PDF Summary:Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
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1-Page PDF Summary of Unbroken
Louie Zamperini was one of the brightest prospects for the 1940 Olympics in track and field. But when WWII started, his life would take a much different path. The story of Louie’s struggles as a young loner, a rising star, a Pacific POW, and a man trying to reclaim his life after years of torment is as unbelievable as it is inspiring. Through Louie’s tale, the depths of the human soul and will to survive are examined. As Louie spirals out of control because of trauma and becomes obsessed with a plot to kill the man who tortured him, he learns that a man is not defined by his history, but rather by the manner in which he seeks a future. Unbroken reaches into the heart of terror and shines a light on what it means to triumph.
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All of the men were emaciated and weak, but Mac suffered the worst. He eventually died on the raft, and Louie and Phil gave him a burial at sea.
On their second-to-last day at sea, a great typhoon threatened to capsize the boat. Louie prayed to God to save them and promised to serve him always if he did. The storm pushed them toward land. Salvation was finally in sight. They’d drifted two thousand miles from the crash site.
A Different Nightmare
Louie and Phil rowed their raft toward the cluster of the Marshall Islands. They were grateful for land, but they knew they were in enemy territory. They would have to go ashore and hide until they could find a safe village. However, before they could reach shore, a Japanese ship pulled beside them and brought them aboard. This would be the last free moment of either man’s life for two years.
After being captured, the two men were interrogated and taken to a secret POW camp called Ofuna. There, they were separated, and each experienced abuse and starvation that was worse than what they’d known on the raft. The prison guards were unusually cruel and sadistic, and men were often beaten unconscious. Louie spent a year at this camp before he was transferred to Omori.
At Omori, Louie met a man who made it his life’s mission to break Louie down. His name was Mitsuhiro Watanabe, but the prisoners called him “the Bird.” There were hundreds of POWs at Omori, but the Bird singled Louie out as the “number one prisoner.” The Bird was from a privileged background but hadn’t made officer in the Japanese military. His resentment made him loathe men of higher ranks and anyone who’d been successful in civilian life. As an officer and former Olympian, Louie was the perfect target.
Terrorized
Over the next year, at Omori and another camp named Naoetsu, the Bird beat Louie on a daily basis. He’d hunt Louie down in the sea of POWs and beat him with sticks, punch him until he was unconscious, and threaten to kill him. He used a heavy belt buckle to whip Louie in the side of the head, and Louie went deaf in one ear for a few weeks.
Under the oppressive hand of the Bird, Louie began to disintegrate emotionally and psychologically. He dreamt of the Bird attacking him in his sleep, dreams that often ended with Louie trying to strangle his abuser. Louie swore he would never let the Bird see him afraid, but the constant abuse was chipping away at his dignity. Starving to death, sick, and desperate, Louie often had to beg the very man who tormented him for help.
Louie was offered an out from his hell one day when radio producers from Tokyo wanted him to deliver a propaganda broadcast. Louie had been officially declared dead in the United States, and the Japanese wanted to use Louie to embarrass the American government. If he complied, he could live in a furnished room and eat large lavish meals. Louie refused. He wouldn’t become a pawn in the enemy’s game.
The abuse continued up until a few days before the war’s end. It was 1948, and both Germany and Japan had surrendered. The Americans brought supplies to the POW camps and eventually liberated them. Louie just made it. He’d developed a fatal vitamin deficiency that was on the verge of killing him days before they were saved. Louie and other POWs looked for the Bird, but he’d already escaped.
Becoming Human
The nation was captivated by Louie’s story of survival. He became an instant celebrity and gave many speeches about his experiences. But inside, Louie suffered from crippling PTSD. He experienced night terrors, flashbacks, and aggressive behavior. Every night he dreamed that the Bird was abusing him, and every night he dreamed of strangling him.
When Louie first came home, he met and married a young woman named Cynthia Applewhite. He loved her from the moment he saw her and wanted to give her a good life. But with his running career over because of injuries sustained in the prison camp and no job prospects, he began to falter. Louie drank heavily to keep his demons away and became obsessed with a revenge plot to travel to Japan and murder the Bird.
For four years, Louie spun out of control. Even the birth of his daughter couldn’t stop his drinking or murderous thoughts. It wasn’t until he went to a Billy Graham sermon that he was able to find relief. At the sermon, he was reminded of the promise he made to God on the raft. Louie realized he hadn’t fulfilled his end of the deal. He quit drinking and smoking and started preaching the word of God, telling his story around the world, now through the lens of gratitude and faith.
Happily Ever After
Louie dedicated the rest of his life to helping others in need. He continued to speak at events, opened a therapeutic retreat for troubled teens, and volunteered with seniors. He traveled back to Japan and was able to find forgiveness for those who tormented him. But he never saw the Bird again.
After leaving the camp, the Bird went on the run from authorities for seven years. When the hunt for war criminals ended, he came out of hiding and became a successful businessman in Tokyo. In the late 1990s, Watanabe gave an interview, in which he waffled between remorse and self-righteousness. He maintained that he was just doing his job and was a victim of wartime hysteria. He was offered an opportunity to meet with Louie, both close to 80 years old, but he declined. He died in 2003.
For Louie, life moved on, and he never again lost his zeal for living. He started running again and continued to through his sixties. In his 70s, he took up skateboarding. In his 90s, he was still skiing and climbing trees. He received numerous awards and honors, and his childhood home was declared a historic monument. Louie carried the torch at five Olympic opening ceremonies, including the 1998 Winter Games in Japan. As he carried the torch past the location of his former prison camp in Naoetsu, Louie felt nothing but peace and love for life.
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PDF Summary Prologue: Lost
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The men dove overboard and used the raft as a shield. Bullets zoomed past, leaving contrails in the water. The onslaught stopped, and Louie and his mates climbed back into the rafts. But the plane returned a moment later and was heading straight for them. The other two men were too weak to swim again, but Louie went under. It was either the guns or the sharks, and he chose the sharks.
PDF Summary Part 1 | Chapter 1: The Wayward Child
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The Downward Spiral
Louie was an outcast, not only for his mischievous ways, but also for his looks. He was scrawny and still struggled with his lungs because of the childhood pneumonia. He had big ears and unruly hair. Louie also spoke little English as a young boy because of the Italian spoken at home, and he stayed quiet through most of kindergarten and first grade. Thinking he was slow, the teachers held him back a grade.
Louie was often bullied, but he never reacted to anything that happened to him. Other boys would punch and kick him, and he’d be bruised and bloody. But he never ran away, cried, or complained. He’d simply cover his face and wait for the abuse to be over.
As he got older, Louie grew more broody and brutal. He started hanging out with a rough crowd, but although he acted tough, he was crippled by shyness inside. He asked his father to teach him how to box and started lifting weights. He was able to fight his offenders now, but his rage was growing and turning toward everyone. On separate occasions, he punched a girl, shoved a teacher, and threw tomatoes at police officers. He even broke one kid’s nose and beat another unconscious.
His...
PDF Summary Chapter 2: A Young Man’s Resilience
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These were the conditions of the Olympic trials. There was no way to avoid the heat while Louie and the other runners trained day in and out. Overheated, dehydrated, and unable to rest or eat, many of the racers dropped significant amounts of weight, ten pounds or more, even Louie.
Louie also struggled with the difference in his stature in New York. The papers focused on Lash as the favorite. Louie was intimidated but positive he would at least be in the top three. He spent a sleepless night before the race, praying he wouldn’t disappoint everyone from home.
The conditions on the day of the race were dangerous. The temperature was at least 100 degrees. Racers were passing out and being taken to the hospital. There was no shade, and by the time Louie’s race was called, he’d been sitting in the scorching sun for hours.
Louie let Lash take the early lead and hung back in the middle biding his time. Racers were dropping on the track from the heat, and Louie’s feet were burning through his shoes. On the final lap, Louie kicked up his pace. Lash was still out front, and Louie pulled closer and closer down the backstretch to within yards of Lash. When they approached the final...
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Learn more about our summaries →PDF Summary Part 2 | Chapter 3: America Goes to War
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Louie was in Texas enjoying a weekend pass. He was watching a movie with other servicemen when an announcement blasted through the theater telling the men about the attack and to return to their bases. Louie would always remember sitting in shock at the news that America, including himself, was now at war.
Tour of Duty
After America officially entered the war, Louie graduated from his training as a bombardier and became a second lieutenant. Pete had also joined the war effort and was a Navy chief petty officer in San Diego. Both Zamperini boys went to their family home in Torrance to say goodbye. On August 19, Louie’s entire family posed for a photograph on their front steps before he departed.
The day Louie arrived at an airbase in Washington state, he met another second lieutenant named Russell Allen “Phil” Phillips, who would be the pilot of Louie’s plane. Phil was 26 years old, from Indiana, and engaged to be married to his college sweetheart, Cecy. He was quiet and had an ability to cope with stress and adversity amicably and calmly.
Louie and Phil grew close on the base. Louie’s gregariousness was the perfect complement to Phil’s demureness and vice...
PDF Summary Chapter 4: Those Lost and Left Behind
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Parting Ways
Louie, Phil, Cuppernell, and two others from their crew were sent back to Hawaii. Pillsbury and the other wounded were sent to Samoa, where a doctor amputated his leg. One of the other men was too badly injured to fight and was sent home. Super Man and its crew were finished.
Louie was in a state of distemper back on the base in Hawaii. With no plane and no missions, Louie drank heavily, listened to music, and ran, trying to turn his mind from Brooke’s dying face to the 1944 Olympics.
A month later, Louie and the remaining Super Man crew were transferred to the eastern side of Oahu and paired with six new men. Everyone was apprehensive, for new crewmembers usually meant mistakes. There was one man named Francis “Mac” McNamara, who had a significant sweet tooth. Other than that, Louie found nothing notable about the others.
The new crew was given the infamous B-24 bomber known as the Green Hornet, a haggard plane with a treacherous history. The Green Hornet was known as a “musher,” meaning the tail tended to drag lower than the nose. It was a heavy plane previously only used for errands and had been pilfered of parts for other planes. Louie...
PDF Summary Part 3 | Chapter 5: Needle in a Haystack
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The only hope Louie had was to hit land, which wouldn’t happen for some two thousand miles in the direction they were drifting. Even if they made it that far, they would land near the Marshall or Gilbert Islands, both of which were occupied by Japan.
Wasting Away
Five days at sea without food and little water was beginning to take its toll. No other planes had appeared, and Mac finally cracked. He wailed around like a trapped animal, screaming that they were all going to die. Louie slapped him and Mac stopped shouting, but he returned to his catatonic state. Louie prayed silently for the second time in his life.
The lost men’s proximity to the equator created dangerous conditions during the scorching afternoons. Their bodies burned in the hot sun, their lips ballooned, and their skin cracked. They couldn’t get relief in the water because of the circling sharks, and there was nothing to drink.
Three days after the last of their water was consumed, a storm appeared on the horizon. Soon, the sun was shielded by clouds and rain poured down, providing a little relief. Louie made a funnel with the air pump canvas and filtered water into their tins. Once the rain...
PDF Summary Chapter 6: The Real Battle Begins
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On one of the walls, Louie found an engraving—“Nine marines marooned on Makin Island, August 18, 1942,” the names of the men etched beneath it. Louie had heard of these marines before, as most American soldiers had. They’d been accidentally left behind after an attack and vanished. Louie was likely the first person to learn their whereabouts.
The fact that these men were nowhere in sight was ominous. Louie called out to Phil and heard a meek response from far away. They had just enough time to check on each other’s well-being before a guard came in. Louie took in his surroundings, his emaciated body, and his circumstances and started to weep. He covered his mouth to muffle his sobs.
Wishing for Death
Louie and Phil would stay on Kwajalein for 42 days. The ordeal they experienced was worse than what they’d survived on the raft, and Louie found himself wishing for death on several occasions.
Each day, Louie was given a golf ball-sized dry biscuit and a swallow of hot brown water. The biscuit was thrown through the window and shattered on the ground, leaving Louie to scramble for crumbs like a rodent. **Louie soon learned that the marines had been executed, and from...
PDF Summary Part 4 | Chapter 7: The Will to Live
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At first, Louie, William, and Tinker planned to sneak out of camp and hike to the airstrip, but they’d been blindfolded upon entry and had no idea what direction to go in. Then, a friendly guard, working on the assumption that the men didn’t understand Japanese, gave them an almanac so they could look at the pictures. With William’s fluency, the almanac gave them detailed descriptions of Japanese ports, types of vessels, and distances between various locations.
With this new knowledge, they abandoned the plane plan and decided to steal a boat instead. If they could make it to the western shore of Japan, they could take a boat to China. The only issue was the 150-mile hike to the western coast with wasted bodies and distinguishable American features. They decided they would travel only by night, but even if they were captured, it was better to die trying to survive than it was at the hands of the guards.
For two months, the men trained. They walked as often as possible to strengthen their legs, studied the shift schedules of the guards, and stole tools. The day of departure was approaching, and Louie was filled with a fearful giddiness. Then, right before they were set to...
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PDF Summary Chapter 8: Relief At Last
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The morning after the party, the Bird walked across the bridge to Tokyo. The monster of Omori camp was gone. Life was exponentially better at Omori after that. Private Kano took over, and POWs were once again allowed to write and receive letters. Louie wrote several to his parents and Pete, but most of them wouldn’t arrive until long after the war ended.
Another surprise occurred in mid-January. Several men from Ofuna crossed the bridge to the camp. Among them was the high-ranking Commander Fitzgerald and Louie’s friend William Harris. When Louie saw William, he shuddered. Harris had been continually beaten by the Quack and was stuck in a mental fog. The Omori doctor examined him and said he was dying.
With the Bird gone, Private Kano ordered the Red Cross boxes to be removed from storage and given to the prisoners. When Louie received his rations, he gave them to William despite his grave hunger, and with the extra food, William started to come back to life.
Paradise Lost
The bombings over Tokyo continued, and the camp guards became increasingly anxious. The POWs were also anxious. Word had spread that 150 POWs had been executed as part of the kill order in...
PDF Summary Part 5 | Chapter 9: American Heroes
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Some of the men went to find the Bird, but he was already gone. At some point over the last day, the Bird had shed his uniform, grabbed a bag of provisions, and vanished. For Louie, the moment was different. He didn’t have enough strength for the jubilant celebration. Louie stood still, barely able to hold himself up, and thought one phrase over and over: “I’m free.”
The Long Wait Is Over
The task of providing supplies to POWs and liberating the camps was a massive endeavor that took time. Being on the far side of Japan, Naoetsu was down on the list of sites. Six days after the war’s end, supplies still hadn’t come. Fighter planes flew over and dropped notes stating that they had exhausted their supplies but would be back soon. As a consolation, the pilots performed a 30-minute airshow for the cheering men below.
When the American planes returned, they dropped hundreds of bags of food. The provisions were spread out evenly, but they still weren’t enough. Commander Fitzgerald had men use lime to write a message on the road: “700 PWs Here.”
The message worked. Three days later, the fighter planes were replaced by six B-29s, and pallets of supplies started...
PDF Summary Chapter 10: Redemption
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In summer 1946, Watanabe went to his sister’s house in Tokyo. His family told him about being surveilled and daily visits by detectives. They urged Watanabe to leave before the detectives arrived, but the afternoon stretched long, and he was still in the house when the police came. Watanabe hid, and although the detectives stood inches from his hiding spot, he was not found.
After this visit, Watanabe went back to the farm and met a woman. They fell in love, but the pressure of sustaining his fake identity wore on him. He broke things off and left the village.
That fall, two bodies were discovered in the mountains in what appeared to be a murder-suicide. The bodies were of a man and woman. The police took Watanabe’s mother to see the bodies, and she identified the man as her son.
Spiraling Out of Control
In Hollywood, Louie heard nothing about the Bird’s death. By fall 1946, Louie was a full-blown alcoholic and suffering from severe psychological distress. His whole world had become dedicated to his mission to kill the Bird.
The following years, 1947 and 1948, saw Louie bouncing between various get-rich-quick schemes to fund his trip back to Japan. Many of...