THE BOOK FAIR

Review :

Laura Hillenbrand details the life of Louis Zamperini, American Olympic track runner, and survivor of Japanese POW death camps, in the biography, “Unbroken”.  Hillenbrand is also the author of the bestseller, “Seabiscuit”, portraying the famous and well loved race horse.

 

Louis Zamperini, a willful, hardheaded, well loved child, grew into a teenage delinquent, that rattled his parents and upon occasion, had the police at their door.  Louie turned his life around with the help of his older brother, Pete, who encouraged and coached Louis in running track.

Louie quickly broke records winning every race he entered and was chosen to compete in the Olympics, in 1936, in Germany.  Louie began to focus on the 1940 Olympics in Japan, but the state of the world was not in favor.

In 1941, Zamperini joins the Army Air Corps.  In December 1941, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.  Louie, meets Russel Allen Phillips, who pilots their aircraft, the Liberator B-24.  Louie, the bombardier, trains on the top secret, Norden computer.

On a Search and Rescue mission for a downed plane, Phillips, Louie and the crew crash into the Pacific Ocean.  Weeks later, Phillip and Louie are picked up by the Japanese.  The capture of an American pilot and bombabier, who is also an American Olympic athlete, proves a real prize for the Japanese military who want information.  “Unbroken”, details Louie’s story of the years he spent in Japanese POW prison camps, the torture, the beatings, and the starvation he and other prisoners endured.

 

The U.S. Government failed to punish Japanese officers, prison guards, and government officials of war crimes concerned that harsh sentences would interfere in the new relationship between Japan and the U.S. after the war.