ST SEBASTIAN’S

SPEAKERS
Students listen as Louis Zamperini discusses his
World War II experience via video
teleconference with Headmaster Bill Burke.
Perseverance Under Pressure
Zamperini Recounts his
Remarkable Story of
Survival
Louis Zamperini, the subject of this past
summer’s All-School Read Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand, spoke with the St.
Sebastian’s School Community during
a video teleconference on Monday,
September 17, 2012.
Zamperini, a world-class runner and
1936 Olympic athlete, was attending the
University of Southern California when
he left to join the United States Air Corps
as a bombardier in the South Pacific
during World War II. Out on a routine
reconnaissance mission, his aircraft
crashed, leaving him and a crewmember
stranded in a life raft for 47 days, drifting
2,000 miles at sea into Japanese-controlled
waters.
“When you reach the end of your rope
and there’s nowhere else to turn,” noted
Zamperini, “…you’re gonna turn and look
up. So that’s all we did on the raft was pray
morning, noon, and night.”
Picked up by the Japanese, Zamperini
spent the remainder of the war in prison
camps, where he was tortured on a regular
basis.
Following his release at the end of the
war he returned to California, where he was
treated like a hero, married, and partied
with celebrities. Outwardly he looked as if
he had his life in order. But he was actually
spinning out of control, not sure how to
deal with the demons he was facing due to
his time in captivity. It was during this time
he found himself attending a Billy Graham
revival, where he quickly remembered his
pledge to God while out on the raft in the
middle of the ocean – that if God helped
him through his ordeal, he would seek and
serve Him.
Zamperini noted, “That night I made
my decision for Christ.”
The teleconference began with a
viewing of a CBS-produced video that
originally aired during the 1998 Olympics
in Nagano, Japan. Zamperini, who by that
time had served as a missionary in Japan
and had preached a Gospel of forgiveness
to the very guards who tortured him, had
been invited by the people of Nagano
to carry the Olympic Flame as part of
the torch relay. The video recounted his
story of survival, even interviewing one
of the head guards who tortured him
regularly during his captivity. Following
the video presentation, Headmaster Bill
Burke interviewed Zamperini, asking him
questions about his faith and the role it has
played in his life.
Zamperini concluded, “I’m a great
believer, and I believe it with all of my heart
that all things work together for good for
those who love the Lord and who are called
according to His purpose. Christ told us
in the Scripture, ‘I am the way, I am the
truth and I am the life.’ Christ is the way to
God, the way is the truth. People are always
seeking truth; the truth is Christ, and He’s
the life. But I think our eternal life starts
now by faith in Jesus Christ. That is the
strength we live by, and death no longer has
a sting… not to the Christian.”
42 | ST. SEBASTIAN’S MAGAZINE Volume VIII, Issue I