Unstoppable!

ByFran

With sardonic sneering, the commander nicknamed “the Bird” situated himself in a position that would maximize the sensual pleasure of this rank sadist. He wanted to see the star American Olympic athlete dissolve underneath the weight of the heavy beam that he had just ordered him to lift up over his head. He was the commanding officer of this P.O.W. camp. He had already tortured and beaten Louis Zamperini incessantly since Louis had arrived.

The Bird called the Japanese guard over to Louis’ area and informed him if Louis lowered his arms to strike him with his gun. The Bird stretched out comfortably and began to point at Louis laughingly holding him in derision and ridiculing him in front of the other Japanese. Louis leveled a stare right into the Bird’s eyes which was the embodiment of hatred. An implacable, statue like Louis stood with his menacing glare. As the beam became heavier and the agony grew the Bird snickered at the Louis’ suffering. The American prisoners across the compound stole nervous glances at what was going on. They had looked at the clock when Louis first lifted the beam and had become more aware of each passing moment. Seconds went by, then minutes, Louis’ arms shook and then he began to lose feeling. The beam’s tilt was met with a jab from the guard’s gun. A ferocity of emotion began to intensify within Zamperini, “I won’t let him break me he thought, The Bird when he saw that a groaning whimpering victim of circumstance was not going to be the order of the day stopped laughing. The clock moved on. Almost unconsciously Louis held on. Incredibly, when long past the time when he should have melted like a snowflake, Louis persisted. He later said:” Something went on inside me, I don’t know what it was.” This was the man who interminably had withstood endless beatings and torture as a P.O.W., who was desperately sick and emaciated from being starved. Who had prior to coming to Japan had spent 46 days adrift in the Pacific impossibly surviving a contest to the death with a lack of food and water and sweltering heat.

Who was this remarkable man? He should have dropped in a heap after seconds in his hyper weakened state. Yet he fiercely remained defiant, fueled – as he stared at his nemisis, by a passion to remain unbroken before this tormentor. The Bird’s insane rage erupted from within him at being robbed of the opportunity of seeing this dispicable American hero grovel before him, begging for mercy. He flew at Louis like a fireball and with clenched fist clubbed Zapperrini in the stomach. But this goes down on the score card as a win not a defeat. Unbelievably, Louis had stood holding up the beam in excess of 30 minutes. Once again, he had cheated this Japanese corporal’s obsession with beating him into submission. Fearless of the consequences he had determined that he was not going to bow the knee. He would not submit and play the humiliated in front of his enemy. He would not give in. In this contest of wills. He had indeed won.

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