Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption In 2010, Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit would once again take the world by storm with her latest novel, Unbroken. The story follows Olympic runner Louie Zamperini through his troubled youth and later life. Without doubt, the story of Louie Zamperini is a story of survival, resilience, and redemption, covering the greatest feat of the human spirit, pushing him to the breaking point all the while testing his endurance in fatal situations. Life wasn’t easy for Louie Zamperini, born to Italian immigrants Anthony Zamperini and Louise Dossi on January 26, 1917 in Olean, New York. Born before him was his older brother Pete, who would later save his troubled life, …show more content…
They had still not gained back much weight, and their rations of three golf sized balls of rice weren’t helping either, and they had to pick it up off the floor when the guards tossed it in. Not only this, but they had to survive on two swallows of water a day, all while dealing with stomach ailments. After they had given the Japanese all of their false information on the B-24 Bombers, they were sent to Yokohama, Japan on August 23rd. Three weeks later, they arrived at Ofuna, a secret holding camp for unarmed combatants. Here, they were interrogated again, and Louie’s first interrogator was an old friend from college, Jimmie Sasaki. The two reminisced about college and Louie was never actually interrogated, but the guards made up for it with other cruel and unusual punishments. One of the most commonly used and referred to was the “Ofuna Crouch” where the inmates would be forced to stand with their knees bent halfway and their arms stretched above their heads for as long as the guards wanted them to. Aside from the crouching and the beatings, there was the lingering fear of death. The Japanese excercised a “kill-all” rule and a “no prisoners can go home” mentality. If the prison camp was threatened to be taken over by the Allied forces, all prisoners of war inside would be killed before they could be rescued. Louie still had a rebellious spirit in him, as he kept a diary that recorded his life leading up to the crash and what was happening at the time. He hid it under one of the floorboards in his cell to bypass the daily cell searches conducted by the guards. Despite everything, an escape plan began to spread through the prison. Another inmate, Harris, had been stealing and drawing up maps and invited Louie and Frank Tinker to join him. All seemed to be going well until his plans were unfoiled, and the punishment followed shortly after. The inmates
I agree with the statement that Louie was as much a captive as he’d been when barbed wire had surrounded him after the war. The following quote was taken from chapter 39 of Unbroken. “It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over” (386). From this quote, we can see that Louie was struggling with vengeance. Although the war was over in 1945, it toke Louie almost five years to say that the war was over for him because of the hatred and thought of revenge Louie undergo after the war. This is one of the reasons why I agree with the author’s choice to include the post-war years and explore this story of obsession for vengeance. Putting Part V into the book not only not take away the theme of survival,
In Unbroken: A world war 2 story of survival, resilience, and redemption- by Laura Hillenbrand; young Louie Zamperini is a delinquent of Torrance, California. He steals food, runs around like hell and even dreams of hoping on a train and running away for good. However, Pete, his older manages to turn his life around by turning his love of running from the law into a passion for track and field. Zamperini is so fast that he breaks his high school’s mile record, resulting in him attending the olympics in berlin in 1936. His running career however was put on hold when World war 2 broke out, he enlisted in the the Air Corps and becomes a bombardier. During a harrowing battle, the “superman” gets hit numerous times with japanese bullets destroying
You kept quiet, ate the soup (even if you don’t like it), and do everything in your power to not give up and show the officers that you are not weak. “The barrack we had been assigned to was very long.” (34) The description of where they were staying showed the reader that him and his father were assigned to the same sleeping quarters.
“The commandant announced that we had already covered 42 miles since we left. It was a long time since we had passed beyond the limits of fatigue. Our legs were moving mechanically, in spite of us, without us” (Wiesel 83). Elie was forced to run at two in the morning on a regular basis, and if anyone slowed down or stopped they were immediately shot or beat. Elie was mentally fit and told himself that he wouldn’t give up, however, his father was slower and a lot older, making it much harder for him to be quick on his feet. In Unbroken, the quickness that Louie showed as a child and while growing up, helped him prepare for the future of being quick on his feet as well as being mentally and physically strong. “The same attributes that had made [Louie] the boy terror of Torrance were keeping him alive in the greatest struggle of his life” (Hillenbrand 34). In many of the conditions that Louie faced on a daily basis, only someone with his faith still holding together and can persevere through the struggles in his life is going to make it out
When they were captured, one survivor reports that they were told. ‘You are the guest of the Japanese. You will be spared but not your country. We are going to conquer the world, annihilate your people, and every household will have a white slave.’ (www.riv.conz).
prison camp by the Japanese. Only a year later were they safe in American arms
Soon after being freed, Sorry and his uncle Abram heard the news on the radio. The Japanese have been crippled. "The Americans have invented a terrible new bomb. They dropped it on Hiroshima, a city in Japan, this morning. The Japanese are saying that thousands are dead. The whole city has been destroyed. One bomb. Just one bomb " The uneasy feeling on the bomb was about to get worse.
I believe that it is dehumanization and isolation because the guards are taking away who the men are, but they are also isolating them from others and the normal world that they are used to and comfortable with. Another example of Louie and other Americans in captivity being forced to seem invisible is when they are beaten for doing almost anything, “Beatings are almost constant. Mean were beaten for virtually anything: folding their arms, cleaning their teeth, talking in their sleep, and most often, for not understanding orders issued in Japanese.” (Hillenbrand 149). They are being beaten and made fun of.
They were taken to Auschwitz, out of Birkenau.... ... middle of paper ... ... Five or six of my fellow campers were stuck in my bunk during work one day and the only noise there was was one of us groaning and occasionally a poor fellow running to the toilet to vomit. “I could see that he was still breathing spasmodically.”
In mid-1943, four Chinese-men who were apart of Matthew’s organisation were tortured until they admitted to supplying radio parts. The Japanese arrested men who helped Matthews, Taylor, Wells and the men themselves. They were interrogated, tortured, beaten and deprived of nutrition before being moved to Kuching.
Louis Zamperini was an Olympian and a prisoner of war during World War II. He was born on January 26, 1917, in Orlean, New York. He was a smoker by age 5 and a drinker by age 8, and had spent most of his youth with a criminal family.(Andrews) Louis became a criminal, stealing almost anything he could find that wasn’t nailed down. Louis’ family was worried that he would soon end up either in prison or on the streets.(Zamperini)
For many years women in the Mexican town of Juárez had been kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Yet, many people are not aware of this massacre and Ruben Amavizca-Murua production Women of Juarez brought light to a subject in which not many talk about. This play was performed in the Burnight studio theater located on the campus of Cerritos College, and ran for approximately six days. The main message for this play was to inform the audience of how women were and being murdered and sexualized for the last several years and till this day some of the victims family members are still searching for answers and even their lost loved ones. The director Minerva Garcia captures the brutality of the death of a young women name Maritza and their family struggle
This place was so overcrowded and miserable. The family stayed in Block 16, it was no privacy, gross food, and disgusting toilets. It was nothing like home while staying at the camp. The camp was located in the middle of the desert, so the Japanese will not escape. In California where Jeanne and her family were located there was attitudes towards the Japanese from the Caucasians.
Louie Zamperini had escaped the grievance with his life and has become an advanced soul. Louie Zamperini lived in a miniature house in Torrance, California; he was a fascinating Olympian. He was also held captive as a prisoner of war. In the book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses the life experiences of Louie Zamperini to show the traits of optimistic and rebellious.
They did not know it until they got there that the current was taking them to Japan’s controlled waters. Louie and Phil were on the life raft for forty-seven days with no food and water that lasted them a few days at the most. Staying alive was not only a physical challenge but a mental one too. Other people who have been stranded on a life raft have gone insane and become delusional because their brains have not been used for weeks. Louie Olympic shaped body gave him enough strength to stay alive and he and Phil kept their brains active by playing games or telling stories to the exact detail. After being captured by the Japanese, Louie and Phil were taken to the island known as Execution Island. Hundreds to thousands of POW’s were executed on that island and according to the stories no POW’s had made it off that island alive. Louie and Phil were on Execution Island for weeks being tortured and interrogated. After what felt like months of torture the two captives were told they were being moved to a “Red Cross POW Camp”. Both Louie and Phil were shocked that they were not killed after they did not give away any secrets about the American forces to the interrogators. Louie would later find out that he was later going to be used for Japanese propaganda against the United States and that is why he was not executed on Execution Island. Louie inadvertently saved Phil’s life because if he was going to be used as propaganda he would have been more willing to if they had not killed his best friend Phil. In two of the POW camps Louie was specifically targeted by “The Bird”: a terrible Japanese guard who punished POW’s for no good reason. The Bird specifically went after Louie because he knew about his Olympic past and picked him out for that reason. As a POW his running career had a positive and negative affect on his condition and