Interview Modern Hero

Good morning everyone, on Bloomberg radio this morning we are going to meet an incredible and courageous man : Louis Zamperini .

Louis, welcome and thank you for being with us today.

Hello Amber, I’am glad to be here and to be listened by all of you. 


Louis, please introduce yourself.

I was an aviator during the 2WW in America which was fighting against the Japanese. I was 18 when Roosevelt announced the war in 1941. So i was immediately sent to the air base.

You were really young when you leave your home, was it difficult to be far from your family ?

Of course but it was the same for everyone and I knew that I had to served my country.

Can you tell us more about the missions you had to accomplish ?

I had to fly above the Pacific Ocean to look for enemy’s ships. When we met Japanese's planes, we exchanged shootings. It was risky missions and i saw many of my brothers die. One day my plane crashed and fell in the sea.

What a raf experience ! What happened next ?

The impact was so violent that one of us didn’t survive. But i did with an other, thanks to the life boat and this is how we lived during 47 days.

What ? How did you survive ? What did you eat? drink? didn’t you lose your mind ?

At the beginning, we had chocolat barres and drinkable water but it was not enough so we started to fish and we also caught a bird.

But the food was better than the one we had later, while we were in the Japanese’s camp.

Ho! I’m not sure I would have been able to survive in such a situation. How did you go to the camp?

We were found by a Japanese’s ship and the hell began… silence

Louis are you ok? Do you need a glass of water..

Don’t worry, it’s just to hard to talk about this part of my life right now.

I understand, we are going to end this interview, i have one last question for you. The others consider you as a war hero an especially for saving some of your mates during your captivity. How do you feel about this ? Do you realize how much you were brave ?

Well, i am proud to be seen as a hero but i am not patting of my actes. It was my duty and if I had to do it again, i would.

Thank you some much for sharing your story with us today. It was a pleasure to having you here.

Thanks you to invited me.

You can listen to this interview again on our web site. Louis Zamperini, 92 yo the man how survived. Good bye and see you on Tuesday to answer with Lola Gift to « How to be a good mom? »

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