Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a biography that tells the tale of young Louis Zamperini, who became a prisoner of war during World War 2 and survived to tell his tale. As a prisoner of war, Louis was almost forced into doing propaganda for the Japanese, who were holding him captive. Propaganda is defined as the “information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etcetera (Dictionary.com).” Propaganda played a crucial role during World War 2, with many countries using them to display many different messages, sometimes using influential figures similar to Louis. Widely spread throughout the war, propaganda was used in many different ways and for many different reasons. Since the media is extremely influential, propaganda was seen mainly in art, cartoons, songs, and movies. …show more content…
For example, Walt Disney used characters like Donald Duck for propaganda against Germany. The Japanese did not have any major influential characters but they did have people that could really hurt American hearts – prisoners of war. To increase the influence of their propaganda, the Japanese tried to use some of their well-known prisoners of war to make radio broadcasts, chockfull of propaganda. The Japanese wanted to utilize these well-known prisoners of war to relay messages that could possibly change an American’s morale or opinion on the war or their country. If a well-known prisoner were to give a message to the Americans that was against the government, the Japanese thought it would shine a bad light on their government. For example, the Japanese broadcast company tried to force Louis to make a message like that just because he was an Olympian, “A famous American Olympian, he’d reasoned, would be especially valuable (page 260).” Louis’ role was especially crucial for Japanese propaganda since he was