While completing my Undergraduate degree I enrolled in, Fundamental of Photography, a course selected to acquire background knowledge on a small passion of mine. In an era of high-definition digital cameras equipped with high-capacity memory cards, it was refreshing to use a basic camera with 35mm film type. The Class Instructor introduced the equipment to us, materials, and film development room. One principal that I was familiar with, even prior to taking the course, is that the process of developing a picture must occur in darkness or the photo would ruin. You see the photographic paper creates an image based on a reaction to the light that enters the camera and is stored on the film. Without darkness the astonishing images of Yousuf Karsh that helped influence the course of history would not be in existence.
Let us take a look back in history at the story of Louis Silvie Zamperini. Picture an American-born Italian boy, his siblings, and parents moving to from New York to California in the early 1900’s. No one in his household, including himself, spoke English so he faced a tremendous amount of bullying due to his Italian heritage. Zamperini did not remain a victim long, he began to apply the strategies he learned from the boxing lessons his father began to provide to him. Not only did he start whipping the tail of those that taunted him, but he began to develop an arrogant rebellious spirit which attracted trouble. Pete, his older brother, began to recognize the path that he was on and decided to redirect that aggression to the sport of track and field. Even though Pete was a well-accomplished athlete, Louis began to surpass his records and remained undefeated in high school. Having such a phenomenal record led to Louis Zamperini earning a scholarship to the University of Southern California. Zamperini’s competitive spirit did not stop there, he was able to qualify for the Olympics during a heat wave that was so intensive that 40 people died that week alone in the city where the try outs occurred. His results on the track were so impressive that Adolf Hitler demanded to meet him and shake his hand sharing how much his reputation proceeded him.
After college Louis joined the United States Army Air Corp and was assigned to be aboard a B-24 heavy bomber. While on a search and rescue mission aboard another B-24 his plane suffered a mechanical failure crashing into the ocean 850 miles from land. Three of the eleven men aboard initially survived the crash, and of those, two including Louis survived the 47 days at sea. This pair of men survive on a diet of raw fish and sea bird, while battling the raging seas and numerous shark attacks! It was on that 47th day that Zamperini and the last remaining survivor reached the Marshall Islands where the Japanese Navy immediately captured them! Zamperini would endure over countless days of brutal torture as a POW under the rule of the Imperial Japanese Army Corporal Mutsuhiro “the Bird” Watanabe.
At the end of World War II Louis Zamperini returned home to marry his love and rejoin his family who all were told he perished at sea over a year prior to. Zamperini dealt with many nightmares and personal struggles, including heavy drinking, due to all that he endured. All of that ended after attending a church crusade with his wife, and it was that experience that created a strong desire and urge to forgive. His sense of forgiveness was so compelling that in his travels, Louis spoke to his jailed former POW captors and shared how he forgave them for the harsh treatment they gave him. At the age of 80, Zamperini ran carrying the torch for the Winter Olympics in Japan. While there he attempted to meet with Watanabe to forgive him face to face. Watanabe refused his visitation but received a letter from Louis. Even until his death in 2014, at the age of 97, Louis Zamperini devoted his life to at-risk youth and his beliefs of forgiveness.
In the classroom we encounter students from all walks of life, and we as Educators meet them as we are. In life we experience hiccups and setbacks, however these rough times are like coarse 50-grit sandpaper smoothing and refining the rigid edges on a wooden sculpture. It is character, most often strengthen through our darkest times, that defines us and through the pursuit to improve it makes us even more effective as Next Level Educators!
The Jeremy Anderson Group