Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption

Laura Hillenbrand has told the riveting story of Louis Zamperini in Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption (#67). 

The son of Italian immigrants living in Torrance, California, Louie was a juvenile delinquent with not much of a future until his older brother Pete nagged him into running.  Obsessed with running, Louie soon was breaking high school athletic and then college records.  His improbable success led to him representing the US in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  He set his sights on the 1940 Tokyo Olympics as his opportunity to win gold and break the four minute mile. 

That is, until World War II broke out.  Louie enlisted and found himself in the Army Air Corps, assigned as a bombardier in a B-24 Liberator.  After a fierce fire fight over the Pacific, his plane went down with only three survivors.  They drifted across the open Pacific in a raft for 47 days until they were picked up by the Japanese and sent to a prison camp.  What Louie and his companions and their families and loved ones at home endured during their ordeal make up the bulk of the story of Unbroken.  But the story doesn't end there.  After Japan surrendered, the prisoners who remained were liberated by the Allies, but many were still trapped in physically damaged bodies or minds and never truly recovered.

It is a marvel that Louie and others like him survived the physical punishment, but the story of how Louie overcame his mental devils and went on to help others is even more miraculous. After his "Daybreak" moment Louie was even more in demand as an inspirational speaker and philanthropist.  He had redeemed himself.

I think part of the reason I found this book so compelling was how much it revealed to me about my own father.  Like Louie, he was a Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.  The picture of Louis in his uniform with his family brought an instant flashback of my father's dress uniform hung carefully away in his closet.  Also like Louie, my father served on a B-24 Liberator although he was a navigator stationed in North Africa and Italy.  My father didn't talk about the war, although he had a drawer full of pictures from bombing runs over Italy, Germany and Austria.  I never thought about the high incidence of downed planes over the water and the perils of being a POW if captured.  It's a frightening thought that the Germans almost looked humane compared to the treatment of Pacific POWs.

Don't miss this powerful book.  Unbroken is unforgettable.