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Examples Of Resisting Invisibility During World War II

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Resisting Invisibility During World War II
Imagine being tortured in a POW (prisoner of war) camp or being moved because of your descent into a camp away from all other people of different descents. Louie Zamperini was captured after his B-24 crashed in the pacific ocean and was stranded at sea for 47 days eating sharks and being attacked by them. Louie once imprisoned was beaten and starved to the maximum. Miné Okubo was moved to a camp outside of her town and imprisoned in the United States in fear of betrayal from all people with Asian decent after the pearl harbor attack. The experiences Louie and Miné went through a show that humans can overcome most things as long as you keep your mind set on the positives and think about the reasons you should stay alive. Louie and Miné …show more content…

When Louie was in a POW camp they beat him and humiliated him in front of the whole camp. “Every day at gunpoint, Louie was forced to dance while guards roared with laughter” (Hillenbrand 140) They treated Louie in ways other people wouldn’t be treated, beaten, used as entertainment in ways that they wished not to be. Miné’s family was moved to a camp in fear of esbianosh being that they were of Asian decent and was assigned a number to be recognized as.“my family name was reduced to No. 13660.” (The Life of Miné Okubo). Miné’s family was no longer a regular family, they were reduced to just a number instead of being a traditional family. Louie and the other POWs were treated horribly, treated like a pile of trash throwing rocks and cigarettes at them. “Nearly every day, they flew into rages that usually ended up with Phil and Louie being spat upon and bombarded with rocks and lit cigarettes” (Hillenbrand 140). The quote shows the harsh living conditions that Louie, Phil and other POWs were in and the ways that the Japanese treated them. Louie felt invisible during his time in captivity due to these ways he was

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World War II was a very traumatizing time for the soldiers that fought in it. Unfortunately, the War was also a very traumatic experience for the Japanese Americans that were forced into internee camps. Key examples of those who have struggled through awful conditions are Miné Okubo and Louie Zamperini. Miné is a Japanese American artist who was forced to live in squalor conditions surrounded by armed guards. Louie is an American soldier and a previous Olympic athlete that was beaten daily and starved almost to death in prisoner of war camps.

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Why did the Guards Treat the POWs so Badly? POW stands for Prisoner of War and to become a POW, like Louie, he was captured by the Japanese and taken to a POW camp. To be captured, Louie and his team crash landed in the ocean and they drifted to Japanese territory and they were imprisoned by them and taken to a POW camp and then they would torture all of the Prisoners there. “Beatings were almost constant. Men were beaten for virtually anything: folding arms, cleaning their teeth, talking in their sleep, and most often, for not understanding orders issued in Japanese” (149).

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“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man 's soul in his body long past the point when the body should have surrendered it” (Hillenbrand 189). In the novel Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini goes through several life-threatening experiences. After being a troublemaker as a child, and an Olympic athlete, Louie straps up his boots and becomes a bombardier for the Army Air Corps. After a traumatizing crash and a forty-six day survival at sea, Louie is taken captive by Japanese officials.

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Louie himself began to worry as well, and he even takes to reading western novels and dreaming about running away from home. Eventually, Louie does try to run away from home, but his plan fails miserably when he is kicked off of a train and is forced to walk home over the spam of two days. Louie’s brother Pete convinces him to join track at school. Although Louie hates running, he is very good at it, and he enjoys the feeling of winning.

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Louie and Miné were tortured and punished for something that they didn’t do and it made them feel like they were invisible. Louie was get dehumanized, hurt, because the Japanese would think that dehumanizing Americans would make them stop the war. “Nearly every day, they flew into rages that usually ended with Phil and Louie being spat upon and bombarded with rocks and lit cigarettes.” (Hillenbrand 140) Dehumanized because he is getting hurt by the guards because he is an american and they think that Louie and Phil would hurt them.

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Even though, everyone had heard of him, Louie was notorious for stealing (8-9). Because of his raucousness and heritage , Louie became a candidate for an increasingly popular procedure called eugenics. Page 12 explains that “eugenics was forced sterilization, a surgical procedure that rendered patients unable to have children.” The thought of being an ‘unfit’ member of society scarred Louie tremendously. After a failed runaway attempt “Louie went upstairs, dropped into bed, and whispered his surrender to Pete.

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Miné Okubo was sent to a camp in America because she was seen a threat to America because of Minés Japanese heritage. It didn't matter that she was an American citizen. Miné and Louie were sent to these camps to be isolated from the public and the guads tried to dehumanize them. They tried to dehumanize Miné and Louie in many ways but Miné and Louie resisted feeling invisible and survived. Japanese-Americans and prisoners of war were sent to camps

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At night, all Louie could see were walls, stripes of ground through the gaps in the floorboards, and his own limbs, as slender as reeds,” (Hillenbrand, 206). Keeping people isolated in cells, with little to no contact to the outside world could make them feel invisible. “Transferred to a train, the POWs rode all night, moving west, into a snowy landscape,” (Hillenbrand, 199). Louie and his fellow POWs had minimal contact with the outside world which could lead them to feel invisible. Additionally, knowing that they wouldn’t be found, and would continue to be isolated could bring up feelings of seclusion and alienation.

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Abusing humans just for their ethnicity is believed to only have happened hundreds of years ago. However, this is still happening today, and nothing is being done to stop it. In the article “Native American elders recall abuse at US government boarding schools”, many Native Americans reflect on times they were abused and beaten by school officials for simply being Native American, which is very similar to how humans are used and abused on the Tlic’s planet in “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler. In this article, many different Native Americans look back to times when they were brutally beaten while attending boarding schools for simply being Native American, and embracing their culture. This is very similar to “Bloodchild” as, in this novel, the

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Overcoming Dehumanization “Louie watched the sky and hoped the Americans would come before the Bird killed him” (181). This is one of the many examples of how the way POWs were treated in these camps influenced many lives negatively. Like many other Prisoners of War, Louie Zamperini survived several difficult conditions. He had to resist several attempts of dehumanization. In Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses both internal and external conflict to show that war has profound and varied effects on individuals.

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The book Refugee By Alan Grazt uses invisibility as a device to highlight discrimination towards refugees. The book Refugee talks about 3 kids who have lost their homes trying to travel to another country for their own safety and these characters had to face major problems while on that journey. Josef faces discrimination as a jewish person running from the Natizs and trying to immigrate to a safer place. Page (18) Jesef and his family where boarding a train and as there where boring that train to porters asked if they needed help with there bags and to station agents asked if they needed help to find there train to one payed any attention to josef and his family. “ No porters rushed to help them with their bags” “ No station agents stopped

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“To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don’t give up, don’t give in. There’s always an answer to everything”-Louie Zamperini. This man, Louie Zamperini was a bombardier for the US in World War II. He and his crew were shot down and forced to survive at sea for forty six days.

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“Delay invites great danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt’s message to Congress about declaring war on Germany. When people hear World War II they immediately think of D-day, Germany, Pearl Harbor, etc. Think of the postwar era of World War II.

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Countess bunker Bell English 3B 11/7/16 Socratic seminar Part 1 Level 1- what was Pete trying to accomplish by making Louie run? Leve 2- when Louie has been at sea for approximately 3 weeks, what causes him to hide from the Japanize plains shooting at him? Level

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Cruelty Societies and individuals descend to such a low level of cruelty striving for fear, greed, and power. The guards of POW camps were exceptionally violent and in most cases, wanted to show the authority they had over prisoners. The bird, however, became drastically cruel due to feeling weak, powerless, and lonely. If one human can feel these things what is stopping others? Humanity is capable of committing inhumane acts against one another.

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