3, 2008.

12

Louie’s interrogation: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

13

Women sexually enslaved: Chang, pp. 52–53.

14

“a ruptured octopus”: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

15

Phil’s interrogation: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997; Russell Allen Phillips, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.

16

Kawamura: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA. Louie would later be unsure if the name was Kawamura or Kawamuda, but the former is almost certainly correct, as it is a common name.

17

Sub men attack: Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

18

Medical experimentation: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Russell Allen Phillips, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

19

Japanese experiment on captives: Tanaka, pp. 135–65; Gary K. Reynolds,

U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian American Citizens Captured and Interned by Japan in World War II: The Issue of Compensation by Japan

, Congressional Research Service, December 17, 2002, pp. 19–21.

20

Dengue fever: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

21

Second round of interrogation: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

22

Condemned, then saved from execution: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

Chapter 19: Two Hundred Silent Men

1

Attacked on ship: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

2

Sailor knocking on Louie’s head, beaten in car: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

3

Louie allowed to bathe: Ibid.

4

Meeting Sasaki, “We meet again”: Ibid.

5

“unarmed combatants”: William R. Gill and Davis P. Newton, “A Compilation of Biographical Source Documents Concerning Major William Herald Walker, U.S. Army Air Force (1919–1945), a Prisoner of War in Japan During World War II,” 1999, p. 15.

6

Life in Ofuna: Yuzuru Sanematsu, “A Record of the Aftermath of Ofuna POW Camp,”

Shukan Yomiuri

, August 1974, translated from Japanese; William R. Gill and Davis P. Newton, “A Compilation of Biographical Source Documents Concerning Major William Herald Walker, U.S. Army Air Force (1919–1945), a Prisoner of War in Japan During World War II,” 1999; “Ofuna: Dolder Rescue Team Report,” September 22, 1945,

http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/tokyo/ofuna/ofuna.html

(accessed September 20, 2009); Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Jean Balch, letter to legal section, prosecution division, SCAP, January 18, 1948; Gamble, p. 321; Affidavit, Arthur Laurence Maher, from Case Docket No. 218: Nakakichi Asoma et al. (vol. II, part 2 of 2 sections, exhibits, 1945–1949), RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), Record of the Trial File, 1945–49, NACP; John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Gregory Boyington,

Baa Baa Black Sheep

(New York: Bantam, 1977), pp. 251–53; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issues 1–2, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith; “Main Subject Is on Ofuna POW Camp, February 1946–July 1947” and “Main Subject Is on Ofuna POW Camp, September 1945–May 1947,” RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), Miscellaneous Subject File, NACP; information on Ofuna from the following files on Kunichi Sasaki and James Kunichi Sasaki in RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration and Prosecution Divisions (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), NACP: Kunichi Sasaki et al., 1945–1948, Investigation and Interrogation Reports; Nakakichi Asoma et al., trial, exhibits, appeal, and clemency files, NACP; Nakakichi Asoma, 1945–1952, POW 201 File, 1945–1952, Charges and Specifications, 1945–1948, NACP; Yuichi Hatto,

Aa, Omori Shuyojo

(Tokyo: Kyoshin Shuppan, 2004), translated from Japanese.

7

“My job”: Glenn McConnell, telephone interview, June 8, 2007.

8

“were of such intensity”: Affidavit, Glenn McConnell, from files on Sueharu Kitamura, RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), NACP.

9

“Iron must be beaten”: Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004.

10

“No strong soldiers”: Ibid.

11

“transfer of oppression”: Chang, p. 217; Tanaka, p. 204.

12

Japanese view of Westerners, “Anglo-Saxon devils”: Shoichi Ishizuka, “About Naoetsu POW Camp,”

Gaiko Forum

, June 2006.

13

Japanese view of capture: Yuichi Hatto,

Aa, Omori Shuyojo

(Tokyo: Kyoshin Shuppan, 2004), translated from Japanese; Shoichi Ishizuka, “About Naoetsu POW Camp,”

Gaiko Forum

, June 2006.

14

“Have regard for”: Shoichi Ishizuka, “About Naoetsu POW Camp,”

Gaiko Forum

, June 2006.

15

“the night of a thousand suicides”: “Cowra Outbreak, 1944,” Fact Sheet 198, National Archives of Australia,

http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/publications/fact-sheets/fs198.aspx

(accessed September 23, 2009); Harry Gordon,

Voyage from Shame: The Cowra Breakout and Afterwards

(Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1994). While the Cowra incident is sometimes described simply as an escape attempt, the event’s authoritative historian, Harry Gordon, describes it as a “mass suicide bid.” While some Japanese POWs remained in camp and committed suicide or were killed by other POWs, those who made the breakout run, including hundreds who ran directly at camp machine guns, were trying to force the Australians to kill them. According to one survivor, they carried weapons to “show hostility … so they would surely be shot at” and carried implements to use to kill themselves if the Australians didn’t kill them. Some who successfully escaped later killed themselves to avoid recapture.

16

Frederick Douglass: Frederick Douglass,

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

(Cheswold: Prestwick House, 2004), p. 33.

17

Kitamura: Files on Sueharu Kitamura, RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), NACP.

18

Hirose saves POW from beating: Affidavit, Frederick Dewitt Turnbull, from Case Docket No. 216: Katsuo Kohara (Vol. I, Record of Trial–Vol. II, Exhibits) 1945–1949, RG 331, RAOOH, WWII 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), NACP.

19

Child’s sympathy for POWs: Lewis Bush,

Clutch of Circumstance

(Tokyo: Okuyama, 1956), p. 184.

20

“The general opinion”: Yukichi Kano, “Statement of Yukichi Kano Tokio P.O.W. Camp H.Q. (Omori),” undated, from papers of Robert Martindale.

21

Sympathetic guard assaulted: Boyington, p. 257.

22

Food: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Boyington, pp. 270–71; Gamble, p. 328; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

23

“We were dying”: Jean Balch, “Yorktown Aviator: My Experience as Prisoner of War,”

www.ussyorktown.com/yorktown/pow.htm

(accessed July 1, 2004).

24

Beriberi: Alfred A. Weinstein,

Barbed Wire Surgeon

(New York: Lancer Books, 1965), p. 83; Tom Henling Wade,

Prisoner of the Japanese

(Kenthurst, Australia: Kangaroo, 1994), p. 44; Gamble, p. 324.

25

Tarawa: Gavan Daws,

Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific

(New York: William Morrow, 1994), p. 278.

26

Ballale: Peter Stone,

Hostages to Freedom

(Yarram, Australia: Oceans Enterprises, 2006).

27

Wake massacre: Daws, p. 279; Major Mark E. Hubbs, “Massacre on Wake Island,” Yorktown Sailor,

http://www.yorktownsailor.com/yorktown/massacre.html

(accessed October 18, 2009).

28

“kill-all” rule and “At such time”: Entry from the Journal of the Taiwan POW Camp H.Q. in Taihoku, Aug. 1, 1944, Document 2701, certified as Exhibit O in Document 2687; Numerical Evidentiary Documents Assembled as Evidence by the Prosecution for Use as Evidence Before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1945–1947 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1690, roll 346, frame 540), RAOOH, WWII, RG 331, NACP.

29

“If there is any fear” (May 1944 order): V. Dennis Wrynn, “American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan,”

World War II

, November 1997.

Chapter 20: Farting for Hirohito

1

Farting guard: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

Maher: Affidavit, Arthur Laurence Maher, from Case Docket No. 218: Nakakichi Asoma et al. (vol. II, part 2 of 2 sections, exhibits), 1945–1949), RG 331: RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), Record of the Trial File, 1945–49; Robert Martindale,

The 13th Mission

(Austin: Eakin, 1998), pp. 109–10.

3

Fitzgerald: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

4

Harris: Edgar D. Whitcomb,

Escape from Corregidor

(New York: Paperback Library, 1967), pp. 106–59, 284; Katey Meares, email interviews, March 14, 17, 18, 27, 2008.

5

Photographic memory: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

6

Sasaki’s behavior: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Gamble, p. 323; the following records of Kunichi Sasaki and James Kunichi Sasaki, from the NACP, RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Admumstration Division and Prosecution Division: Kunichi Sasaki, Isamu Sato, Kazuo Akane, 1945–1948, Investigation and Interrogation Reports; Nakakichi Asoma et al., trial, exhibits, appeal, and clemency files; Nakakichi Asoma et al., 1945–1952, POW 201 File, 1945–1952, Charges and Specifications, 1945–1948.

7

Gaga: Glenn McConnell, telephone interview, June 8, 2007; Boyington, pp. 255–56.

8

“to rest their tortured brains”: Boyington, p. 256.

9

Phil doing calisthenics: Russell Allen Phillips, television interview, CBS, La Porte, Ind., January 1997.

10

“I’ll never fly again”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

11

Maher tells captive to steal: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

12

Morse code: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Johan Arthur Johansen, email interview, March 26, 2005.

13

Louie tells of mother’s cooking: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Boyington, p. 271; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

14

Guard nicknames: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Jean Balch, letter to Legal Section, Prosecution Division, SCAP, January 18, 1948; Boyington, p. 258.

15

Speaking offensively to guards: Boyington, pp. 267–68.

16

Convincing guard that sundial worked at night: Boyington, pp. 264–65.

17

Farting at Hirohito: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Gamble, p. 325.

18

POW diary: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

19

Guards say they shot Lincoln and torpedoed D.C.: Constance Humphrey, “A Taste of Food from Skies,”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

, March 29, 1946.

20

Papers stolen during interrogation: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

21

Fall 1943: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 1, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith.

22

Officials stealing food: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Boyington, pp. 290–91.

23

“To give you an idea”: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

24

Smoking: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

25

Collapsing at baseball, editor comes to camp: Ibid.

26

Race against a Japanese runner: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

27

Asking Sasaki to help, Mead and Duva: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

28

Minsaas dies: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 2, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith; Johan Arthur Johansen, email interview, March 26, 2005.

29

“We … believed”: Johan Arthur Johansen, email interview, March 26, 2005.

30

Christiansen gives coat: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

31

Garrett: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Fred Garrett, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.

32

Tinker: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

33

Mental clarity of Tinker, Harris: Ibid.

34

Louie’s second race: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

35

“made me a professional”: Ibid.

36

Phil taken away: Russell Allen Phillips, affidavit, John D. Murphy Collection, HIA, Stanford, Calif.

37

Zentsuji said to be good camp: Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

38

Phil sent to Ashio: Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir.

39

Ashio: Roger Mansell, “Ashio POW Camp,” Center for Research, Allied POWs Under the Japanese,

http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/tokyo/Ashio/ashio_main.html

, Palo Alto, Calif. (accessed September 19, 2009).

40

Phil’s letter burned: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, April 1944; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir.

Chapter 21: Belief

1

Sylvia crying: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

2

Zamperinis coping: Ibid.; Peter Zamperini, telephone interviews, October 15, 17, 19, 22, 2004; Peter Zamperini, letter to Louis Zamperini, June 3, 1943.

3

Louise writes to General Hale: Louise Zamperini, diary notes, July 13, 1943; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

Louie’s trunk arrives: Louise Zamperini, diary notes, October 6, 1943.

5

Gifts for Louie: Louis Zamperini, letter to Edwin Wilber, May 1946.

6

Christmas card for Louie: From papers of Louis Zamperini.

7

“The entire island”:

Eastern Mandates

(Washington, D.C.: Center for Military History Publications, 1993), p. 14.

8

Wood slat: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

9

Papers on Kwajalein: John Joseph Deasy, telephone interview, April 4, 2005.

10

“I was happy”: Ibid.

11

Condolence letter: Henry Rahaley, letter to Reverend and Mrs. Phillips, June 16, 1943.

12

Oak-leaf clusters: Reverend Russell Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, July 28, 1943.

13

Reverend Phillips’s plaque: Reverend Russell Phillips, letter to Martha Heustis, March 17, 1944.

14

“I think I have”: Reverend Russell Phillips, letter to Martha Heustis, August 4, 1943.

15

Smitty’s letter to Cecy: George Smith, letter to Cecy Perry, June 19, 1943.

16

Cecy moves to D.C., visits fortune-teller: Terry Hoffman, telephone interview, March 6, 2007.

17

“This year sure”: Delia Robinson, letter to Louise Zamperini, June 23, 1944.

18

“We thought surely”: Mrs. A. J. Deane, letter to Louise Zamperini, June 27, 1944.

19

Death notice: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

20

“None of us”: Ibid.

21

Plan to find Louie: Peter Zamperini, telephone interview, October 19, 2004.

Chapter 22: Plots Afoot

1

Escape plot: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

Rations cut: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

3

Louie stealing food, starching shirts: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

Barbering job: Ibid.

5

Official says POWs will be killed: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

6

Stealing map from Mummy: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

Getting info about Saipan: Ibid.

8

Sasaki’s sudden change: Ibid.

9

Murder on Tinian: Eric Lash, “Historic Island of Tinian,”

Environmental Services

, October 2008, vol. 1, 2nd edition; Major General Donald Cook, “20th Air Force Today,”

20th Air Force Association Newsletter

, Fall 1998.

10

Infestation, leeches, “You should be happy”: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

11

Fitzgerald sees stealing: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

12

Putrid fish, Quack beating: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

13

Murder of Gaga: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

14

Louie thinking of home: Ibid.

15

Plan to escape by boat: Ibid.

16

Doolittle raid: Kennedy Hickman, “World War II: The Doolittle Raid,”

About.com

,

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/aerialcampaigns/p/doolittleraid.htm

(accessed October 15, 2009).

17

Kindness of civilians: Boyington, pp. 304–05.

18

Murder of Chinese civilians: Chang, p. 216; Kennedy Hickman, “World War II: The Doolittle Raid,”

About.com

,

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/aerialcampaigns/p/doolittleraid.htm

(accessed October 15, 2009).

19

Average Japanese soldier five foot three: “Battle of the Pacific: How Japs Fight,”

Time

, February 15, 1943; Tar Shioya, “The Conflict Behind the Battle Lines,”

San Francisco Chronicle

, September 24, 1995.

20

Civilians attack POWs: Milton McMullen, telephone interview, February 16, 2005; K. P. Burke,

Proof Through the Night: A B-29 Pilot Captive in Japan—the Earnest Pickett Story

(Salem, Ore.: Opal Creek, 2001), p. 88; Fiske Hanley II,

Accused American War Criminal

(Austin: Eakin, 1997), pp. 68–69.

21

Preparations for escape, “a fearful joy”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

22

Suspension of plan: Ibid.

23

Newspaper theft, Harris beating: Ibid.; files on Sueharu Kitamura, RG 331, RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), NACP; Glenn McConnell, telephone interview, June 8, 2007; John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Gamble, p. 328.

24

Sasaki’s advice: Affidavit, Louis Zamperini, in file of Nakakichi Asoma, 1945–1952, RG 331: RAOOH, WWII, SCAP, Legal Section, Administration Division (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?), Charges and Specifications, 1945–1948, NACP.

Chapter 23: Monster

1

Appearance of Omori: Bush, p. 150.

2

POW likens Omori to the moon: Wade, p. 83.

3

No birds: Ray “Hap” Halloran and Chester Marshall,

Hap’s War

(Menlo Park, Calif.: Hallmark, n.d.).

4

Watanabe’s appearance: Weinstein, p. 228; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

5

Liken to paws: Draggan Mihailovich, email interview, August 3, 2007.

6

Louie meeting Watanabe: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

This man:

Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

8

Building fire: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

9

Watanabe’s history: Martindale, pp. 92–93; Wade, pp. 103–04; Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004; James, p. 278; Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vols. 1–3, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP; “From Chief of Hyogo Prefectural Police Force,” November 21, 1950, report, from papers of Frank Tinker.

10

Japanese sign but don’t ratify Geneva Convention: Tanaka, p. 73.

11

Slavery: Martindale, p. 90; Wade, pp. 97–99, 129; Bush, pp. 152–53; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 3, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith.

12

Lifting thirty tons a day: Wade, p. 99.

13

Men paid ten yen per month: Martindale, p. 111.

14

Those who don’t work receive half rations: Bush, p. 160.

15

Food at Omori: Martindale, p. 120; Bush, p. 159.

16

Nicknames: Ernest O. Norquist,

Our Paradise: A GI’s War Diary

(Hancock, Wisc.: Pearl-Win, 1989), p. 293; Bush, p. 205.

17

Watanabe’s first days: Wade, pp. 103–05; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; Bush, pp. 176–79.

18

Hatto thinks Watanabe mad: Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004.

19

“He suddenly saw”: Tom Wade, telephone interview, September 17, 2005.

20

“He did enjoy hurting”: Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004.

21

Watanabe’s behavior: Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP; Martindale, pp. 95–110, 130, 144–55; Robert Martindale, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; Norquist, pp. 277–79, 283–84; Wade, pp. 103–08; Weinstein, pp. 228–33, 247, 256; Derek (Nobby) Clarke,

No Cook’s Tour

(Hereford, Eng.: Authors OnLine, 2005), pp. 114–16; Donald Knox,

Death March: The Survivors of Bataan

(San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), p. 377; James, pp. 277–83.

22

Watanabe’s fame: James, p. 278; Affidavit, Arthur Laurence Maher, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

23

“punishment camp”: Martindale, pp. 104–05.

24

“the most vicious guard”: Affidavit, Arthur Laurence Maher, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

25

“He was absolutely”: Knox, p. 379.

26

Beating POW, then becoming placid: Weinstein, p. 230.

27

Forcing men to be his friends: Martindale, pp. 149–50; Clarke, p. 116; Robert Martindale, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

28

Watanabe despised by guards: Bush, p. 200; Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004.

29

“tense, sitting-on-the-edge-of-a-volcano”: Clarke, p. 116.

Chapter 24: Hunted

1

Louie enters main body of Omori: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

Lessons on avoiding the Bird: Norquist, pp. 278–79; Wade, p. 124; Bush, p. 187; Weinstein, pp. 228–33; Clarke, pp. 114–16; J. Watt Hinson, email interview, July 26, 2004.

3

The Bird’s office: Martindale, p. 78.

4

Louie not registered with Red Cross: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

5

Attacked every day: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

6

“number one prisoner”: CBS Television, “48 Hours: Race to Freedom,” 1998.

7

“After the first few days in camp”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

8

The Bird forces officers to work: Clarke, p. 114; Martindale, p. 97; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Weinstein, p. 249.

9

Cleaning

benjos:

Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Martindale, pp. 99–100; Lewis Bush, p. 186; Clarke, p. 114.

10

“The motto”: Martindale, p. 100.

11

Sabotage, stealing: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Milton McMullen, telephone interview, February 16, 2005; Martindale, pp. 127–28, 156–72; Wade, pp. 97–99, 129; Bush, p. 161; Johan Arthur Johansen, email interview, March 26, 2005; Weinstein, pp. 243–45; Gloria Ross, “A Singular Man,”

Airman

, January 1982; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

12

“University of Thievery”: Martindale, pp. 168–69.

13

Stealing ingredients for cake: Ibid., p. 128.

14

Louie gets sugar for Tinker: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

15

Only two deaths after school created: Martindale, p. 169.

16

Louie beaten: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

17

Sakaba watches beating: Ibid.

18

The Bird holding power over superiors: Norquist, p. 279; Wade, p. 120; Weinstein, p. 255.

19

Watanabe’s impunity: Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004.

20

Kind guards: Bush, p. 200; Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004; Boyington, pp. 302–03; Martindale, p. 195; Norquist, p. 288; Gamble, p. 336; Yukichi Kano, “Statement of Yukichi Kano Tokio P.O.W. Camp H.Q. (Omori),” undated, from papers of Robert Martindale.

21

Red Cross inspection: Martindale, p. 123; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

22

Louie’s defiance: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

23

Postman Calls:

E. Bartlett Kerr,

Surrender and Survival: The Experience of American POWs in the Pacific, 1941–1945

(New York: William Morrow, 1985), pp. 189–90; “The Zero Hour,”

Glasgow.com

,

http://www.glasglow.com/e2/th/The_Zero_Hour.html

(accessed September 25, 2009).

24

Radio message: E. H. Stephan, postcard to Zamperini family, October 18, 1944.

25

Louie knew nothing of broadcast: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

26

Message in Trona: E. H. Stephan, postcard to Zamperini family, October 18, 1944, stamp on card.

Chapter 25: B-29

1

Louie taking wheelbarrow to Tokyo: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

State of Tokyo: Milton McMullen, telephone interview, February 16, 2005; Bush, pp. 213, 222–23; Weinstein, p. 248.

3

Graffiti: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

4

B-29: “Boeing B-29 Superfortress,” Military Factory,

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=82

(accessed October 15, 2009).

5

Steakley’s flight: E. Bartlett Kerr,

Flames over Tokyo: The U.S. Army Air Forces’ Incendiary Campaign Against Japan, 1941–1945

(New York: Donald I. Fine, 1991), p. 92.

6

Earlier B-29 raids on mainland Japan: Ibid., pp. 57–60, 64–68.

7

B-29 flying over Omori: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Tom Wade, telephone interview, September 17, 2005; Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Martindale, pp. 166–67; Wade, pp. 138–39; Clarke, p. 147; Robert Martindale, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

8

“It was not their Messiah”: Martindale, p. 176.

9

Smuggling newspapers: Milton McMullen, telephone interview, February 16, 2005.

10

Distortions in Japanese press: Weinstein, p. 242.

11

Plane downed with rice ball: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

12

“Lone enemy B-29 visits Tokyo area”: Norquist, p. 287.

13

FLED IN CONSTERNATION:

Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

14

“

Niju ku!”:

Wade, p. 139.

15

The Bird beats Louie with belt: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

16

The Bird forces Maher to burn letters: Affidavit, Francis Harry Frankcom, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

17

Radio Tokyo visit: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Martindale, pp. 129–30; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

18

Writing radio address: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

19

Lynn Moody: Lynn Moody Hoffman, letter to Louis Zamperini, August 14, 1998.

20

DeMille interviews Zamperinis: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004; “Sixth War Bond Drive,” November 19, 1944, interview transcript.

21

Harvey’s wounding: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

22

Moody hears new broadcast: Lynn Moody Hoffman, letter to Louis Zamperini, August 14, 1998.

23

Text of address: From papers of Louis Zamperini.

24

Visit with caller from San Marino: Handwritten notes from papers of Louis Zamperini.

25

“I was thinking”: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

26

Telegram concerning broadcast: telegram, provost marshal general to Louise Zamperini, undated, from the papers of Louis Zamperini.

27

Uncle hears broadcast: “Louis Zamperini Radio Talk Heard by Uncle,”

Des Moines Register

, December 12, 1944.

28

Detail about guns: Sylvia Flammer, telephone interviews, October 25, 27, 2004.

29

“Payt!

He’s alive!”:

Payton Jordan, telephone interview, August 16, 2004.

Chapter 26: Madness

1

Radio Tokyo men return: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

Text of new message: From papers of Louis Zamperini.

3

Reason Louie spared from execution: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, notes from 1950 meeting with Kwajalein officer; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

4

Producers encourage Louie: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

5

“Okay”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

6

November 24, 1944, raid: Martindale, p. 177; Johan Arthur Johansen, email interview, March 26, 2005; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 4, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; “Tokyo in Flames After Crippling Superfort Blow,”

Ogden Standard Examiner

, November 25, 1944; Kerr,

Flames

, pp. 97–101.

7

“It was a cold”: Johan Arthur Johansen, email interview, March 26, 2005.

8

Hatto sees parachuting man: Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004.

9

Sirens: Norquist, pp. 288, 291.

10

November 27 and 29–30 bombings: Ibid., p. 291.

11

Louie watches air battle: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

12

“

Hikoki dame”:

Ibid.

13

“You win war”: Bush, p. 207.

14

The Bird beats Martindale: Martindale, pp. 180–81.

15

The Bird leaves, then returns for fire drill: Ibid., pp. 152–53; Wade, pp. 140–41.

16

The Bird herds officers into Tokyo: Martindale, pp. 144–45; Wade, p. 141; Affidavit, Francis Harry Frankcom, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

17

The Bird makes men stand at attention: Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 4, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith.

18

“death lunge”: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

19

Louie’s nightmares about the Bird: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

20

Zentsuji: Don Wall,

Singapore and Beyond: The Story of the Men of the 2/20 Battalion, Told by the Survivors

(Cowra, Australia: James N. Keady, 1985), pp. 307–09; Affidavit, Major Melvin Miller, from files of “The Mad Quack” (1st Lt.), POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

21

Phillipses hear of broadcast: “Lt. Allan Phillips May Be Prisoner in Tokyo,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

22

Major from the adjutant general’s office calls: “Lt. Allen Phillips Alive as Prisoner of the Japs; Missing Year and a Half,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

23

Cecy races home: Terry Hoffman, telephone interview, March 6, 2007.

24

“Words really cannot”: Reverend Russell Phillips, letter to Martha Heustis, January 5, 1945.

25

Phillipses asked to keep news secret: Kelsey Phillips, letter to Louise Zamperini, December 15, 1944.

26

Kelsey sad for other mothers: Ibid.

27

“Even though we”: Sadie Glassman, letter to Zamperinis, November 18, 1944.

28

“It is difficult”: Kelsey Phillips, letter to Louise Zamperini, December 15, 1944.

29

Red Cross packages delivered: Norquist, pp. 282, 290.

30

Official admits to giving packages to Japanese: Martindale, p. 134.

31

“We could see them throwing away”: Wade, p. 138.

32

The Bird steals forty-eight packages: Wade, p. 138; Affidavits, Francis Harry Frankcom and Fort Hammond Callahan, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

33

Apples and oranges distributed, taken back: Martindale, p. 187.

34

Louie gets Red Cross package: Louis Zamperini, POW diary.

35

Mansfield: Martindale, pp. 122–23; Norquist, pp. 287–88; Wade, pp. 137–38; Robert Martindale, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

36

Cinderella:

Martindale, pp. 189–92; Wade, pp. 143–44; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 4, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith; Clarke, pp. 151–54.

37

Christmas at Zentsuji: Wall, p. 308.

38

Tokugawa comes to Omori: Bush, pp. 183, 198–99; Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004; Report of Lieutenant Lewis Bush, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

39

The Bird promoted: Yuichi Hatto, written interview, August 28, 2004; James, p. 280.

40

Men put feces on Bird’s rice cakes: Martindale, pp. 191–92.

41

Louie learns Bird leaving: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

Chapter 27: Falling Down

1

Life in camp improves: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Martindale, pp. 194–95; Affidavit, Francis Harry Frankcom, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

2

Mail found in the Bird’s office: Affidavit, Francis Harry Frankcom, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

3

“Trust you’re all”: Louis Zamperini, letter to family, January 6, 1945.

4

“Tell Pete”: Louis Zamperini, letter to family, January or February 1945.

5

Ofuna arrivals: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

6

Condition of Harris: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

Harris’s beatings: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

8

Doctor thinks Harris dying, Louie gives him Red Cross box: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, POW diary, January 15, 1945, entry.

9

Palawan massacre: Hampton Sides,

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission

(New York: Anchor Books, 2002), pp. 7–17; Kerr,

Surrender

, pp. 212–15; V. Dennis Wrynn, “American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan,”

World War II

, November 1997.

10

February 16–17 air raid: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Martindale, p. 198; Johan Arthur Johansen,

Krigsseileren

, issue 4, 1990, translated from Norwegian by Nina B. Smith; Frank Tremaine, “Tokyo in Flames After Record Bombing Attack,”

Brainerd

(Minn.)

Daily Dispatch

, February 16, 1945; “Navy Planes Rip Tokyo,”

Nebraska State Journal

(Lincoln), February 16, 1945; “Devastating War to Tokyo,”

Nebraska State Journal

(Lincoln), February 16, 1945.

11

American Hellcat pursues Japanese fighter: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

12

February 24 air raid: “1,600 Planes Bomb Jap Capital as All-Out Drive Launched on Iwo,”

Sunday Times-Signal

(Zanesville, Ohio), February 25, 1945; Kerr,

Flames

, pp. 138–44.

13

Transfer of POWs: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

14

Journey through Tokyo: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

15

Shadow factories: Martindale, p. 214; Kerr,

Flames

, p. 153.

16

Arrival at Naoetsu: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Wade, pp. 146–47.

17

“It was as if a giant frosted cake”: Wade, p. 144.

18

Louie collapses: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

Chapter 28: Enslaved

1

Bird beaming: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

2

Description of Naoetsu: Wade, pp. 148–49, 152–53; Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Alan B. Lyon,

Japanese War Crimes: Trials of the Naoetsu Camp Guards

(Loftus, Australia: Australian Military History Publications, 2000), pp. 25–34; John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir; “List of Death Naoetu [

sic

] POW Camp, 1942–44,”

Taheiyo ni Kaleru Hashi: Horyo Shuyojono Higeikei wo Keoete

(Japan-Australia Society, 1996), translated from Japanese.

3

Zamperini Invitational: “United Nations Olympics Talked—New Golden Era in Track Seen When Peace Comes,”

Abilene

(Tex.)

Reporter-News

, March 5, 1945.

4

Glickman crying: CBS Television, “48 Hours: Race to Freedom,” 1998.

5

Louie sick: “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

6

Food, guards smoking: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience; Wade, p. 151; Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005.

7

“a roaring Hitlerian animal”: Wade, p. 159.

8

Officers picked by the Bird: Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

9

“just for drill”: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005.

10

Slave labor: Wade, pp. 151–52; John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

11

Men falling into snow crevasses: Wall, p. 303.

12

Melting snow, pig’s appearance: Wade, pp. 156, 149.

13

Potato-field work: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Wade, p. 157; Affidavit, Louis Zamperini, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vols. 1–3, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

14

B-29 seen: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Wade, p. 157; Wall, p. 298.

15

Roosevelt’s death: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Wall, p. 298.

16

Barge duty: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience; John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir; Wade, pp. 160–63.

17

Bathing options: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005; John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir.

18

Wade shaves head: Wade, p. 161.

19

Man injured on barge: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

20

Salt stealing: John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir.

21

Rice stealing: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

22

Marvin teaching Bad Eye: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005.

23

Leg injured: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, POW diary.

24

Louie’s fever spikes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

25

Louie tailors clothes: Ibid.

26

Pig duty: Ibid.; Wade, p. 149; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

Chapter 29: Two Hundred and Twenty Punches

1

May 5, 1945, B-29 raid: Wall, p. 299; John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004.

2

Four hundred POWs arrive: John A. Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

3

“You must be sober!”: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005.

4

The Bird at Mitsushima: Weinstein, pp. 287–94; Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vols. 1–3, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

5

Murder plots at Mitsushima: Weinstein, pp. 287–94.

6

“whimpering,” “almost hysterically”: Ibid.

7

Beating after theft of fish: Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Wade, pp. 163–64; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience, 1946; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

8

Some 220 punches: Wade, p. 163.

9

“the Lone Ranger”: Wall, p. 300.

10

“all lit up”: Ibid.

11

Man dies after work: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

12

The Bird breaks man’s jaw: Affidavit, Arthur Klein, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

13

POWs ask for meat, dog killed: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

14

Rations to be cut in winter: Wade, p. 165.

15

“hanging on from day to day”: Wall, p. 300.

16

“Frisco dive in ’45”: Knox, p. 417.

17

beriberi in civilians: Wade, p. 158.

18

men stop stealing: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005.

19

Women with sharpened sticks, children with wooden guns: Milton McMullen, telephone interview, February 16, 2005.

20

Batu Lintang: Ooi Keat Gin, ed.,

Japanese Empire in the Tropics: Selected Documents and Reports of the Japanese Period in Sarawak, Northwest Borneo, 1941–1945

(Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1998), vol. 2, pp. 612, 648.

21

Written death orders in camp offices: Ibid., p. 648.

22

Omori POWs told of death plan: Martindale, p. 223; Robert Martindale, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; Affidavit, Arthur Laurence Maher, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vol. 1, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

23

Preparations for killing: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005; Wade, p. 167; Daws, pp. 324–25; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

24

Rokuroshi: George Steiger, “Captain George Steiger: A POW Diary,”

http://www.fsteiger.com/gsteipow.html

(accessed October 2, 2009); K. C. Emerson,

Guest of the Emperor

(Sanibel Island: 1977), pp. 77–79; Donald T. Giles, Jr., ed.,

Captive of the Rising Sun: The POW Memoirs of Rear Admiral Donald T. Giles

(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1994), pp. 146–54.

25

This is the place:

Giles, p. 154.

26

Naoetsu POWs to be taken into the mountains: Wade, p. 166; Wall, p. 300.

27

Civilian gives death date: John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir.

Chapter 30: The Boiling City

1

B-29s coming over every night: Wall, p. 300.

2

The Bird tormenting men after raids: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

3

Face slapping: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

4

Louie clubbed on ankle: Louis Zamperini, letter to Edwin Wilber, May 1946.

5

Port closed, shipping hit: Wall, p. 300; “Jap Shipping, Planes Hard Hit in July,”

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

, August 1, 1945.

6

Louie begs the Bird for work: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

7

“Goat die, you die”: Ibid.

8

Marvin steals rope: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

9

Goat dies: Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience.

10

The Bird forces Louie to hold beam: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Wade, p. 166; Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005; Louis Zamperini, 1946 notes on captive experience; Affidavit, Louis Zamperini, from files on Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vols. 1–3, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP.

11

Thirty-seven minutes: Wade, p. 166.

12

B-29 flyover on August 1: “Record Raid Hits Four Jap Cities,”

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

, August 1, 1945.

13

Biggest World War I raid by tonnage: Kerr,

Flames

, pp. 269–70. 296 Nagaoka civilians think napalm is rain: “Nagaoka Air Raid, August 1, 1945,”

http://www.echigonagaoka.com/index.html

(accessed October 5, 2009).

14

The Bird beats men on August 1: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

15

Skyline glowing: Wall, p. 300.

16

Leaflets, Japanese government forbids people from keeping, sharing leaflets: Josette H. Williams, “The Information War in the Pacific, 1945: Paths to Peace,” Central Intelligence Agency Center for the Study of Intelligence, May 8, 2007,

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no3/article07.html

(accessed April 29, 2010).

17

Louie sicker: Louis Zamperini, POW diary; Louis Zamperini, letter to Edwin Wilber, May 1946.

18

Boot licking: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Affidavit, Louis Zamperini, from files of Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Sgt.), vols. 1–3, 1945–1952, POW 201 File 1945–1947, SCAP, Legal Section, Administrative Division, RAOOH, RG 331, NACP; Louis Zamperini, POW diary; “42nd Bombardment Squadron: Addendum to Squadron History,” September 11, 1945, AFHRA, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

19

Push-ups over latrine: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

20

Bird threatens to drown Louie: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

21

Murder plot: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

22

The Bird sees man sneering: Mutsuhiro Watanabe, “I Do Not Want to Be Punished by America,”

Bingei Shunjyu

, April 1956, translated from Japanese.

23

Hiroshima: Paul Tibbets, interview by Studs Terkel, 2002,

http://dalesdesigns.net/interview.htm

(accessed September 14, 2007); Matthew Davis, “The Men Who Bombed Hiroshima,” BBC News, August 4, 2007; “Paul Tibbets,”

AcePilots.com

,

www.acepilots.com/asaaf_tibbets.html

(accessed September 13, 2007).

24

Ferron Cummins feels effect of bomb: Knox, p. 435.

Chapter 31: The Naked Stampede

1

Civilians’ hands in fists: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

2

Guard says Hiroshima hit by cholera: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

3

Civilian says one bomb destroyed city: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

4

“electronic bomb”: Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

5

Omori commander speaks to POWs: Milton McMullen, telephone interview, February 16, 2005.

6

Men discuss self-defense: Tom Wade, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

7

The Bird in mountains: Wade, p. 166; John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004.

8

Louie’s illness, weight loss: Louis Zamperini, letter to Edwin Wilber, May 1946; Louis Zamperini, POW diary; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

9

Louie struck by Ogawa: Louis Zamperini, letter to Edwin Wilber, May 1946; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

10

Japanese walk out: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

11

Japanese at radio: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

12

Marvin’s talk with Bad Eye: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

13

Rumors: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005; John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Wall, pp. 300, 304; “Letters Recall End of Captivity,”

Idaho Press-Tribune

, undated article from

Idaho Press-Tribune

archives; John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004.

14

Naoetsu to be bombed: Louis Zamperini, letter to Edwin Wilber, May 1946.

15

Marvin’s thoughts: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

16

Work crews dismissed: Wall, p. 304.

17

Louie vomiting, gets letters: Louis Zamperini, POW diary.

18

Town illuminated, POWs take shades down: Wall, p. 304.

19

“Look like skeleton”: Louis Zamperini, POW diary.

20

The Bird reappears: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

21

Rokuroshi: Emerson, pp. 80–84; Giles, pp. 154–57; Robert S. La Forte, Ronald E. Marcello, and Richard L. Himmel, eds.,

With Only the Will to Live: Accounts of Americans in Japanese Prison Camps, 1941–1945

(Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1994), pp. 260–61; George Steiger, “Captain George Steiger: A POW Diary,”

http://www.fsteiger.com/gsteipow.html

(accessed October 2, 2009).

22

Men told war over: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004; Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

23

“The war has come”: John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004.

24

Commander asks POWs to fight “Red Menace”: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004; John Cook, “Japan: C Force,” unpublished memoir. One published account of the speech gives a different version of events, stating that according to Cook, it was Fitzgerald who asked that the POWs of other nations join America in fighting the Soviets. But in Cook’s memoir, as well as his interview with this author, he stated that it was the Japanese commander, not Fitzgerald, who wanted POWs to join Japan in the fight against the Soviets. “The Camp Commander, through the Interpreter,” Cook wrote, “informed the POWs that the War with Japan was over and he appealed to them to join with Japan to fight the Red Menace. (Russia.)” This account makes far more sense, as America was not fighting the Soviet Union, then its ally, but Japan was, having seen its Kuril Islands seized by the Soviets two days before. According to POW Johan Arthur Johansen, the commander at Omori also asked the POWs to join Japan in fighting the Russians.

25

Flyover, reaction: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004; Robert Rasmussen, “A Momentous Message of Hope,”

National Aviation Museum Foundation Magazine

, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 1987; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA; Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

26

Clift: Robert Rasmussen, “A Momentous Message of Hope,”

National Aviation Museum Foundation Magazine

, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 1987.

27

OUR TBFS HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE:

Ibid.

28

Chocolate, cigarettes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005; Wade, p. 169.

29

Pants drop from plane: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

30

The Bird leaves: Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

Chapter 32: Cascades of Pink Peaches

1

End of war at Rokuroshi: Emerson, pp. 80–84; Giles, pp. 154–57; La Forte, pp. 260–61; George Steiger, “Captain George Steiger: A POW Diary,”

http://www.fsteiger.com/gsteipow.html

(accessed October 2, 2009).

2

Little food, no tobacco: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Wall, p. 302.

3

Fitzgerald demands food: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

4

Cow, pigs brought: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

5

Fitzgerald’s dispatch, fight with commander: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

6

Fighters fly over: Ibid.; Wade, p. 169; Wall, p. 302; “Letters Recall End of Captivity,”

Idaho Press-Tribune

, undated article from

Idaho Press-Tribune

archives.

7

“Wonderful?”: “Letters Recall End of Captivity,”

Idaho Press-Tribune

, undated article from

Idaho Press-Tribune

archives.

8

Commander gives in: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

9

Supplies drop, men gorge themselves: John Cook, email interview, October 30, 2004; John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.; Wade, p. 170; Wall, pp. 302, 304; Robert Rasmussen, “A Momentous Message of Hope,”

National Aviation Museum Foundation Magazine

, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 1987; “Letters Recall End of Captivity,”

Idaho Press-Tribune

, undated article from

Press-Tribune

archives; Frank Tinker, telephone interview, February 20, 2005.

10

BOMBED HERE IN MAY 45

: Wall, p. 302.

11

Louie sleeps in parachute: Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

12

“ ’Tis about 6 p.m., and I’m lying here”: “Letters Recall End of Captivity,”

Idaho Press-Tribune

, undated article from

Press-Tribune

archives.

13

Kinney’s flyover: Byron Kinney, telephone interview, April 23, 2007; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Byron Kinney,

A Mission of Mercy Touches Two Lives

(Chicago: United Letter Service, 1995).

14

Harris taken to surrender ceremony: Whitcomb, p. 285.

15

Some 132,000 Allied POWs: Tanaka, p. 70; Brian MacArthur,

Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East, 1942–45

(New York: Random House, 2005), p. xxvi.

16

Nearly 36,000 Allied POWs die: Tanaka, p. 70.

17

More than 37 percent versus 1 percent: Charles A. Stenger, PhD, telephone interview with author, October 17, 2009; Charles A. Stenger, PhD,

American Prisoners of War in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam: Statistical Data

, Veterans Administration Central Office, June 30, 1979, p. 20.

18

More than 215,000 other POWs: Tanaka, p. 2.

19

Death marches: Kerr,

Surrender

, p. 60.

20

Burma-Siam Railway: Children of Far East Prisoners of War, “SE Asia Under Japanese Occupation,”

http://www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/asia_thailand1.html

(accessed March 18, 2010).

21

Medical experiments: Tanaka, pp. 135–65; Gary K. Reynolds,

U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian American Citizens Captured and Interned by Japan in World War II: The Issue of Compensation by Japan

, Congressional Research Service, December 17, 2002, pp. 17–19.

22

Cannibalism: James, p. 259; Tanaka, pp. 111–34; “Claim Japs Practiced Cannibalism,”

Hammond Times

, September 16, 1945; “Jap Soldiers Eat Flesh of U.S. Prisoners, Australia Discloses,”

Abilene Reporter-News

, September 10, 1945.

23

Sandakan: Tanaka, pp. 11–43.

24

Tinian massacre: Eric Lash, “Historic Island of Tinian,”

Environmental Services

, October 2008, vol. 1, 2nd edition; Major General Donald Cook, “20th Air Force Today,”

20th Air Force Association Newsletter

, Fall 1998.

25

Ballale: Peter Stone,

Hostages to Freedom

(Yarram, Australia: Oceans Enterprises, 2006).

26

Wake: Major Mark E. Hubbs, “Massacre on Wake Island,” Yorktown Sailor,

http://www.yorktownsailor.com/yorktown/massacre.html

(accessed October 18, 2009); Daws, p. 279.

27

Tarawa: Daws, p. 278.

28

Palawan: Sides, pp. 7–17; Kerr,

Surrender

, pp. 212–15; V. Dennis Wrynn, “American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan,”

World War II

, November 1997.

29

POWs giving supplies to civilians, guards: Kerr,

Surrender

, p. 273.

30

Kono hides in office: Wade, p. 169.

31

Kono’s flight, capture, trial: Hiroaki Kono records from the NACP: Hiroaki Kono et al., 1946–1947, File Unit from RG 331: RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Manila Branch (1945–11/1949) Series: Orders and Summaries, compiled 1946–1947; Narumi Oota et al., 1945–1949, File Unit from RG 331: RAOOH, WWII, 1907–1966, SCAP, Legal Section, Prosecution Division (1945–1949) Series: USA Versus Japanese War Criminals Case File, compiled 1945–1949; Hiroaki Kono, 1948–1953, File Unit from RG 84: Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, 1788–ca. 1991, Department of State. U.S. Embassy, Japan. (04/28/1952–) (Most Recent) SCAP, Legal Section (10/02/1945–04/28/1952?) (Predecessor) Series: Japanese War Crimes Case Files, compiled 1946–1961.

32

Guard thrown from galley: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

33

NO MORE—THANKS:

Robert Rasmussen, “A Momentous Message of Hope,”

National Aviation Museum Foundation Magazine

, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 1987.

34

one thousand planes, 4,500 tons of supplies: Daws, p. 340.

35

Cocoa hits office: Martindale, p. 233; Robert Martindale, telephone interview, January 2, 2005.

36

Louie washes shirt: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

37

Industrial machines in private houses: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

38

Tinker buys record: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

39

fifteen hundred Red Cross boxes in storehouse: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

40

Men find brothel: Wade, p. 170.

41

Marvin on bicycle and in bath: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

42

Occupying forces don’t arrive: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

43

Fitzgerald hits official: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

44

POWs walk to train: Wall, p. 304; Wade, p. 170; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

45

Fitzgerald stays: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

46

Japanese saluting: Wall, p. 304.

Chapter 33: Mother’s Day

1

POWs on train: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005; Wade, p. 171; Knox, p. 452; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

2

“First there were trees”: Knox, p. 451.

3

“Welcome back, boys”: Wade, p. 171.

4

“Before me in immaculate khaki uniform”: Ibid.

5

Women like goddesses: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 21, 2005.

6

Trumbull encounters Louie: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “Zamperini Gives Sidelights of His Dramatic Trip Back,” October 1, 1945, NPN, from papers of Louis Zamperini; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

7

“Zamperini’s dead”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

8

“If I knew”: Robert Trumbull, “Zamperini, Olympic Miler, Is Safe After Epic Ordeal,”

NYT

, September 9, 1945.

9

Hoarding K rations: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Louis Zamperini, interview by George Hodak, Hollywood, Calif., June 1988, AAFLA.

10

Rosynek watches men deplane: Frank Rosynek, email interview, June 21, 2005.

11

POW told his wife married his uncle: “Sends Love Message to Soldier Husband,”

Council Bluffs Nonpareil

, September 11, 1945.

12

Louie interviewed: Frank Rosynek, written interview, December 8, 2007.

13

“Well, I’ll be damned”: Jack Krey, telephone interview, August 18, 2005.

14

11th Bomb Group, 42nd squadron men lost: Cleveland, pp. 484–85.

15

Only four of sixteen men from barracks alive: Jesse Stay, “Twenty-nine Months in the Pacific,” unpublished memoir.

16

four hundred athletes killed: “400 Stars Give Lives in Service,”

Oakland Tribune

, December 30, 1944; Walt Dobbins, “I May Be Wrong,”

Lincoln

(Neb.)

Journal

, January 6, 1944.

17

Louie not allowed food, clothes: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

18

Louie assessed by physicians: “Lou Zamperini Has Won Final Race on Track,”

Olean

(N.Y.)

Times-Herald

, September 13, 1945.

19

“It’s finished”: “Zamperini Drifted 1,200 Miles on Raft,”

Stars and Stripes

, September 14, 1945.

20

“Darling, we will”: Sylvia Zamperini, letter to Louis Zamperini, August 31, 1945.

21

Pete learns Louie free: “Lou Zamperini’s Release Thrills Brother at NTC,”

Hoist

(U.S. Naval Training Center, San Diego), September 14, 1945.

22

Preparing for homecoming, family quotations: “Zamperini’s Mother Sheds Tears of Joy,” undated article from papers of Peter Zamperini, NPN.

23

Freeing Rokuroshi: George Steiger, “Captain George Steiger: A POW Diary,”