Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken

The art of survival is something that is not easily learned. For some, however, it is something that comes from a natural desire to be defiant and rebellious. In the novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louie Zamperini fights for survival through a number of trials that are presented to him. His life takes him from being a troubled child, to an Olympic runner, to a bomber lost at sea, to POW in some of the worst camps Japan could conjure. Louie not only survives these trials, he stands up and goes directly against the normality and ease of submission and faces his adversity head on. Throughout the novel, Louie shows that his ability to survive stems from his natural urge to rebel and defy anything that he deems too controlling in his life.

Well-known nonfiction author Laura Hillenbrand, in her best-selling biography, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, describes the chilling reality faced by those living in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. As the title suggests, this is not the typical World War II tale of hardship that ends in liberation; rather, it follows the main character, Louis “Louie” Zamperini, through his childhood, Olympic performances, and military career leading up to his captivity, as well as his later marriage and many years of healing. Hillenbrand's purpose is to impress upon her readers the scale of this tragedy as well as remind them of the horror that so many nameless soldiers endured. She adopts an emotional yet straightforward tone in order to get readers to sympathize with the characters and truly understand what they went through. To do so, she manages to make the unique story of one man represent the thousands of others going through the same tragedy.

There are many things that happened to Japanese-American immigrants during World War 2 that people in this time period aren’t really familiar with. A story from a Japanese woman, Jeanne Wakatsuki-Houston, who was born and lived in this era, with help from her husband, James D. Houston, explains and sheds some light during the times where internment camps still prevailed. The writing piece titled “Arrival at Manzanar", takes place during her childhood and the Second World War. In the beginning, Jeanne and her family were living a calm and peaceful life in a predominantly white neighborhood, until disaster struck the world and they were forced to move due to escalating tensions between Japanese Orientals and white Americans. At the time, Japanese-Americans, like Jeanne, were forced to live in an internment camp, which is a prison of sorts, due to the war with Japan. The text is being told through a first person point-of-view in which Jeanne herself tells the story through her experiences during the war. In that story, which contains only a part of the original text, much of the setting took place either prior to and during the time she was sent to the internment camps and describes her struggle with it. This story clearly states the importance of family and perseverance which is shown through her use of pathos, definition, and chronological storytelling.

Fighting a war against the oppression and persecution of a people, how hypocritical of the American government to harass and punish those based on their heritage. Magnifying the already existing dilemma of discrimination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor introduced Japanese-Americans to the harsh and unjust treatment they were forced to confront for a lifetime to come. Wakatsuki Ko, after thirty-five years of residence in the United States, was still prevented by law from becoming an American citizen.

Japanese-Americans and Americans felt invisible in many ways because of the way they were treated and relocation or POW camps. Once the Japanese-American families were at a relocation camp they had to go through an interview with the Government workers. “As a result of the interview,” she wrote, “my family name was reduced to No. 13660. I was given several tags bearing the family number, and was then dismissed” (Okubo, 19) This shows that MIne feels invisible because she got her name taken away and reduced to a five digit number. When POWs got to the camp in Ofuna no one was allowed to talk or look at other prisoners, if they did they would be beaten by a guard. “There were dozens of men in cells near him, but there was no sound. In this warren

Japanese internees and American POW,s resisted invisibility in many different ways. Louie Zamperini never broke in the captivity camps because he always found a way to resist it. One way he did this is, “Louie knew what would happen if he won, but the cheering aroused his defiance. He lengthened his stride, seized the lead, and crossed the line.” (Hillenbrand 158) Louie knew that he would get beat if he won the race but he did cause he wanted to defy his captives show them that they could not break him. The Japanese internees were human like us they had determination this like us, Miné Okubo showed us that you can resist in many different ways, such as, “Internees were not allowed to have cameras, but Mine wanted to document what was

During WWll THe efforts to make both Japanese-American internees and American POWs in Japan invisible is that they tried to take away the only thing they had left, dignity. They suffered many losses, such as loss of family and homes. The people that suffered the most were Japanese Americans and POW’s because they were stripped of their dignity. Dignity is self worth and self respect, without dignity you become invisible. Two things that leads to invisibility are dehumanization and isolation.

In 1942 President Franklin D Roosevelt issued an order to create “Internment Camps” for people of Japanese descent living in the USA. Sixty-two percent of these people were US Citizens and some of them had only 1/16th Japanese Ancestry. One hundred and thirty thousand people were “relocated” to these camps without any proof of wrongdoing or just trial. Mine Okubo was one of these people and despite the inhumane conditions and unjustness of her imprisonment, she made sketches and wrote about her experience in the camps. Later she released a graphic novel titled Citizen 13660.

Many historians argue the injustice and the reason behind it, Robert Shaffer in 1999 made a significant statement in his work of writing that the true reason behind the so called “relocation centers” is indeed “anti-Japanese racism” and not a national security preservation act. The Executive Order did not specify a race nor a gender therefor the Secretary of War was given the freedom to “evacuate” anyone that was considered a security threat or just as noted by Robert Shaffer; anyone of Japanese American ancestry. Many Americans protested the internment and the violation of civil rights; activists such as Rev. Andrews further explained the “robbery” of the Japanese Americans by their own country. Their home betrayed them and stripped away their pride and all they had and all they were (Shaffer, 1988). They faced neither court disposition nor a conviction but rather watched their

Yonekazu Satoda was sent to the Jerome Relocation Center after the attack on Pearl Harbor when he was 22. The majority of the 120,000 detained Japanese-Americans were American citizens. He wrote in a diary while he was there and was showcased at Yale. The Yale exhibit came up around a time when some politicians said we should send current Syrian refugees to ‘detention camps.’ The victims of the detention mention injustices in the government’s treatment of them, but Satoda he says that he only remembers the good times he had with his friends there.

She used her last bit of money and could not get more because of the war restricting communications and borders. “I was stranded in Switzerland with nothing but a toothbrush... The train fare from Budapest to Berne took my last cent and the money I had expected had not arrived at the American Express Office. Mail Service was suspended and the French border was closed.” (Okubo 3) The war created propaganda against Japanese Americans, even if they were totally loyal to the U.S. There was a curfew put in place for anyone Japanese which made it necessary for her to have to get a permit to go to her work.

Japanese-American internees and the Prisoner of War were constrained to feel “invisible” to the world. Louie and other Prisoners of War (POW), were held in captivity in Ofuna, POWs were enforced by Japanese to feel invisible, as an example they were not allowed to conversate with each other because they might give information out that Japanese tried to keep,”There were dozens of men in cells near him, but there was no sound. In this warren of captives, Louie was alone” (Hillenbrand, 147),What this is showing is isolation, Louie and the other Prisoners of War (POW) were isolated from each other, if they were to talk to another they’ll get harsh beatings from the Japanese. Mine and her brother, were both isolated from people around them, even

The conflict of a typical mother/daughter relationship exists in many cultures. This conflict for many Asian-American women was further exasperated as these women were forced to also deal with adjusting as first, second, and third generation Americans in a sometimes unwelcome society. As a child, Japanese-American Janice Mirikitani, was interned, along with her mother, at a “work relocation camp” during 1941in Rohwer, Arkansas (Americans Who Tell the Truth @ AWTTT). Despite her unfavorable origins of birth as an interned US citizen of Japanese descent, Mirikitani has gone on to become a self-proclaimed visionary, community activist, leader, poet, and editor in American

A good romance will often have an enchanted feel about it but Genevra Thorne has successfully taken this concept a step further and incorporated a magical theme into her love stories in her Faerie Tale books. The Beloved, the second novel in this series, tells of Ashton cursed with the ability to seduced any woman, mortal or magical, he meets at a mere glance and Eden scarred terribly both inside and outside. Ashton yearns for a connection beyond superficial and Eden despairs at ever finding a way to get beyond her grief. When fate decrees that the two meet each other the instantaneous connection and completion these two characters find in each other was monumental in its depth. Tender and poignant the ideas that beauty lies in the eyes of

In the biography Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki tells her family’s story of their time before and after they were sent to Japanese American internment camps. Jeanne gives insightful details about what her family went through inside the camps and talked about how many of the Japanese Americans felt. These people had to start a whole new life at these camps, so when they were forced to leave it was really hard for a lot of the families. Many families had created a better life there and found that they were not welcomed outside the camp. Japanese Americans were uncertain about their release and the end of the war because many had no place to go and most were unsure what to expect outside the camps because they would now be looked at differently after the war.