Frank Carlson Library

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared--Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor.

In 1943, while World War II raged on in the Pacific Theater, Lieutenant Louis Zamperini was the only survivor of a deadly plane crash in the middle of the ocean. Zamperini had a troubled youth, yet honed his athletic skills and made it all the way to the 1934 Olympics in Berlin. However, what lay before him was a physical gauntlet unlike anything he had encountered before: thousands of miles of open ocean, a small raft, and no food or water.

"When the Second World War broke out, Ralph MacLean traded his quiet yet troubled life on the Magdalen Islands in eastern Canada for the ravages of war overseas. On the other side of the country, Mitsue Sakamoto and her family felt their pleasant life in Vancouver starting to fade away after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ralph found himself one of the many Canadians captured by the Japanese in December 1941. He would live out his war in a prison...

Linda McCaffery spent three years researching and writing her book about the World War II ordeal of Dr. Bill Brenner and his wife, Jo. Barton Community College printed the book for Lone Cone Publishing, established by McCaffery. Described as both a love story and a horror story, the book gives a biographical account of the World War II experiences of Brenner, a U.S. Army doctor who was taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II, and his devoted...

Louis Zamperini, a clever young delinquent turned Olympic runner, became an airman when the war came. In 1943 his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean, where sharks, a sinking raft, thirst, starvation, and enemy aircraft, tested his will and endurance.

"Unbroken": Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. "Unbroken : path to redemption" : When the war ended, his battle began. Based on Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling book, this begins where Unbroken ends, sharing the next amazing chapter of Olympian and World War II hero Louis Zamperini's powerful true story...