Louis Zamperini: A Prisoner Of War

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The only thing worse than being taken as a prisoner of war would be being killed in combat. Unfortunately, being taken as prisoner of war in world war two was the fate of many soldiers fighting. Their camps were supposed to be similar to an internment camp created for civilians, as stated by the Geneva Convention in 1929. A prisoner of war camp was supposed to allow the prisoners to write home to their families, get paid for doing non-war related jobs, and captives even got packages from the international Red Cross. While the camps were not made to be a five star hotel, the camps treated their captives well enough that they could live comfortably. In Japan, this was not the case. As explained in Unbroken, a biography about Louis Zamperini, …show more content…

The first nice guard that Louis met was while he was at Kwajalein, which was not even registered as a prisoner of war camp. Kawamura, the name of the guard, would often defend both Louis and Phil from the other guards at the camp. Sometimes, Kawamura would take a beating just to protect the prisoners. He sympathized for them, which was uncommon for most Japanese guards at the time. When Louis got to Ofuna, he met many bad guards. The prisoners nicknamed the guards so that way they could talk about them without getting a beating. Some popular nicknames included The Quack, The Mummy, and Shithead. While at Ofuna, Shithead was by far the worst guard. He sexually violated Gaga, the beloved camp duck. Although Shithead was a terrible guard, Corporal Watanabe was the worst guard there ever was. Watanabe, nicknamed The Bird, was a guard at Omori. Many prisoners thought that were was something psychologically wrong with The Bird because he would constantly go on huge fits of rage just to apologize and beg for forgiveness afterwards. The Bird even ordered that a prisoner, Mansfield, be tied up for ten days in the middle of winter with no food, water, or anything to keep him warm. “Late one night, when Louie was walking back from the banjo, he saw the camp interpreter, Yukichi Kano, kneeling beside Mansfield, draping a blanket over him (Page 268).” Even though Yukichi was not a guard, he still tried his best to take care of any prisoners that were being treated badly. The good guards were one of the only things that helped keep the men

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