Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

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

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Resistance is by Laura Hillenbrand. This book is the story of POWs in Japan and about Louis Zamperani, an Olympic athlete and hero of World War II.
Louis Zamperini was born to Albert and Louise Zamperini, Italian immigrants, in Olean, New York on August 26, 1917. Second child and second son. From time he could walk, he was constantly moving and in trouble. Family moved to California when he was two. He ran from one end of train to the other, his Mother was very worried and told him someone would fall off train if he wasn’t careful. To her chagrin, he did run off the end of the train. Then, he calmly walked along tracks until train returned for him. Told his Mother, he knew she would come back for him. He was a clever, resourceful, bold child and always optimistic.
Louie idolized his older brother Pete, twenty months older. Pete was the “golden child”. He seemed to always do what was right, was respectful and courteous, and never in trouble, or so it seemed. Many times, he could be seen with Louis when he performed his pranks. He helped Pete look out for their sisters, Sylvia and Virginia.
Louis got in major trouble in California. He took to stealing, just to get away with it. He gave away everything he stole. He always got away by running. He came face-to-face with the eugenics process of sterilizing those who were different or criminals (stealing was included) when a kid from his neighborhood was said to be “feebleminded, institutionalized, and faced sterilization”. Luckily the boy’s parents were able to keep this from happening. This incident scared Louie straight, or at least he tried.
When he found a key to the gym, he sold “tickets” at a reduced price to get kids into the basketball games. When caught, the principal punished him by excluding him from sports the first year he was in high school. Pete talked to the principal and finally got him to allow Louie to play sports. This turned out to be good for Louie, he won 10 varsity letters in basketball, 3 in Baseball, and 4 in track as well as setting school records. After high school, he joined Pete at UCLA.
Pete had coached him in high school in track and continued to do so in college. Louis just got faster. In one meet, he beat the other racers by ¼ mile. He began to look towards running in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He had to run in four races to qualify for the Olympics. In two races, he did quite well, in the third, he didn’t do as well, and he barely made it in the fourth race due to a tie; but he was on his way to the Olympics. Although he didn’t win a medal in the Olympics, he did set a record for running the last lap in 56 seconds.
When he returned to UCLA, he began training for the 1940 Olympics where it would be more than possible to win the Gold. However, the Olympics were to be held in Japan and Japan released them to Finland. Then, the Olympics were cancelled for 1940 due to WWII.
He signed up on September 29, 1941 with the Army. They sent him to Houston where they were to train him to be a bombardier. Eventually, he was assigned to a crew which would stay together for a long time and they would become best friends. Finally, he and part of his crew were sent on a rescue mission in an old plane, the Green Hornet. The plane was not in ideal condition; but it was a rescue mission. The plane was destined to crash in the ocean and of the crew, only three were to survive the crash, the pilot Phil, Mac, and Louie. Phil and Louie had flown together from the beginning. Only Phil and Louie were to survive being adrift for 47 or 48 days before being rescued by the Japanese.
Hillenberg goes on to describe in great detail Louie’s and Phil’s treatment by the Japanese during their capture and their time in the POW camps. For over two years, they languished in the camps, separated from each other. Their families were the only ones who believed they were still alive even though they never appeared on a POW list nor were allowed to write their families. Eventually, Phil did appear on a list and was able to write his family; but this was close to the end of the war. Louie was not. He had been picked out as a special whipping boy for one guard called “Bird”. Bird went out of his way to cruelly beat and pick on Louie as they went from camp to camp. She describes the POWs watching the bombing of Tokyo from their camp and the ordeal they lived even after liberation while waiting on the army to reach them. She goes on to describe Louie’s life after returning to the US and his family. She shows his problems as he attempts to return to civilian life and dealing with PSTD and his nightmares about Bird.
This book was eventually made into a movie and a version of it designed for children is also in print. The book is well-researched and documented. It is one which should be read by anyone reading about World War II.