Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

    

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Warning: Spoilers

Synopsis:

Unbroken is a nonfiction book that tells the story of a Japanese prisoner of war who is also an olympian. The book starts with the main character’s life growing up in Torrance California. The main character, Louis Zamperini, was a terribly behaved child when he was young, Louis would constantly steal things every day. During Louis’s teenage years he joined the track team at his school, although he was the slowest one on the team he kept practicing. Louis soon realized he loved the sport and he ran a lot that summer. Louis soon became the fastest one on his team. 

At this point in the book, Louis is starting his running career and realizing how good of a runner he is. A little later in the book Louis qualifies for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which not only shows how fast a runner he was but even today, he remains the youngest American to qualify for the 5k at the age of 19. Although he finished 8th at the Olympics he was predicted to become faster due to him being only 19. Sadly his running career would soon end.

The next part of the book is about his career in the army. Louis was drafted into the army the same year the US joined WW2. Louis wasn’t able to avoid the draft just because he was a top runner so he soon joined the army air corps. Louis worked as a bombsight operator for a while. One day Louis and some other air corps members had to go looking for survivors of a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, Louis’s plane crashed and the only survivors were him, and some of the other people in the search plane. They had to spend 47 days in a raft with basically no supplies. They even had to eat a raw bird a few times to survive. They also had to deal with sharks. 

After 47 days adrift on the raft, they were captured by a Japanese warship. Although they were locked up and treated harshly, they would soon refer to it as the “good old days”. After a while, they were moved to POW camps in Japan. Louis and his friends were split up. Louis was sent to a POW where the prisoners were treated harshly like most POW camps in Japan. 

After a while, Louis was sent to a place where he was offered to be taken to a very nice POW camp if he would spread propaganda for the Japanese on the radio. Louis refused to do this, showing how he would not betray his country even if he would stop getting tortured if he did. Louis was sent back to the POW camps, this time one in the cold mountains of Japan where the prisoners would commonly freeze to death. The average meal of a POW was one ball of rice a day, they additionally had to work all day doing hard labor. The Japanese guards would constantly beat the prisoners. Louis once got part of his ear ripped off because one of the guards hit him with a belt so harshly. 

Once the war ended he was taken back to the US but he would never be the same after his time as a POW. The last part of the book talks about Louis struggling with PTSD and alcoholism, trying to have a relationship. Louis even said that if he would have had to live through the experience of being a Japanese POW again he would have killed himself. Louis devotes his life to Christianity and it helps him immensely. At the end of the book, Louis goes back to Japan to see his guards who were now in prison due to them committing numerous war crimes like most of the Japanese army at the time. 

My thoughts on the book: 

I would rate this book a 10/10 and would recommend it to anyone who wants a good read. The book not only tells a unique story that you don’t find in many other books but it also is a true story. The book not only appeals to readers who like a good story but also appeals to readers who want to learn more about WW2. I learned a lot of new things while also having a fun time reading it. The book shows insight into what it was like to be a Japanese POW, something that is not talked about much. Before reading the book I didn’t know that Japan committed so many war crimes not only against POWs but in other places too. The book makes you think about what would have happened to Louis’s running career if he had never been drafted in WW2. The book did a good job of making me understand what it was like to be a POW during WW2. Overall it was a very interesting book and would recommend it to anyone reading this blog.

    -Ross