Pages: 406
Rating: PG-13 (It's war. It's graphic. It's violent. It's mature. However, there is another version of this book that is written specifically with a teen audience in mind, if you want your kid to read it but don't think they can handle this version.)
Summary:
In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
My Thoughts: This book was FASCINATING! In the author's note at the end, Hillenbrand makes the point that when we learn about WWII in school, the main focus is on the European war, which is kind of strange considering that it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that got the US into the war, and our atomic bomb drops on Japan that finally and officially ended the ordeal. How come we never really learn about the war in the Pacific? I had no idea all the crazy stuff that was going on. I mean, yes, Hitler and his minions were pure evil and they were doing terrible things, but crazy crap was going down in Japan and the Pacific Islands too. Here are some amazing things I learned that just shocked me.
1. "Between November 1943 and May 1945, 70% of the men listed as killed in action died in operational aircraft accidents, not as a result of enemy action." How sad is that? We lost tens of thousands of men before they even left for foreign soil, just in training accidents or routine practice flights. The book says that in the air corps, 35,946 men died in non-battle situations. So, so sad.
2. Being in the air corps back then was basically signing your own death sentence. An airman was required to fulfill 40 missions before finishing their tour of duty. There was a 50% chance of being killed before completing that tour.
3. Japan was a BRUTAL enemy. Their prison camps I think were actually worse than Hitler's concentration camps. Although Japan didn't have gas chambers in which they routinely gassed prisoners, they did have doctors conducting gruesome medical experiments on prisoners, and they had something called the "kill-all order." If it looked like the Allied forces were getting close to whatever island a Japanese POW camp was located on, the guards would murder every single prisoner. And in several camps, that's exactly what they did, sometimes in gruesome and sadistic ways.
Louie (from the book) made it farther than most airmen that crashed in the ocean. He survived being adrift at sea for over a month. But then he got stuck in a POW camp, and your chances of survival there were slim to none. One particular guard was so brutal that he would beat men until they passed out, then revive them by throwing water on their faces or patting their foreheads with a damp cloth, and then continue the beatings. Another time, when Louie was caught for a minor infraction, this guard required all the prisoners to punch Louie square in the face. If the prisoner did not punch hard enough, he had to keep punching until this guard was satisfied with the force. The only thing that saved Louie from the "kill-all" policy was the atomic bomb. The war ended just weeks before the prisoners in Louie's camp had been told they would all be executed.
It's just an incredible story, and I think everyone needs to read it. These men went through so much, and it continued after the war. We know a lot more about PTSD now than they did back then, and these poor men suffered without relief. Many turned to alcoholism or drugs. Some committed suicide. The war did not end in their minds and in their dreams. I can't even imagine having to go through such a difficult trial.
And we as Americans currently have no idea what it's like to be in such a crisis. We don't know what it's like to have everything rationed, because the war is taking over every resource. Back then, almost every family in America had lost a father, son, brother, uncle, or cousin to the war. I sincerely hope we never have to go through something like that again. But, we need to not forget what those people suffered. And Louie's story is repeated over and over again for each of the thousands of men that suffered through WWII, whether they survived or not. We don't even know the stories of many of the men who died, what horrors they experienced. It's very humbling.
As I said, I was thrilled to discover that there is another version of this book written especially for teens/young adults. I would highly recommend that to you if you have a teenager or if you just don't want to invest yourself in this longer version. But seriously, read it. It's incredible.
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