One of the aspects of World War II that hasn’t been fully appreciated is the experience of American prisoners of war in Japan. Thirty-seven percent of them died while in captivity compared with 1 percent in Germany and Italy. For whatever reason, it’s a subject that hasn’t been emphasized as much as the battlefronts, the home front, or even the Holocaust. But it’s important to understand this dehumanizing part of the conflict because it explains much about the dark side of war and why it should be avoided at all costs.
Laura Hillenbrand is a writer who searches for epic stories that have floated under the radar. When she wrote her bestseller, Seabiscuit, the story of the great race horse from the 1930s, she brought to life one of the most warm-hearted, yet little known tales of the 20th century. She thought she could never top it.
Well, Hillenbrand found a way. She stumbled upon an Olympic athlete who volunteered for the Army Air Force during World War II, and survived 47 days adrift at sea, and then two years of brutal internment in Japan. How this man lived to tell about his experience is truly unbelievable.
Hillenbrand’s work, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,” is the story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic longdistance runner, who along with his pilot, Allen Phillips, not only survived the crash of his plane in the Pacific, but almost two months without proper food and shelter all the while surrounded by sharks.
Their reward for surviving that ordeal was to spend two years in a Japanese prison camp where they were tortured, beaten and malnourished almost every single day. It’s a tribute to the human spirit that anyone could not only survive such ordeals but live another 60 years after the war’s end.
Hillenbrand’s effort is divided into several parts, each of which could be a book in itself. The story of Zamperini growing up in Torrance, Calif., becoming an Olympic athlete, and attending the 1936 Games in Berlin is amazing enough.
But then the reader learns about the training, daily routine, and dangers of a World War II airman. Then there’s the crash and the 47 days at sea fighting sharks and starvation. Then there’s the “rescue” and internment in Japan followed by adjusting (or not adjusting) to post-war life on the home front.
There are many fascinatingbits of information throughout Hillenbrand’s text. How many people know of the staggering number of airmen lost in training, or non-combat accidents?
Over 35,000 airmen lost their lives on training missions in the United States alone. The crash that left Zamperini at sea and killed many of his crewmates was on a search mission for a lost plane. Zamperini’s plane itself was thought unfit to fly by his pilot, Phillips, but a “know-itall’’ lieutenant insisted it was safe (I wonder how often that happened?).
Understanding the mindset of the Japanese soldiers may provide some insight into the behavior of suicide bombers today.
The Japanese soldier felt that death was preferable to surrender and it was an honor to die in battle for the emperor. That would help explain why the kamikazes were very willing to die. Survival isn’t a basic instinct in every culture.
The end of the war and how the POWs survived despite the existence of a “kill-all’’ order is fascinating.
The question of whether we should have dropped the atomic bomb, not once but twice, is an ongoing debate.
It is doubtful many POWs believed the Japanese would have surrendered without its use. One thing for which there cannot be any debate is that war is hell no matter what Hollywood tries to make it out to be.
Hillenbrand has now hit two home runs with her first two biographies. We may have to wait another seven years for her next “epic” (that’s how long it took this one) but it will be worth it. She is fast establishing herself as one of America’s great non-fiction writers.
DAVID KENT is the Cooperstown Village librarian.
Book Notes
January 6, 2011
Book Notes: Laura Hillenbrand is one of the best
- Book Notes
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- Memoir reflects on 'roller-coaster life and career' Apparently, the third time wasn't the charm. The way Reynolds described him, the third husband was worse than the first two combined and that's saying a lot. Eddie Fisher literally walked away from Reynolds and their two infant children to chase a sex goddess. At least he got his just desserts when Elizabeth Taylor tossed him aside for Richard Burton.
- 'Who's on Worst?' reveals the ugly in baseball The Baseball Hall of Fame celebrates the greatest players, managers and owners from our national pastime. Any of us who have watched Major League baseball have inevitably seen some of these immortals practicing their craft. But we have also likely witnessed a sample of their opposite brethren, players who shouldn't have been in the Major Leagues. Has there ever been a definitive source that "celebrates" the non-accomplishments of the worst that Major League baseball has to offer?
- Book takes readers on path for equal rights One of the most troubling aspects of our history is race relations. It takes a long time to achieve true equality in a society when the heritage of one ethnic group is slavery and Jim Crow laws. Even today African Americans are more likely to be stereotyped as athletes than doctors, lawyers or entrepreneurs. The path to a "color-blind" nation is still a work in progress.
- Piazza wasn't considered much of a prospect for the majors It's probably going to be a quiet few days in Cooperstown when Hall of Fame weekend rolls around this summer. The baseball writers did not elect anybody this year despite some heavyweight candidates. The problem was that at least three of the poster boys for the steroids era, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, were on the ballot for the first time. The writers were clearly making a statement when nobody got elected.
- Who would have thought e-books would be so popular? When I was in library school 25 years ago, a future concept was presented that seemed absurd at the time. It was the notion you could read books on a small computerized device about the size of a pocketbook.
- 2012 was a year of great films, future favorites The year 2012 was a blockbuster year for great films. Several of the movies up for Best Picture would have been runaway favorites almost any other time. They will make for easy pickings for the library when they become available on DVD.
- Blockbusters are not the only movies worth watching Hollywood makes enough movies that there are always a few that you don't hear about until they are on DVD. Sometimes they are simply horrible films that end their theater run quickly, but often they are "diamonds in the rough" that made their mark at film festivals.
- Mickey Mantle biography shows the good and the ugly It has become obvious in recent days that bestowing "hero" status on athletes is a misplaced priority.
- Book looks at 50 years of James Bond movies When I was in elementary school, James Bond was all the rage. For some reason I didn't see any of the early films with Sean Connery playing the infamous 007 British spy, but my siblings and several friends certainly did.
- Two thumbs up for the film 'Arbitrage" Arbitrage is a word that 99.99 percent of us probably never heard of until the movie with that title appeared. I looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered why nobody had heard of it. It refers to Wall Street financiers and has a meaning so convoluted that I couldn't figure it out.
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