Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive

Louie is the central figure in the text Unbroken, as the narrative tells his story from childhood, through World War II, and his experiences after the war. Born in 1917 to Italian immigrants, Louie spent his childhood living outside Los Angeles. Initially, he is troublesome, stealing from people in town, starting fights, and refusing to obey his parents—even running away from home. However, he discovers his love of running and the peace that it gives him and devotes his teenage years to training. He qualifies for the Olympics in 1936 and as he trains for the 1940 Olympics, World War II breaks out. He elects to join the war effort in 1941 and becomes a Captain with the 372nd Bomb Squadron, stationed on Oahu. While there, he completes several bombing raids on nearby islands to weaken Japan’s stronghold over the area. When his plane crashes in 1943, he spends 47 days at sea with Phil and Mac before floating to a Japanese-controlled island, where he is then taken as a prisoner of war for over two years. Throughout his journey, he regularly overcomes starvation, dehydration, and physical and emotional abuse, using the same strength he needed to train for the Olympics.

After the war, Louie suffers from PTSD. He struggles to connect with his wife, Cynthia, and his family. He is overwhelmed by flashbacks to the war and memories of his abuse. The focal point of his trauma is the Bird, the prison guard who made it his mission to abuse and “break” Louie. Just as Cynthia is about to leave Louie, as he is at the height of his alcoholism and suffering, Louie experiences a religious revival at the hands of a sermon by evangelist Billy Graham. Louie realizes that God had not abandoned him, but instead had shown Himself to Louie throughout the war. He remembers praying to God for water and receiving it, praying to be saved, and several moments where he saw the true beauty of the world despite everything he was suffering. At the hands of his newfound faith, Louie overcomes his PTSD and his fixation with getting revenge. Instead, he can forgive the guards who had tortured him—including the Bird—and devote the rest of his life to helping young boys who struggled as he did.

The Bird is the central antagonist of the text. Born in Japan in 1918 to a wealthy family, the Bird “had lofty expectations for himself as a soldier” (173) and hoped to become an officer. Instead, he is rejected and instead becomes a corporal stationed at Omori POW camp, where Louie first meets him. The Bird delights in tormenting the prisoners, often subjecting the men to extreme physical and emotional abuse. He is often manic, one minute beating a man unconscious and the next apologizing in tears. Because of Louie’s fame as an Olympian and his status as an officer, he becomes fixated on abusing Louie. Throughout his time at Omori and later at Naoetsu, the Bird subjects Louie to physical beatings, deprives him of rations, and forces him to clean the camp’s latrines, haunting Louie’s nightmares.

After the war, the Bird is hunted as a war criminal but flees for over seven years. He fears retribution for his crimes, often contemplating his guilt. When the charges against him are dropped in 1952, he comes out of hiding, marries, and establishes a successful insurance business. When asked about his responsibility for his actions in the war, he was only “sometimes apologetic, but always with absurd justifications, self-serving lies, self-pity, and even apparent pride” (280). Although Louie forgives the Bird for everything he had done to him in the war, the Bird refuses to meet with him.

Pete Zamperini was Louie’s brother and the first impetus toward Louie’s later success. Pete intercedes on Louie’s behalf in trouble and leads him to the track team. Through Pete, Louie discovers his love for running and finds a renewed purpose in his young life. Pete supports Louie throughout his running career, training with him daily and sending words of encouragement to him in Berlin.

When Louie is lost at sea during the war and then imprisoned, Pete suffers from the torment, fear, and uncertainty of what Louie is going through. When Louie finally returns, he is shocked to learn just how “haggard” Pete looks and how much the war has impacted him. Pete dies in 2008, with Louie by his side recounting their lives together, telling Pete how he “had rescued him” (279).

Phil is Louie’s best friend throughout the war and his pilot. Born in Greencastle, Indiana in 1916, Louie befriends Phil and appreciates his “quiet, kind steadiness” (53). Throughout the war, Phil is sustained by thoughts of his fiancée, Cecy, and how he had promised to marry her when he returned home from the war. Although Phil and Louie are separated, Phil survives a different POW camp, finally returning home to Cecy and marrying her before moving to Indianapolis to teach junior high school.

When the Green Hornet crashes into the sea south of Oahu, Phil is one of only three survivors along with Louie and Mac. Phil allows Louie to take command of their raft, supporting his decisions and helping the three men to survive as Mac goes into shock. Phil becomes an important source of support for Louie throughout the text, helping each other survive. As they sit in their cells on the Marshall Islands, unsure of what is going to happen to them, the two communicate with each other from their cells for support.

Unlike Louie, Phil returns home from the war “outwardly free of bitterness” (277) and does not suffer the obsession Louie did with revenge. Despite Phil’s role in Louie’s survival, he garnered little attention after the war—when compared with Louie—but he “bore it graciously” (277). In 1998, just before his death, the staff at his retirement home discovered his story and allowed him to speak of his experiences for one of the first times in his life.