Unbroken

Unbroken - by Laura Hillenbrand

This was a very harsh read.  Excellent, but harsh.  I’m not sure I could ever read it again and if the film (released on Christmas Day 2014) is any bit as descriptive as the book, I’ll definitely skip it.  It’s hard for me to stomach certain things, such as how human beings can possibly be so cruel towards one another.  Even towards an enemy during war time.

This is basically a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini and his incredible survival and resilience that he preserved during his time as a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp.  Many camps actually.  More on that later.

Now, I usually don’t post spoilers during my reviews, but since this story is well known, I reveal a lot from this point forward.  So before reading anymore, be forewarned.

Author Laura Hillenbrand first tells us the background of Zamperini before the war.  We meet a fairly typical kid growing up during the depression in California with a knack of getting into trouble.  It seems this kid has a lot of restless energy.  With the help of older brother Pete, he learns to channel this energy into running and becomes quite the track star - even competing in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  We read quite a bit about Zamperini’s accomplishments during this phase of his life, and to be honest, it kind of drags.  Maybe because most readers know what the real story is about and are impatient for the author to hurry up and get there.

Anyway, World War II breaks out and Louis joins the air force.  Laura Hillenbrand really does do a stellar job of providing a lot of detail without boring the reader to tears.  We learn a lot about flying planes in combat during the time, and just how dangerous such a thing was - even without an enemy around.  Well, we eventually see plenty of enemies, and the Japanese manage to knock out Louis’ plane, The Green Hornet, out of the sky into the Pacific Ocean.  Only three of the crew survive - drifting aimlessly in an ill-suited raft.  

This is really where the story begins.

If the 47 day journey in the raft was the entire story, it still could have been a good one, if not depressing.  We hear immaculate details of just what such an encounter brings.  No food, no water, a lot of sharks and sunburn and delirious survivors.  It’s really amazing that two of the three actually manage to survive this ordeal.  When they finally wash up on a Japanese controlled island, you feel exhausted, but briefly euphoric.  Sadly, this torture is nothing compared to what the two survivors are about to face.

Japan, during World War II, was a savagely brutal country, and one would almost wish to be killed rather than be taken prisoner by them.  This is where this book almost became too unreadable for me.  The details of what these poor soldiers endure is borderline unbelievable.  We are exposed to meticulous detail of what Louis and the other prisoners are put through.  Just when things can’t seem to get any worse, they do.  Whether there’s a new, sadistic guard that arrives at the camp or whether their being transferred to a different camp where we hope they’ll be treated more humanely. Things never get any better.  It goes on and on and on.  There were times where I had to skim some of these chapters since it was so disturbing.

Well, eventually the war ends, the sickly, malnourished prisoners are finally freed, and their loved ones back home (who never knew they were still alive) are ecstatic to have the boys back home.  Now, I haven’t seen the movie, but my guess is this is where the movie ends.  This would make the film end on a high note.  However, as you can probably imagine, the nightmare of the camps never really leaves Louis and the rest of the prisoners.  There lives are so traumatized that they simply can’t function anymore.  Constant nightmares, real and imagined surround them.  There was one instance where a former POW freaks out in a restaurant.  Why?  Because his dinner had rice on the plate.  Rice was essentially the only food they ever had in the POW camps.  Very sad indeed.

Louis manages to meet a young lady and fall in love.  They get married and are happy for a brief time, but he’s slipping away.  He’s violent, scared, shell shocked, and is drinking far too much.  Well, at some point, he remembers that when he was in the life raft, he made God (whom he was never close to) a promise that he would devote his life to him if he was rescued.  It seems Louis forgot that promise.  One day, his wife (the two are literally on the verge of divorce) drags him to a prayer revival that is being conducted in town by some young minister named Billy Graham.  Fortunately for Louis, he now realized that God has not forgotten him.  Louis becomes a Christian, and he slowly recovers from his torturous life.

This part of the book is quite brief.  One almost wishes that we could see more of the post war, Christian era, but we’re simply told that life is once again good.  He’ll never run professionally again but he manages to live very happily, one day at a time.  Without going into too much detail, Louis also learns about this cool Christian thing called ‘forgiveness’, which is also crucial for his future well being, and serves as a good story within the story that I won't go into here.

A truly remarkable story.  Hopefully you can stomach the disturbing parts better than I was able.