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

First off, I did not think I would enjoy this book. I do not like war books, I do not like pain and suffering. That is about 99% of this book. I enjoy books such as The Mitford Series, Harry Potter, southern humorous books. I really like books that are well written and make you smile. So why did I read this one? I am going to work on a project where we record the histories of war veterans to be archived. We will interview them and record their accounts and experiences. We have a few World War II veterans living in our community, and I wanted to read up on my WWII history in order to know a little more about it than what I received in high school and college. The reviews on this book were very high, so I ordered it on my Kindle, and began reading, not expecting to enjoy it at all, and a little bit hesitant. First off, I was quite surprised that I read it and actually enjoyed reading it. I also learned much more about WWII than I would have ever learned from a text book. The author used the facts that she had, and documented where her facts came from. This information was not boring either. She worked it into the story so that you knew what was going on during the war in Japan, at the same time "x" was going on on the other side of the world. You also would think that a person would give up long before Louie did, but he kept holding on, just like I kept holding on reading this book...you wanted to see if he would get out of the hell he was in and into a better place. Each time, it just kept getting worse. But, this still was not "hard" to read, because little bits of hope would filter in and keep you going...just like it kept Louie going. Louie is a remarkable man. I am sure there are many other remarkable men. My uncle survived the Bataan Death March, so he too had the drive that Louie had to survive, but Louie had kept every bit of documentation of his life and experience, so the author was able to use his photos, letters, etc to create this account of his life. I started to give this a 4 star review...because I still do not like the subject matter, nor the abuse, the loss of so many lives...so the 4 star would be for the actual topic...the war with Japan. But that's not the books fault. The book is a 5 star book, so I went ahead and gave it a 5 star rating. If you would like to read a good book, but aren't the history/war/torture type of reader...please don't let the subject matter of this book stop you. It is not presented in a way that makes it hard to read. On the contrary, it kept me reading. I know my review is lame. But I struggled with how to review this book, and I decided not to worry about how I "described it" and to just write my thoughts. I didn't want to put details in, because it was the details that kept me turning the pages, so I will leave them to you to discover. It's a book you will be proud to say "I read that book" and it will give you an insight to our veterans and what they endured. It also helps me to understand how bitter my uncle was whenever he would encounter an Asian from 'any' country...it didn't matter that they weren't Japanese...he couldn't be near them. I never understood that, but after reading how they were treated, now I understand. I will probably purchase the hardcover edition of this book, so that I can have my kids read it and to have on my shelf for others to read, borrow, etc. I enjoy reading my Kindle, but some books deserve to be present on your shelf. This one does.

In the narrative, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the harrowing story of Louie Zamperini's life as a Prisoner of War in World War II is flawlessly conveyed, bringing readers mixed emotions, as they witness the ups and downs of one man's extraordinary life. Louie Zamperini grew up in Torrance, California where he was introduced to running by his older brother, Pete. Louie's inspiring natural talent compelled him forward, until he had become one of the best runners in the world. With the Olympics well within his grasp, Zamperini decided to sign up as a member of the air force to avoid being drafted into a less desirable position. Louie's Olympic dreams were put on hold as he traveled California, training to serve his country. Being that, the equipment Louie was dealing with, wasn't of stellar quality. Indeed each time Louie's plane took off, a foreshadowing of the inevitable danger leapt onto the page. On May 27, 1943, Louie's life was spared as his plane crashed into the ocean, but the blessing quickly became a curse as Louie spent the next forty-seven days trapped on a life boat with no food and minimal water. When Louie finally escaped hell on the life boat, it is not for the better. Louie spent over two years being shipped around different Japanese war camps, each growing more terrible. Hillenbrand relates Louie's hardships and makes the readers' heart ache for the trials Louis endured, throughout his time as a prisoner of war in Japan. Particularly Hillenbrand expertly describes Louie's discovery of God. Evolving from a man with little knowledge of Christian faith, Louie experiences angelic visitations after vowing to serve the Lord forever, if he could only be saved. "On the fortieth day, Louie was lying beside Phil under the canopy when he abruptly sat up. He could hear singing. He kept listening; it sounded like a choir. He nudged Phil and asked him if he heard anything. Phil said no. Louie slid the canopy off and squinted into the daylight. The ocean was a featureless flatness. He looked up. "Above him, floating in a bright cloud, he saw human figures silhouetted against the sky. He counted twenty-one of them. They were singing the sweetest song he had ever heard." Hillenbrand's eloquent writing style supplies the readers with not only the action filled moments of terror, but tranquil and sensational moments can be found sprinkled throughout. After reading this book, I acquired a new respect for the hardship that one person can go through and still survive. With each page, Unbroken became harder to put down, and once I had finished, my respect for Louie, and everything he survived, was overwhelming. I highly recommend this riveting tome to anyone and everyone. Although it began at a generally slow pace, the setting is perfectly set to make each of Louie's tragedies that much more painful. Laura Hillenbrand does a fabulous job taking Louie's story and conveying it in such a way that everyone who reads it will find some pleasure or point of interest. While I was skeptical about whether or not I would enjoy a war book, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this account brought in so many other topics I felt a particular passion for. Louie's mindset of never giving up is inspiring to all, and his determination and passion for running is relatable to any athlete. His incredible discovery of Jesus Christ and the experiences he had are thrilling to all those of faith and challenging, yet magical, to those who are not. Unbroken is a fabulous novel conveying the tragic and fantastic story of Louie Zamperini's unbelievable survival.

When you think of WWI, what typically comes to mind? Hitler, right? The Nazis? Inglourious Basterds ? Gas chambers? Jews? Most of my WWII reading centered around the German arena. Amazing first-hand accounts and insights like Night and Man's Search for Meaning come from this stage along with other classics like The Diary of a Young Girl . These are just a few stories I've read about this time in history and I'd recommend them all. But how many books have you read on what happened in the Pacific theater of WWII (aka the "Pacific War")? Unless you've seen The Pacific ] (which I haven't) you probably don't know a lot. Besides the draw of learning about a whole new front of the war, Louie Zamperini's story is an incredible one. Amazon reviewers' (I always read Amazon reviews!) top critique was that the story seemed unbelievable. A boy with Olympic dreams of breaking the four minute mile is incredible enough for me--do you know how fast a 4 minute mile is? That's an average of ONE MINUTE around a high school track! That boggles my mind. For those of us thrilled with 11 minute miles, "Zamp" as he's called in the book would've easily lapped us. At least three times. How crazy is that? I would have been happy with just that story. It's crazy because his rising star coincided with Hitler's, and he actually met him at the Olympics in Berlin. There's a story about guns booming and pigeons flying that literally made me laugh uncontrollably out loud: the Germans wanted a big show, so they released a bunch of pigeons, and then did a gun fanfare. Every time the guns went off, the pigeons pooped with fear on the crowd. Why is that hilarious? I don't know. Who doesn't like a story about pigeons mass-pooping on people during the Olympics? Each phase of the story is a crazy one. The story spans from his running days to his days as a bomber to his days stranded on a life boat surrounded by sharks. His survival skills are (here's the word again) incredible, but reading about his days as a POW is even more insane. I don't want to give too much away here, but there's a little bit of everything, including his desperate cries to God in the life boat and his eventual conversion. This is hardly a religious book, but it doesn't pull its punches too much when it comes to spiritual matters, either. This book drew me in, and I had to fight developing my parents' early distaste for the Japanese. I knew about the horrors of the war, and how the Japanese treated the Koreans, and the book in no way highlighted any of the details between these two nations, but what it had was enough. I was horrified and devastated and had empathy for the nationalistic distaste (what an understatement!) Koreans developed after the war. It was indeed a horrible time and brought out the worst in people. Is it a spoiler alert if you know what happens at the end? It's like watching Valkyrie ]and wondering if Tom Cruise will succeed in killing Hitler. Obviously the conspiracy fails... right? Right?! Well, Zamperini survives, and there is an insight into life after the war for many people who fought in WWII, although much of the PTSD seemed to be blunted. This story isn't about the ending, but about the journey. I am amazed, as someone who is not much of a fighter, to read about someone who clung to life with a tenacity that I doubt I have. I'm definitely not the one eating all the chocolate, though. (Read the book to find out what I mean by that.) Hehe. Sidenote: I purchased and read this book on the Kindle. It was recommended to me by my brother-in-law, who heard it on audiobook (after considering it for a while, I decided that audiobooks count as "reading" if you consider Braille "reading." Blind people wouldn't say "I felt that book," would they? All this to say, the audiobook version of this comes recommended as well.) Another friend had it on her "top tier" of reading, so that pushed me over the edge. Totally glad I did it. The book is about 4 pages shy of 500, but it was a quick read and I didn't feel like I lost much on the Kindle (pictures showed up just fine.)

The book is always better than the movie, right? It seems that way to me, even with movies as good as the Lord of the Rings series. The movies were amazing, but the books were still better. It seems inevitable that Unbroken will appear on the silver screen before long (and, if the rumors are to be believed, it will star Nicholas Cage). Before it does, make sure you read the book. Unbroken is, in a word, amazing--easily one of the best books I read in 2010. It's written by Laura Hillenbrand who also penned Seabiscuit. This new book has shot straight to #2 on the New York Times list of bestsellers just days after its release. Unbroken tells the tale of Louie Zamperini, a character who is so much larger than life that I can't believe I hadn't encountered him before. Zamperini grew up in California in the 1930's, a troublesome kid who was constantly stealing, constantly fighting, constantly getting into trouble. He was that kid, the kid who was known by the police, the kid who was every teacher's nightmare. He was also lightning fast, eventually becoming a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic team where he ran the 5,000 meter race and even had the opportunity to meet Adolf Hitler. War came in 1941 and, like so many men his age, Zamperini joined up, enlisting in the United States Army Air Force. He was made bombardier in a B-24 bomber and posted to Hawaii. He took advantage of all the world had to offer, drinking and carousing with the best (or worst) of them. On May 27, 1943, while searching the ocean for a crashed plane, his own plane suffered mechanical failure and plunged into the ocean. Zamperini survived the crash along with two other members of the crew. They were adrift in the Pacific for 47 days, living off whatever rain fell from the sky and whatever food they could somehow pluck from the ocean. Though one of the men eventually succumbed to starvation, the two who remained were eventually "rescued" by the Japanese Navy, some 2,000 miles from where the plane had crashed. Zamperini's war was about to get far worse. While in captivity he was treated barbarically, a human guinea pig for new medications, a punching bag for sadistic guards, a slave laborer. In one camp he fell under the eye of Sergeant Matsuhiro Watanabe, one of Japan's most notorious war criminals and a true sadist who beat Zamperini near the point of death time and time again. That he survived the camp at all is not far short of a miracle. But he did survive, right to the end of the war. Though just a shadow of the man he was before, he returned to the United States. He was consumed by hate and anger, haunted by the shadows of what he had gone through and, as with so many survivors of the Prisoner of War camps, he turned to alcohol to numb the pain. He got married but found himself turning on his wife, even physically at times, and he found himself deeper and deeper in the bottle. His life unraveled even further. Let me pause here. If you already know that you want to read this book, just stop now and buy yourself a copy. Quit now before you come to the real spoilers. Do take note of this caveat: This may not be a book to give to your kids. There is some profanity used in dialog and there is the ugly truth that one of the Japanese prison guards was a sexual sadist who seemed to find sexual pleasure in beating and demeaning his prisoners. The sexual component of that sadism is not discussed in detail, it is not really qualified, but it is mentioned. The profanity and the sadism are historical, so not entirely out of place. But I do want to make you aware of them. You can buy Unbroken at Amazon, in hardcover or on the Kindle. It will make a great gift for a lover of biography or a person who has an interest in history, and especially military history. Now, for those who haven't run out to buy the book already, let me tell just a bit more about Zamperini's life. Zamperini pretty much hit rock bottom right around the time that Billy Graham began a crusade in California. Zamperini's wife had decided to divorce him, having come to the end of her ability to put up with his drunkenness and his abuse. But a neighbor persuaded her to go to the crusade and on her first night there she got saved. Soon she and the friend persuaded Louie to come along as well. The first night he stormed out in anger. The second night he began to storm out in anger, but on his way out, turned back and responded to the altar call. He got saved too. And his life was utterly transformed. He eventually returned to Japan to preach the gospel, even sharing it with some of the men who had imprisoned and abused him. And here he is, decades after the war, still alive, suddenly coming into the limelight once again. And here, perched near the top of the New York Times list of bestsellers, is a book that tells a story of a marvelous transformation, of God's stunning saving grace extended to one of his children. It's almost too good to be true. What can I do but recommend this book? It is receiving near-universal acclaim and for good reason. It's an incredible story to begin with, and it only gets better as it goes along. The climax of the story is not when Zamperini is rescued or when he exacts revenge on his captors. The story hits its climax right where Zamperini is born again, where he lets go of the anger and instead finds himself overwhelmed with love, God's love, and wants nothing more but to share that love with those who hated him. It's a story that has waited a long time to be told; it's a story that just needs to be read.

There is a powerful phrase among those sympathetic to Holocaust victims and survivors: Never again! This phrase has two meanings: in one sense, it’s particular to the sufferings of the Jewish people (never again allow another Holocaust against the Jews). In another sense, it expresses a universal message for all humanity: Let’s never again allow another genocide based upon discrimination and hatred of any group of people. I interpret the phrase “Never again!” in the second, broader sense, which I believe is the most meaningful. Although the Holocaust was certainly about the massacre of Jews as Jews, any such genocide against any group of people is ethically wrong. For this reason, we should do whatever we can, as a human race, not to allow this to happen to anyone ever again. In this second sense of the phrase “Never again!”, I believe that the incarceration, starvation, torture and killings of American prisoners of war during WWII by the Japanese belongs to the history of the Holocaust. Remarkably, American prisoners of war captured by the Nazis fared much better than those captured by the Japanese. The Nazis, who killed ten million innocent people in concentration camps and via shooting squads throughout Europe, were rather careful with non-Jewish Allied prisoners of war. Generally speaking, Allied POW’s lived in much better conditions than Jewish, Polish, Russian and Ukranian prisoners and had a much better chance of survival. By way of contrast, American POW’s were in extreme danger when captured by the Japanese. They were subjected to similar mistreatment and conditions that Jewish prisoners had to endure at the hands of the Nazis: starvation, filth, disease, physical and psychological torture, slave labor and death. Of the 132,000 POW’s from the U.S., Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Holland forced into concentration and labor camps in Japan, more than one quarter of them—and about forty percent of the Americans—died in captivity. By way of contrast, only one percent of American POW’s held by the Nazis died in captivity. (see Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, New York: Random House, 2010, 314-315). Although the Japanese didn’t have crematoria, similarly to the Nazis against the Jews, they adopted a “kill all” policy towards American POW’s during WWII. The Japanese policies were inherently racist. Much like the Nazi vision of a superior Aryan race, the Japanese policy was also informed by racial hatred, xenophobia and a sense of supremacy not only vis-à-vis the Americans, but also towards their Chinese, Koreans and European captives. Hence there are striking similarities between the racist outlook and behavior of the Japanese under the Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and that of the Germans under Adolf Hitler, his ally in war. It is therefore not surprising that the remarkable memoir of resiliance and survival, Unbroken, a New York Times best seller in nonfiction and soon to be made into a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie, reads like a Holocaust memoir. Beautifully narrated by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken tells the moving life story of Louis Zamperini, a young soldier and star runner of the Berlin Olympics, who defies all odds in his struggle to survive war and captivity. This true story is so incredible that it reads like a Holywood script. On May 1943, young Louis Zamperini’s plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The are only three survivers: Louis and two of his friends, who are compelled by misfortune to embark on an Odyssean voyage across the world. They’re stranded on a raft without food or water, drifting for thousands of miles, constantly threatened by bad weather conditions and assailed by sharks. They catch fish using bird meat as bait and collect rain water to stay alive. They patch up the raft when it is pierced by bullets and fight off sharks using their bare hands. Weakened by starvation, thirst, exhaustion and depression, one of them, Francis McNamara (Mac), gives up the fight for survival and perishes before reaching land. The other two, Louis Zamperini and Russell Allen Phillips (Phil), brave a typhoon and make it to an island. The most difficult part of their journey, however, comes not from natural threats but from attacks by fellow human beings. They young men are captured by the Japanese, incarcerated, interrogated, then sent to concentration camps for POW’s. Louis is first sent to Ofuna, then to Naoetsu. In those camps, the conditions are inhumane. The goal of their captors, as for the Nazis, is total human degradation. Louis recalls two particularly sadistic guards who got a sexual thrill out of beating and torturing prisoners: Sueharu Kitamura, known as “the Quack”, who beat Louis’s friend, the brilliant Bill Harris, to unconsciousness, and Corporal Mutsuhiro Watanabe, dubbed “the Bird,” a vicious psychopath whom prisoners dreaded the most. “The Bird” particularly enjoyed tormenting Louis, the star American athlete. Alternating between savage beatings and fake shows of compassion, this monster became the bane of Louis’s existence, haunting him years after he was freed from captivity. Much of Louis Zamperini’s post-traumatic stress disorder after liberation takes the form of nightmares in which he envisions strangling his former tormentor. This doesn’t relieve his pain, however. As the narrator wisely states, “The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. In seeking the Bird’s death to free himself, Louie had chained himself, once again, to his tyrant” (Unbroken, 366). Though welcomed as a hero back home, Louis can’t escape the trauma of his war experiences. He drowns his bitter memories with alcoholism and sinks into a deep depression. Religion, along with his supportive and loving family, helps him overcome this last challenge. Louis’s greatest strength, however, stems from his own internal resilience: namely, from the capacity forgive his tormentors without forgetting his painful past. In fact, one of the most compelling messages of this incredible story is let go of the pain, so you can move on, but not of the memory. “Never again!” means, in part, forgive the enemy but never forget the experience, so it can offer wisdom to future generations. Claudia Moscovici, Literature Salon

I love true stories of survival against great odds, and Unbroken fits in with the best of them. Hillenbrand tells the story of Louis "Louie" Zamperini, a young troublemaker growing up in Torrance, California, who through the encouragement of his older brother Pete discovers first a talent, and then a love, for running. After setting numerous amateur records, he made the US Olympic team and finished 8th in the 5000 meters at the 1936 Berlin games. He set his sights on greater achievement in 1940, but the Olympics were canceled with the outbreak of war in Europe, and were not held again until 1948. Meanwhile, Louie ended up as a bombardier in the Army Air Force, stationed in Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific theater. In May 1943, while on a mission to search for another B-24 plane and crew that had gone missing, Louie, his regular pilot and friend Phil, and the rest of their crew went down when their replacement plane, called the "Green Hornet"--a vessel with a history of problems and of questionable airworthiness--developed engine problems and crashed into the ocean. It was American policy to launch extensive searches for missing planes and crews, but uncertain where the "Green Hornet" had been when it plummeted from the sky, the searchers had little to go on and eventually had to give up. Louie was listed as missing and, as per policy, thirteen months later was declared dead (though his family never believed it). Prior to this, Louie's career had its moments of drama and terror, notably a memorable air battle over Nauru, but what happened to him after his plane crashed and sank, killing all but him, Phil, and a crewman called Mac, is both gripping and horrifying. First was simply getting out of the sinking wreckage alive, which Louie almost did not do. Then there was the matter of survival at sea on two meagerly-provisioned life rafts for an amount of time that they hoped would be relatively short (due to the search that would be made when they were reported missing) but which turned into weeks. They faced numerous obstacles, any one of which could have easily killed them but all of which together should certainly have been their doom: food and water ran out too soon (sooner than it needed to, for reasons I will not divulge), they were surrounded by increasingly aggressive sharks, they were strafed by machine-gun fire from a Japanese plane, and the sea at times threatened to overturn their flimsy craft. That in itself is an incredible story of survival, but it's only the beginning. Captured by the Japanese military, Louie and Phil were moved from prison camp to prison camp, including time on notorious Kwajalein Island and several locations on the main Japanese island of Honshu, eventually becoming separated. As a POW of the Japanese military, Louie was accorded very few rights and was subjected to near-constant brutality. Beatings were a daily occurrence, especially when he became the special target for the venom of a sadistic guard the prisoners nicknamed "the Bird." Even without the beatings, the daily struggle to survive in the most primitive of conditions, with little food, tattered clothes, and inadequate shelter, pushed Louie and his fellow prisoners to the edge of endurance. As a record of POW treatment, Louie's story is part of the well-documented history of Japan's horrific treatment of war prisoners. That he was singled out by the Bird for even rougher treatment than other mistreated prisoners makes his survival even more amazing. Louie is a bit like Odysseus, surviving hazards (crash-landing in the ocean, adrift for weeks, captured by the Japanese, brutalized for months) by keeping his wits about him. And he was not only remarkably resourceful, but at times lucky in avoiding worse injuries, not only in the crash of the "Green Hornet," but also when his regular plane, "Super Man," was shot to pieces over Nauru. The reason you read a book like this is for the tale of survival, which is also how it is marketed, so the post-POW section of the book seems to go on a bit long. It is mostly occupied with Louie's decline and the mystery surrounding the fate of "the Bird." But then comes the penultimate chapter, on Louie's religious reawakening under the ministry of Billy Graham, and his memory of a promise made on a raft drifting in the vast Pacific Ocean, and it all makes sense. After watching him endure, survive, decline, and break, the moment of his revival is quite moving (and skillfully handled by Hillenbrand). I have not read Seabiscuit, Hillenbrand's first book, nor am I likely to. But with her second book, the talented Laura Hillenbrand has told a story that has to be included on the bookshelf among the most dramatic and unlikely accounts of survival in history.

For good reason, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand landed on many Best of the Year lists in 2010, including on Mark's. I'm not sure I would have picked this up otherwise; I like World War II books as much as the next guy (if the next guy in question also likes World War II books), but this is focused on one man. And it's 500 pages. I wasn't sure that I was ready to commit. I'm so glad that I did. After a few pages, I knew that I would love this book. Unbroken is the story of Louie Zamperini, a hooligan-turned-Olympic runner-turned-pilot-turned-prisoner of war-turned- unbroken and hopeful man. That's a pretty good one-sentence summary of the book, just in case the publisher is looking for a subtitle for the forthcoming paperback version. I liked Louie instantly; he was a troublemaker tough-guy, but found his escape from his California town by running. Introduced to the sport by his brother, Louie runs in high school, college, and then in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he met Adolph Hitler. His life changed soon after as the story follows Louie into his new career as an AAC bombardier, until he crashes in the Pacific. Louie and two others survive at sea for over forty days without provisions (with a troubling scene about a lice infestation in his newly grown beard). If the story ended here, it would be a powerful journey. However, it does not. Much of the book is his horrid treatment in several prisoner of war camps in Japan. Just when I thought all the evil happened to Louie, there is a new chapter of horror. The title is perfect to describe Zamperini. This man personifies courage, resilience, and hope in ways I have never seen. There were times I gasped aloud to read his ordeals. The squalor and suffering only provide a backdrop to allow Louie's courage and character to shine brightly. I hesitate to say to much to avoid taking away the suspense as you read it, but allow me to say that Louie continues to sink lower into despondency and hopeless until God intervenes. In literature, it's called deux ex machina; in life, it is called redemption. This book also has much to say about the many Japanese atrocities in World War II, whether it is in prison camps, Pearl Harbor, or Nanking: "The Japanese military surrounded the city of Nanking, stranding more than half a million civilians and 90,000 Chinese soldiers. The soldiers surrendered and, assured of their safety, submitted to being bound. Japanese officers then issued a written order: ALL PRISONERS OF WAR ARE TO BE EXECUTED. What followed was a six-week frenzy of killing that defies articulation. Masses of POWs were beheaded, machine-gunned, bayoneted, and burned alive. The Japanese turned on civilians, engaging in killing contests, raping tens of thousands of people, mutilating and crucifying them, and provoking dogs to maul them. Japanese soldiers took pictures of themselves posing alongside hacked-up bodies, severed heads, and women strapped down for rape. The Japanese press ran tallies of the killing contests as if they were baseball scores, praising the heroism of the contestants. Historians estimate that the Japanese military murdered between 200,000 and 430,000 Chinese, including the 90,000 POWs, in what became known as the Rape of Nanking." This gives a more complete picture of the behavior and the attitudes of Japan, and why Hiroshima and Nagasaki were last resorts. Japan was on par of the atrocities committed by Hitler and Germany, and the two countries had more in common during treatment of people during the war than they differed. This concept certainly is not in our modern psyche. It is accepted (and often applauded) to denigrate Germany, but it is labeled as racist if we criticize Japan. In addition to the highlighting of a great man and as a history lesson, Unbroken is simply excellent prose. Hillenbrand has a poetic style of writing even the cruelest events. Examples: He felt as if he would faint, but it wasn't from the exertion. It was from the realization of what he was. One engine, for reasons known only to the plane, was thirstier than the others, so the gauges had to be watched constantly There was one perk to life in the barracks. The bathroom was plastered in girlie pinups, a Sistine Chapel of pornography. But it was good to feel oriented, to know that they were drifting toward land somewhere out there, on the far side of the earth's tilt. Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty. In places like Kwajalein, degradation could be as lethal as a bullet. The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. Whether or not you are a fan of war accounts, go read this book. Like me, you will be mesmerized with Louie Zamperini for good reason. He is a man who stands above other men, and his story demands to be told. The more like Zamperini we are, the better the world would be.

Wonderful book by a truly gifted author. The book tells a story that is filled with hope and despair, joy and sorrow, maltreatment and forgiveness. Like American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy and Salt In Our Blood: The Memoir of a Fisherman's Wife , this is a difficult read - and not just because of the subject matter. The story is so well written, and the historical figures are so well developed, I felt as though I'd known them all my life; and deep inside I wished with all my heart that each of them would survive and live healthy, happy lives. I knew this wouldn't happen, but still my heart hoped. So with the loss of each person, my heart hurt and I would cry. Still I read on - I had to for the future of others was still waiting for me. My stomach would churn as I read about the POW camps and the treatment of these heroes. I find it strange that the world has long focused on the horrors of the Nazi POW camps and Jewish concentration camps of WWII, yet little is said about the horrors of the Japanese POW camps of WWII. Having heard Kay Friederichsen speak at a woman's retreat, I'd already heard about the treatment of some people in Japanese camps; but never did I dream it was worse than what Kay had shared. I hurt as I read the story of Louie in the camps. I hurt as I read the story of Louie once he returned home and he let his life fall apart. While I can see the reasons for his emotional pain, there were times when I wanted to find him and shake him. Then I read about Louie's salvation. As I got to the paragraph where Billy Graham extends a personal invitation to Louie I remembered all those nights that my family sat and listened to Billy Graham (TV and radio). How often I heard him say something so similar. I remembered my dad telling about the night he went forward. I remembered the teen crusade I attended and how my heart longed for the peace of Christ. As I read the words, " `This is it,' said Graham. `God has spoken to you. You come on.' ", my heart rejoiced. The horrors shared in the book washed away. The sadness and despair lifted from my shoulders and I rejoiced. Louie had finally found the joy and love he had so long sought. What a testimony his life is. Would I find it in my heart to forgive as he has? I'm not sure I would. I've faced far less in my life and have had a hard time letting go of the bitterness. How often in life we fail to see that God is polishing us, and preparing us for what is ahead. For surely He knows our future and what we will face. He knows how we will fail, yet He loves us still and stands with us -- holding us up when we don't even realize it. Just as He loved Louie and held him up. Such a wonderful book. One that has renewed the joy within my heart.

Au de la de l'histoire incroyable mais vraie du personnage, j'ai énormément appris sur la seconde guerre mondiale du côté pacifique. J'ai utilisé chaque minute de mon temps libre pour le lire.

Absolutely loved this book. The start of the book, I found a bit boring which talked about his Olympic dreams and running. I was about to put the book down there but pushed through that part and read the rest of the book very quickly as it became very interesting. His story of survival, as a POW and his experience in the war was very interesting. Book also has pictures so you know who the people are, the story is great and at the end of the book you feel like he has triumphed! Highly recommended read.

Lo compré a raíz de ver la película y me gustó muchísimo. Muy duro a veces.

To start with: I honestly think that A PAPERBACK VERSION OF THIS BOOK WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT MORE ENJOYABLE TO READ THAN THE KINDLE VERSION. There are a lot of photos and references all throughout the book. I kept wanting to flip back to previous chapters and remind myself of how Louie's war buddies look like , who's who and flip forward to see the footnotes (presented at the end of each chapter). But this is impossible with a kindle. The only good thing I found about reading a kindle version is that I can easily find definitions of many tech-y war / bomber plane terms which are foreign sounding to me. But I don't think this outweigh the disadvantages I lay out. This is a book so good that you'd want to lend it to all your mates because you believe reading the book will enrich their lifes. So get a paperback version! Now let me start with my review. Being British and UK based, I don't tend to check out the NY Times best sellers list so I never heard of this book, nor this Louie guy, until my sister mentioned it on her instagram post saying "If you're going to read just one book this summer, read this." At times, amazon reviewers ratings are so off they're not to be trusted (Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was one of the worst book I've ever read and I was on a mission to let the whole world know that the book didn't deserve any star rating, never mind the 1600+ 5* rating it got on amazon.com and 250+ 5* rating on the UK website). In this case however, the 5* ratings on the UK and US amazon are well and truly justified. I would have given it 6* if amazon allowed such rating for exceptional circumstance. I won't summarise the book nor say much about how incredible the life story of Louis Zamperini was because you can read this in other reviews. What I would say is that his story will surely touch and inspire you beyond measure. Particularly on the first half of the book, you'll read so much cruelties and madness which will repulse you, but in the end, you'll gape in amazement at how much a human body and unbroken spirit can endure. I have to also commend writer Laura Hillenbrand for penning Louis's story so beautifully and matter-of-fact-ly. Her writing is so good that I could almost feel Louie's exhilaration when he broke his mile record, his family's sense of loss when the news of his disappearence was delivered, his thirst and desperation as he float on a lone raft in the middle of the vast pacific ocean, his hate towards his captor 'The Bird'. I'll end with my sister's recommendation: If you're going to read just one book in 2014, read this book!

One of the most captivating books I have ever read! Even though there are situations that are beyond imagination – in the prisoner-of-war camps in Japan – for me it is a wonderful story about how people can act even in the most terrible situations. How starving prisoners shared even the little food and few possessions they had to save others from death, and the good that came of it. Even in the darkest places in the world, there can be light. That is what is special about human beings: they always have the freedom to do good, and that is how they become true heroes. With God's help, anything is possible – an experience that Louie Zamperini had.