Imagine for a moment being 19 and running the 5000-meter race at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Now imagine being a bombardier in the U.S Army Air Corps during WW2, and having your plane crash into the Pacific. You survive in shark-infested water for 47 days, and then drift onto Japanese territory. You’re condemned to life as a prisoner of war (POW) for two years.
This is the story featured in Laura Hillenbrand’s New York Times Best Seller, Unbroken. The true story of Louie Zamperini—an athlete, airman, a survivor.
This is the story featured in Laura Hillenbrand’s New York Times Best Seller, Unbroken. The true story of Louie Zamperini—an athlete, airman, a survivor.
For a spellbound John Green lover, you could say that this book was a big step out of my comfort zone; I’ve never really learned about WW2, and have only heard about the conditions of the men who fought and survived it. Nonetheless, despite my lack of knowledge, I could see and feel the war unravel in front of me, all through Louie’s eyes and Hillenbrand’s writing.
The cruelty received by the POW was one that’s impossible to go unnoticed. Louie’s case was just one of these. From the two hundred and twenty punches that he received on the face—by order of the cruel and violent Japanese commander, “Birdie”—to the beam that he held above his head for 37 minutes, threatened to be shot dead otherwise, it’s hard to understand how Louise body never surrendered. I think the answer lies in that while the war may have stripped him from almost all his rights, it failed in taking his dignity.
The cruelty received by the POW was one that’s impossible to go unnoticed. Louie’s case was just one of these. From the two hundred and twenty punches that he received on the face—by order of the cruel and violent Japanese commander, “Birdie”—to the beam that he held above his head for 37 minutes, threatened to be shot dead otherwise, it’s hard to understand how Louise body never surrendered. I think the answer lies in that while the war may have stripped him from almost all his rights, it failed in taking his dignity.
“DIGNITY is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn RETENTION of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have SURRENDERED it.”
Louie weighed half his body weight when he reached Japanese territory; he was starved at every POW camp, and enslaved to physical labor for as much as 18 hours a day. It is with no doubt that the Japanese commanders tried to take this dignity away, through torture and humiliation. And while you could say that they succeeded in doing so to several of the POW, ultimately taking the life of one in every four held captive—a total of 36,000 deaths—they didn’t manage to do so with Louie, and that is what makes his story so compelling.
At the end of the book, Hillenbrand made a point of stating that for several of the soldiers the war never ended. Their experiences consumed them, their urge for revenge became a life goal, and while they where no longer exploited physically, most of them were scared psychologically. Louie became overly dependent on alcohol, he sought it as a ticket to escape the war, and while several others followed the same path, what is inspiring is that Louie managed to steer himself out of it.
At the end of the book, Hillenbrand made a point of stating that for several of the soldiers the war never ended. Their experiences consumed them, their urge for revenge became a life goal, and while they where no longer exploited physically, most of them were scared psychologically. Louie became overly dependent on alcohol, he sought it as a ticket to escape the war, and while several others followed the same path, what is inspiring is that Louie managed to steer himself out of it.
"When he thought his story, what resonated with him not was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him... At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was FORGIVENESS, beautiful and effortless and COMPLETE. For Louie Zamperini, the war
was over."
was over."
I think it’s going to be impossible for me to ever forget the name Louise Zamperini. As the cover tells it, this is a World War 2 story of survival, resilience, and redemption told with such detail, and crafted with so much research, that even the unbelievable is believable.