Beyond despair: Louis Zamperini’s story

I love listening to people’s stories. From a young age, I have always been an avid reader, churning through books to discover new and exciting tales of adventure and the human experience. But it wasn’t until moving from fiction novels to reading non-fiction, particularly biographies, that I began to uncover a rich appreciation for people’s real stories.

I once read a book called The Librarian of Auschwitz that told the story of a girl in a Nazi concentration camp. One aspect of this story, which made a curious impression on my mind, was the author’s analysis of despair in her fellow prisoners. She tells of a moment when a woman passed away during the night despite not being sick or cold, but simply due to her loss of hope. She had given up the will to live and died as a result.

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, noticed a similar phenomenon from his experiences in concentration camps. He recognised that the prisoners who had given up all hope quickly succumbed to death . . . not merely from the brutal conditions, but from a deep existential defeat. He said that “those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear almost any ‘how.’”¹ For Frankl, this understanding of hope was not merely a philosophical musing—it was a stark reality. Hope was not abstract for these Holocaust survivors. It was an essential, vital, tangible force that kept them going.

This experience has been studied by psychologists in more recent years, with the discovery having been made that death is entirely possible when individuals respond to traumatic stress by giving up hope (referred to as psychogenic death). Essentially, these individuals believe that there is no escape from their traumatising situation or no purpose for living anymore, and this psychological state can lead to death despite no obvious material cause.

Though we may not realise it, hope is essential for our mental, emotional and physical health. Hope can literally be the difference between life and death. 

adrift in the Pacific

This was certainly the case for Olympic runner Louis Zamperini. He competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, even catching the eye of Adolf Hitler himself, who complimented him on his fast finish. After the outbreak of WWII, his opportunity to compete in the 1940 Tokyo Olympics fell through and he instead joined the US Air Force as a bombardier.  

Zamperini flew a B-24 airplane and participated in several bombing raids over the Pacific. On one rescue mission to search for a missing plane, Zamperini’s plane experienced a double engine failure over the ocean and crashed, killing eight of the crew on impact. Only Zamperini and two others survived the crash: Francis “Mac” MacNamara and Russell Allen “Phil” Phillips.²

The men stayed afloat in a pair of life rafts with only a few survival rations to keep them going. As the days wore on and their rations ran out, they slowly realised the dire situation they were in. They collected rainwater to drink, caught albatrosses to eat and even fought angry sharks in desperation for food. They also had to endure typhoon-sized waves, dodge machine guns fired from passing Japanese planes as well as the blistering, hot Pacific sun. After 33 days on the open ocean, Mac passed away. 

In Unbroken, the biography that tells of Zamperini’s experiences, Mac’s death was attributed to despair. It reads, “What is remarkable is that the two men who shared Mac’s plight didn’t share his hopelessness. Though all three faced the same hardship, their differing perceptions of it appeared to be shaping their fates . . . Louie’s and Phil’s hope displaced their fear and inspired them to work toward their survival, and each success renewed their physical and emotional vigour. Mac’s resignation seemed to paralyse him, and the less he participated in their efforts to survive, the more he slipped.” Not knowing what more to do, the men prayed to God to save them.

Two weeks after Mac passed away, and after 47 days adrift, Zamperini and Phil were captured by the Japanese off the coast of the Marshall Islands . . . 2000 miles (approximately 3200 kilometres) away from the crash site. This did not provide any relief to their ordeal and marked the beginning of years of horrific treatment as prisoners of war. Again, Zamperini asked God to save them, promising to follow Him if He did.

By August 1945, Zamperini was on the brink of death, having developed a deadly disease caused by severe vitamin deficiency. That very month, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the surrender of Japan. Allied planes dropped food, cigarettes and news of victory to the famished POWs. This renewal of hope, as well as the food, gave Zamperini the strength to endure. A month later in September 1945, after more than two years of captivity, their camp was liberated and Zamperini was rescued.

But Zamperini’s troubles did not end when the war finished. When he returned home, he married a beautiful woman named Cynthia. Sadly though, he could not escape his past. As many who have experienced traumatic ordeals understand, he could not “switch off” his memories or the strong emotions he had for his captors. A seething hatred towards one of his captors, nicknamed “the Bird”, began to consume him—to the point that it was said of Zamperini, “a once singularly hopeful man now believed that his only hope lay in murder”. Zamperini’s life spiralled downwards and he became a drunk who routinely engaged in reckless behaviour to numb his inner torment. In 1949, his wife filed for divorce. 

true hope

In September 1949, shortly after Cynthia filed for divorce, evangelist Billy Graham came to Los Angeles where Zamperini was living to tell the city about Jesus Christ. Cynthia attended this campaign and accepted Jesus as her Saviour, announcing to Zamperini that she would no longer pursue the divorce. Though indignant about her religious awakening, Zamperini was curious to see what she had heard that made her change her mind. So, he went with his wife to listen to Billy Graham.   

It was at this point that Zamperini discovered true hope. Deeply moved by the message, he dropped to his knees and humbled himself before God. He asked God to forgive him for not holding to the promise he made to follow Him if He helped him survive on the open ocean and in the POW camps. Zamperini made no excuses for the abhorrent life he was living and invited Jesus to enter his heart and lead his life. As soon as he did this, he felt great joy that replaced the anger he had held in his heart for so many years. He was also able to forgive his former captors and in 1950, he returned to Japan as a missionary.   

Zamperini discovered an enduring hope which gave him the strength, resilience and humility to bounce back from the psychological trauma that held him captive after the war. As Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Time and time again, hope was literally the difference between life and death for Zamperini. 

Sometimes when we look at the world around us, it can seem like a dismal and hopeless place filled with violence, war, crime, cost-of-living crises and natural disasters. During intense difficulty, hope can be a life-giving tool that can give us the resilience and determination we need to survive. Where can we find this hope? The Bible offers us an answer: Jesus. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus can give us hope that there is an eternity waiting for us where there will be no more tears, and pain and suffering will end (Revelation 21:1-4). This hope can be an anchor for our souls—firm and secure—giving us strength no matter what life throws at us (Hebrews 6:19).

Olivia Fairfax is an eager student in all things psychology, theology and literature. She enjoys spending her time writing, learning and investing in people. She writes from Sydney, Australia.

1. Viktor Emil Frankl, Man’s search for Meaning. Washington: Washington Square Press, 1963.

2. Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. New York, NY: Random House, 2010.