Ivanova 1

Juliana Ivanova
Professor Cody Clarson
History 1700
5 September 2015
The Survival
America became involved in WWII after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Hundreds of thousands of people enlisted in the war were killed trying to protect the country they
called theirs and those who were lucky enough to survive suffered from traumatic experiences
that would last them a lifetime. Louie Zamperini was one of the men who fought long and hard
during WWII, and continued to fight the Japanese even with his near-death daily experiences.
Taking place during the time of WWII, the movie Unbroken (based on a true story)
portrays the life story of Louie Zamperini. Zamperini grew up as a troubled child, but thankfully
his older brother and coach, Pete was able to take him under his wing and teach him a few
things, which helped him become a phenomenal American runner who competed in the Berlin,
Germany Olympics taking 8th place. As we approach the early 1940s, we see Zamperini working
for the United States Army Air Force where disaster strikes and takes down his plane into the
ocean due to engine failure; Mac McNamera, Phil Phillips and Zamperini were the only men to
survive this crash. Unfortunately, all the men had a difficult time staying alive while in the ocean
and it did not take long before McNamera passed away from malnourishment. After a month and
a half of being stranded, Phillips and Zamperini are captured by the Japanese, then taken to
Prison camps, and tortured beyond compare by The Bird. Eventually, the United States win the
war and the remaining prisoners are freed to go back home and reunite with their families.

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The movie based on Laura Hillenbrands biography Unbroken, began when she
discovered a vintage newspaper article about Zamperini. Something about him had caught her
attention that led her to interview him a countless amount of times over the phone before
publishing the biography (Hylton). The more I researched Zamperinis background, the more I
was amazed with all the factual information the movie portrayed. I had absolutely no idea that
the Olympics in Japan where he would be running were cancelled due to WWII, but years later
were hosted in Japan where he would run with the torch at the age of 80. The brutality displaced
in the movie could not ever be represented in the way each prisoner had experienced it during
WWII AND many of these being cringe-worthy scenes. However, the movie did fail to mention
the prisoners scheme to kill The Bird as talked about by Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit Authors
New Hero Unbroken By War). Their desire to murder the captivator shows how unpleasantly
they were treated in the detention camps.
While watching the movie all I was reminded of during the period of their detention
camps and being kept hostage as prisoners was slavery. Slaves were transported by ship to the
North Americas where they were conditioned to work in the sun for hours on end while being
poorly fed (Slavery in America). You also had the ability to tell who was a slave based on skin
color, similarly to being able to tell who was a prisoner based on their race. 5,000 slaves fought
for American independence, and many thereby gained their freedom (Foner 185) and towards
the end of the movie I noticed this quote was applicable. The Americans fought for their rights
and won the war against the Japanese, which gave them the freedom of taking back those who
were captured. Although the captured Americans spent a few years as hostages, slaves were kept
in confinement for centuries. In a way, prisoners got a reduced time experiencing the harsh
conditions of slave life.

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Work Cited
Unbroken. Dir. Angelina Jolie. Legendary Pictures, 2014. Film.
Hylton, Wil. The Unbreakable Laura Hillenstand. NYTimes. The New York Times Co. 18
December 2014. Web. 5 September 2015.
n.p. Seabiscuit Authors New Hero Unbroken By War. NPR. NPR. 19 November 2010. Web.
5 September 2015.
n.p. Slavery in America. History. A & E Networks Corp. 2009. Web. 5 September 2015. Foner,
Eric. Give Me Liberty!. W.W. Norton & Co., n.d. Print.