Rafi’s Reviews > Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption > Status Update

Ch. 20: When Louie was a prisoner in Ofuna, he and the other prisoners suffered under inhumane conditions. Tortured by their Japanese captors, they barely had enough food to eat and there was a lack of proper hygiene (they had no toilet paper, everyone had dysentery). There was still “a humming underground of defiance.” This included “saving up intestinal gas” and letting “thunderclaps fly for Hirohito.”

Ch. 15: In this intense chapter, Louie, Phil and Mac struggle to survive an attack by a Japanese bomber. They thought the plane was coming to save them. The bomber then strafed them several times. Louie survived by hiding in the water under the raft and fighting off the sharks that were circling him. Then, all three men had to patch the raft, while pumping air into the raft and flighting the sharks with an oar.

Ch. 4: When Louie ran in the finals of the 1932 Olympic 5000, he ran faster than any of his competitors in the last lap of the race. The winner of the race ran his last lap in 69.2 seconds, Louis ran it in 56 seconds. When he was running, Louie was thinking of his brother’s words, “a lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain.” I was impressed by the energy Louis was able to put into the final lap. He gave his all.