Unbroken

Unbroken

by Laura Hillenbrand

Very strange that I have now finished another World War II book (also a true-life story).  Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand (author of Seabiscuit), features the interview of a WWII veteran, Louie Zamperini. Louie is a former Olympic runner who joins the Army Air Corps after competing in the world games in Berlin (where he actually met Hitler!).  Louie was fast and one of the first to hit the sub-4-minute mile.  The story details his life from childhood, the Olympics, the War, and life at home afterwards.  Louie was in the flying battalion, and his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean.  Only three of the eleven crew lived, Louie being one of them. After a 46-day survival in the ocean with two peers (one dies while on a raft), they are captured by the Japanese military and kept in a POW camp.  The horrific details of his time in captivity include being repeatedly beaten by one of the Japanese officers known as “the Bird”.  The war comes to an end when the Americans drop the atom bomb on August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Louie, who the American government had noted as being dead, comes home to a jubilant family welcome but is left with the haunting nightmares of the camp.  He marries, has a child, but alcoholism and an inner fear debilitate him – until he attends a revival Christian meeting led by a young preacher, Billy Graham.  Graham changes his life and he becomes a born-again Christian. He then goes out to motivate others on the perils that face us but that we can learn to overcome.  A riveting story – I highly recommend!