The Horrors of the Naoetsu POW Camp Throughout Laura Hillenbrand’s Book Unbroken: An Olympian’s Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive, Louie is sent to numerous POW camps but eventually ends up at the Naoetsu POW Camp, where he is finally liberated. This camp, the last that Louie has to endure, does not come without struggles and beatings that can put anyone over the edge. Although all parts of the Naoetsu POW camp were horrible, the worst parts were the dreadful living conditions, a wretched prison guard, and extensive torture sessions that caused men to lose all hope of survival. Living conditions at the Naoetsu POW Camp were deplorable and unsanitary, causing Louie’s mental health to decline and his life to worsen. On page 201 of Unbroken, …show more content…
Each night of shivering ended before dawn, when Louie was forced outside for roll call in deep snow and howling wind” (Hillenbrand 201). “The beds were planks; the bedding was loose straw” shows how the Japanese treated the men like animals. This dehumanizes the men causing them to feel hopeless and not want to go on. To show how cold it was in the barracks, we see that the last POWs had burned the floorboards so that they could create a fire to have a small source of heat. However, this caused the cold weather of the Naoetsu Camp to come into the holes that were burned in the floor, causing the prisoners to always be cold and more prone to sickness. When it says, “each night of shivering ended before dawn,” it shows how they were so cold that they eventually became numb throughout the night and that most of their already weakened energy went into warming them. The guards forcing them to live in their filth showed how they treated …show more content…
In an article about Watanabe’s torture style, he is described, “His punishments were ruthless because they were psychological and emotional, not just physical. In addition to horrendous beatings, he’d destroy photographs of POW’s family members and force them to watch as he burned their letters from home, often the only personal belongings these tortured men had” (All That). Since his punishments were psychological too, it made most men go crazy and caused them to not want to go on anymore. It was also rare for a guard to be this damaging to the POWs’ mental health so most men were not ready for this kind of torture making their experience even worse. The most precious thing to these men were the pictures of their family but when the Bird destroyed them, they lost all hope to keep on living. They only had a few belongings and when all of their outside life was ripped away from them, they just saw the camp and not the world beyond. It caused them to have no hope of escape. They also were losing hope that the Americans would be able to come to save them as an American airship had passed over them multiple times but could not see them. “Oh God, God, an American plane!’...The bomber had simply passed over Tokyo” (184). Even though Louie had a fever and couldn’t do his best work, the bird chose to punish him for it
The Bird, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, took his pain and anger out on Louie, who he resented for his accomplishments. Watanabe was from a family of high ranking military personnel, and expected to become a prominent soldier, but he was rejected. Hillenbrand explains, “His failure derailed him, leaving him feeling disgraced, infuriated, and bitterly jealous of officers” (173). The Bird saw Louie as everything he was not; a strong willed, successful Olympian, and a high ranking POW. Of course, from the minute he discovered him, “The corporal was fixated on Louie, hunting the man he would call ‘number one prisoner,” (179).
The quote shows that the food was practically poisonous and made many of the POW’s very sick and many died. This quote is also an example of dehumanization because the Japanese didn't care about the POWs and it shows because of the food they were forced to eat. Life as a POW only got worse for Louie because at camp Ofuna, Louie had gotten so sick,thin and hopeless and had lost his dignity. In the text it states,“Most of the captives were emaciated, but Louie was the thinnest. That ration wasn't nearly enough,and he was plagued by diarrhea.
The time spent imprisoned by the Japanese, the suffering stripped both Louie and his friend Phil’s dignity away. Soon after landing in the Marshall islands, Phil and Louie were imprisoned and tormented. It started with eating off the ground, “... Louie crawled about their cells, picking up slivers of biscuit and putting them into their mouths” (Hillenbrand 185). The Japanese believed being captured by the enemy is a man without his dignity.
They stayed in the same area in the dead of winter in huts such as the soldiers dwelled in. They stated the huts were not necessarily comfortable but not cold enough where one might freeze to death. Each winter varies and from one year to the next temperatures may be colder or harsher than the year before. The volunteers that conducted this experiment were probably fully clothed and possessed all the proper necessities needed as well. So although they tried to reenact the lives these soldiers lived; it doesn’t necessarily mean they did not experience harsh living conditions.
In Unbroken Part IV, the Japanese guards, everyday would try and make their POWs feel “invisible” but the POWs resisted, demonstrating resilience multiple times. In this part of the book Unbroken it is about Louie and many other POWs who are held captive in prison camps. In these camps the POWs are abused and humiliated daily by the Japanese guards. But this story is not only about how the Japanese dehumanized the POWs, it is also about how the POWs fought back to try and regain their dignity and themselves.
The name may not be very fitting for him, but the officers chose that nickname because it didn’t have a negative connotation which would help them avoid getting beaten. He was a sadist, which is a person who derives pleasure from others' pain or humiliation. The Bird would often find the most miniscule reasons to abuse the officers. For example, Louie was simply existing when The Bird came up to him and accused him of doing something he didn’t even do. The Bird proceeded to attack him.
While there, Louie is seemingly selected as a target by a man named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed “the Bird”. The Bird seems intent on making Louie’s life miserable through consistent beatings and abuse. This constant, terrible mistreatment that Louie was involuntarily forced to tolerate supports a theme of determination prevailing over pain and misery. Though Louie is often crippled and almost unconscious after the end of his suffering, he always picks his head back up and moves forward in the name of perseverance. ( transition )
(page 23)”. They were suffering without water and the heat made them weaker. The prisoners were forced to stay without water for several days. They were also forced to work until they couldn't feel their
I had thought of the circumstances when we camped, but was too sick to care what happened. They generally take women captive…” (Clappe 17). They encounter
Thousands of prisoners died from starvation, cold or exhaustion. The marches were usually held in winter, and prisoners had to walk miles with little rest while SS guards swapped groups to rest. Any prisoners that fell or lagged behind were shot and left on the road. The prisoners scooped up snow to drink, and were given little food throughout the march. They could not save the food to make it last longer and had to eat it at once for fear of other stronger captives stealing it (Ancona-Vincent).
It was a cold morning. There was sand on the floor. Jeanne explains: “The simple truth is the camp was no more ready for us when we got there than we were ready for it. We only have the dimmest ideas of what to expect” (20). The way the barracks were built is very unstable; they were hammered together and a very weak foundation.
Unfortunately, most Prisoner of War (P.O.W.) camps were not conducted with such leniency and disregard. In the seed text Unbroken, a biography of an olympic runner Louie Zamperini written by Laura Hillenbrand, we see the horrors that P.O.W. camps can bring. Louie Zamperini: olympic runner, American
At night, all Louie could see were walls, stripes of ground through the gaps in the floorboards, and his own limbs, as slender as reeds,” (Hillenbrand, 206). Keeping people isolated in cells, with little to no contact to the outside world could make them feel invisible. “Transferred to a train, the POWs rode all night, moving west, into a snowy landscape,” (Hillenbrand, 199). Louie and his fellow POWs had minimal contact with the outside world which could lead them to feel invisible. Additionally, knowing that they wouldn’t be found, and would continue to be isolated could bring up feelings of seclusion and alienation.
Elie Wiesel was forced to face death in chapter 7. It starts to snow and it gets really cold. None of the prisoners have any warm clothes to wear. They need to be really close together to make themselves warm so that's what they do. “Pressed tightly against one another, in an effort to resist the cold, our heads empty and heavy, our brains a whirlwind of decaying memories.
He can no longer live a day in his life without seeing The Bird