Unbroken

As I wrote in the post Grandparents Make a Visit, my grandfather recently read a book called Unbroken.  I ordered the book and it has been sitting on my shelf while I've been waiting out the last few hectic weeks of long weekdays and working Saturdays.  Oh, but last week, I cracked open the book's covers.  And last Saturday, my first free Saturday in weeks, I did not leave my house.  It was too perfect a set-up... my deep need for rest, storms outside all day, and a book that I could not put down.

Unbroken is a WWII story depicting the life and trials of Louis Zamperini.  I try to tell people the story but it's hard to know where to begin.  Louis ran with the U.S. Olympic team in 1936.  He did not place but had high hopes for the 1940 Olympics, which were canceled after world erupted in war.  Louis was drafted into the Air Force and after training was sent to bases in Hawaii.  He flew with a crew of about 10 men.  One day, when flying an old and tired aircraft on a search mission to find a missing crew, Louis' crew went down over the Pacific, killing all but 3 of the men including Louis who were relegated to two small life rafts.  They floated and floated, scorching in the sun by day, freezing at night, feeling sharks bump the bottom of the rafts incessantly, and wasting away from hunger and thirst.  After floating for 30 days, a Japanese plane spotted them and began raining bullets on them.  The first time the plane went by, all 3 men were able to jump into the water to shield themselves and then hop right back in after the plane flew by, but the plane came by again and again (4x total), and the two men with Louis did not

Louis Zamperini

have the strength to get back out of the rafts after the first go around.  But no bullets touched them.  Louis meanwhile hid under the rafts bumping sharks on the nose with the strong arm survival technique he learned back in Hawaii.  All in all, 48 bullet holes were found in the rafts (which were the size of a good-sized bathtub), but no man was shot.  One of the rafts was lost, so they all crammed into the other.  The holes in the canvas raft bottom didn't matter so much, but the holes in the inflatable outside ring threatened to sink them as the air slowly crept out.  Patching kits were tucked into the raft pockets by design, and the three men worked and worked to dry the rubber out and seal the holes while continuing to pump air back into the tube.  They managed to do it.  On day 33, the man in the poorest health stopped fighting for life.  Louis and his friend Phil were alone until day 47 when their raft was washed up to one of the Marshall Islands, occupied by Japan, America's fierce enemy during WWII.  So, weighing well under a hundred pounds each, they were isolated and held in holdings cells for a few weeks, then transferred to the island Kwajalein which had earned the nickname "Execution Island," which they survived and were taken to a prison camp called Ofuna.  Life was bleek at Ofuna, but Louis and Phil adapted.  The rules were strict and the guards were violent, yet those who held Louis and Phil captive had not been given over to complete sadism.  After a year and a half, Louis and Phil parted ways.  Louis was transferred to Omori, another prison camp.  This is about where I am in the book now.  At Omori, Louis meets a Japanese man who greets him the first day with two punches to the skull.   The violent man was not a Japanese officer but held a lower rank.  Nevertheless, he was placed in charge of discipline at Omori.  Known to prisoners as "The Bird," this man made sport of manipulating, accusing, and terrorizing the prisoners.  I sense that the book spares the most gruesome of details yet it is still gut-wrenching to read through the accounts.  The Bird regularly singled Louis out, threatened by the renown Louis brought to the camp and delighted by the chance to subjugate the famous runner.  Louis got pummeled every day.

I keep reading and reading, knowing the story has a happy ending.  I appreciate how the book highlights Louis' spiritual breakthroughs beginning when he was at sea for weeks on end (in a "sensory vacuum"... nothing but sky and sea) when he sensed the presence of the Lord more clearly than ever before in his life, though he did not previously consider himself a man of faith.  

I cheated.  I skipped ahead, watching the CBS news clips on YouTube telling Louis' story.  He survives.  Then he comes back to America, he marries and gives his life to Christ after hearing a sermon preached by Billy Graham.  He puts away the alcohol he drank every night, no longer desiring its comfort.  He learns of forgiveness and simultaneously lets his anger towards The Bird melt away.