Unbroken Compare And Contrast Essay

Similarities and Differences Between U.S. and Japan POW Camps
The novel Unbroken is a narrative about a man named Louis Zamperini who went from being an olympic runner to prisoner in the worst prisoner of war camp during World War II. He has to overcome many obstacles such as surviving on a raft after his plane crashes and staying alive at Execution Island. The author of the novel, Laura Hillenbrand, was born in Fairfax, Virginia on May 15, 1967. She is an author who writes novels and magazines and has sold over 13 million copies between her two bestselling novels, Unbroken and Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Hillenbrand got much praise for her work in Unbroken and in the front of the novel, there are quotes praising the story being told.

They would abusively work them and would not give them sufficient rations to survive. The narrator states, “Periodically, one of them would open a bottle of cola, pour it into a cup, and drink it slowly, making a show of his enjoyment” (Hillenbrand 189), which provides some evidence to how they liked to treat prisoners. After an American prisoner would die from illness or disease, the bodies would usually just remain where they died. The Japanese did not show American prisoners any respect and used their power over them constantly. The U.S. would treat Japanese POWs respectively by the Geneva Conventions. They would not execute or refuse to feed them and took decent care of the prisoners. The narrator mentions, “He slapped one officer across the face repeatedly for five minutes…” (Hillenbrand 269), which shows that the U.S. treated Japenese POWs better than Japanese soldiers treated each other. The U.S. gave the Japanse POWs proper rations to survive and would not mistreat them as the Japanese did to the American POWs. The U.S. also did not wrongly execute POWs and would even pay some of the POWs for their work in

One day, the men could not find any guards around until they reappeared and told them to man their stations. Ken Marvin asked one of the guards, Bad Eye, what was going on in which he responded, “The war is over” (Hillenbrand 310). A new POW who had information about the war also informed Louis teh war was over by dropping his water pan when Louis asked if it was true. The U.S. and Japanese met on the USS Missouri in the Tokyo Bay where Japanese representatives along with Douglas MacArthur signed the Treaty of San Francisco to declare Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945. Louis and all the other POWs at Execution Island were released on September 5, 1945. When Louie returned, he was working on keeping his promise to Billy Graham. Towards the end of the novel, the narrator states, “Louie had worked to keep a promise. He had begun a new life as a Christian speaker, telling his story all over America” (Hillenbrand 384), which he eventually became a Christian