Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken,” gives a detailed an account of the Olympic runner Louis Zamperini’s experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.
In late May 1943, the B-24 carrying the 26-year-old Zamperini went down over the Pacific. Of the 11 men on board, only three — Zamperini; the pilot, Russell Allen Phillips; and the tail gunner, Francis McNamara — survived, clinging to a canvas-and-rubber raft left amid the wreckage.
Quickly facing starvation, the men saved themselves by eating unwary albatrosses that used the raft as a perch and, with Zamperini tying improvised hooks to his hands to create a claw, by catching an occasional fish. They cut up fabric from a second raft to protect themselves from the scorching equatorial sun. Storms slaked their desperate thirst. Throughout, sharks floated expectantly alongside and beneath them, rubbing their backs against the raft and, sometimes, lunging up into it. The men beat them off with oars and even managed to kill a couple — and eat their livers.
On their 33rd day at sea McNamara died. Others in similar straits had resorted to cannibalism; after Zamperini uttered some lines remembered from the movies, he and Phillips simply cast McNamara overboard. The two men passed the days, and maintained their sanity, by peppering each other with questions, cooking imaginary meals, singing “White Christmas.” On the 46th day they spotted land: the Marshall Islands. On the 47th they were picked up by Japanese sailors
And so for nearly seven weeks they traveled 2,000 miles, only to land in a series of Japanese prison camps, where, for the next two years, Zamperini underwent a whole new set of tortures.
Unbroken is an apt title. Zamperini and most of the men with whom he was imprisoned persevered in the face of incredible odds. United in hatred of their captors, they dreamed of wonderful meals they would have one day and of the time when they would be free and able to repay their sadistic guards for the cruelty they had meted out. Mutsuhiro Watanabe, "the Bird," was the most brutal and the perfect malevolent foil to Zamperini and his fellow aviators. Bird is a character who will stick in your mind long after you finish this amazing biography.
Looking skyward — where American bombers could be spotted with increasing frequency — the G.I.’s knew the war would soon end. But that was a mixed blessing: the Japanese had repeatedly vowed to kill all P.O.W.’s rather than hand them over, and surely would have if the Americans had invaded Japan. Zamperini and his fellow prisoners were effectively saved by Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Once released, however, nearly all of the men came to at least some grudging acceptance that the literal nightmare was over although that did not prevent the continuation of their nightly returns to the depths nor to the perils of what we later came to know as post traumatic stress syndrome.
Like many soldiers stateside, Zamperini had a difficult re-entry, troubled by alcoholism, flashbacks, nightmares and rage. But in the fall of 1949, he was converted to Christ by Billy Graham and, as Hillenbrand relates it, all his troubles instantaneously evaporated. Only then did his war end. He returned to Japan to forgive his prison guards.
What I will say is that Unbroken is a powerful story of endurance and redemption -what an amazing story of the power of Christ and forgiveness and I recommend it.
For his 81st birthday in January 1998, Zamperini ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. While there, he attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormentor during the war, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, who had evaded prosecution as a war criminal, but the latter refused to see him.
Zamperini is 96 years old today and still going strong.
Here is a video summary you might find interesting, with Zamperini interviewed
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