Louis zamperini movie

Louie zamperini The interview follows the events in the movie. Zamperini also discusses life after he returned home, including turning to drinking and discovering Christ, the moment his ongoing nightmares of his tormentor, the Bird, ended. Along with two other crewmen, Zamperini survived in a life raft for 47 days after a plane crash in World War II—only to be picked up by the Japanese Navy and put in a prisoner-of-war camp. Adapted from Laura Hillenbrand's book of the same name and directed by Angelina Jolie from a script by the Coen brothers, Unbroken tells the story of Olympian and WWII hero Louis "Louie" Zamperini, whose B suffered mechanical difficulties and went down over the Pacific Ocean, leaving him stranded at sea. He was captured by the Japanese and held in an internment camp until the end of the war.

Mutsuhiro Watanabe

Japanese soldier (–)

SergeantMutsuhiro Watanabe (Japanese: 渡邊睦裕, 18 January – 1 April&#;), nicknamed "the Bird" by his prisoners, was a Japanese soldier who served in several prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. Infamous for his mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war, after the surrender of Japan in American occupational authorities classified Watanabe as a war criminal for his mistreatment and torture of POWs, but he managed to elude arrest and was never tried in court.

World War II

Watanabe served at POW camps in Omori, Naoetsu (present-day Jōetsu), Niigata, Mitsushima (present-day Hiraoka) and at a civilian POW Camp in Yamakita.

While in the military, Watanabe allegedly ordered one man who reported to him to be punched in the face every night for three weeks and practiced judo on an appendectomy patient.

One of his prisoners was American track star and Olympian Louis Zamperini.

Louis zamperini the bird watanabe The Unbroken true story reveals that, like in the movie, the real Louis Zamperini had a knack for getting into trouble when he was growing up. Some of his early antics included jumping from the caboose of a train when his family was on their way to California. He also had a penchant for stealing and fighting. He started smoking at age five, picking up discarded cigarette butts while walking to kindergarten. He began drinking when he was eight, hiding under the dinner table sipping glasses of wine.

Zamperini reported that Watanabe beat his prisoners often, causing them serious injuries. It is said Watanabe made one officer sit in a shack, wearing only a fundoshi undergarment, for four days in winter, and that he tied a year-old prisoner to a tree for days. According to Laura Hillenbrand's book, Watanabe had studied French, in which he was fluent, and had an interest in the French school of nihilist philosophy.

Later life and death

In , General Douglas MacArthur included Watanabe as number 23 on his list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan.[1]

However, Watanabe went into hiding and was never prosecuted. In , all charges were quietly dismissed.[1] In , the Japanese literary magazine Bungeishunjū published an interview with Watanabe, titled "I do not want to be judged by America." He later became an insurance salesman.

Louis zamperini Infamous for his mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war, after the surrender of Japan in American occupational authorities classified Watanabe as a war criminal for his mistreatment and torture of POWs, but he managed to elude arrest and was never tried in court. While in the military, Watanabe allegedly ordered one man who reported to him to be punched in the face every night for three weeks and practiced judo on an appendectomy patient. One of his prisoners was American track star and Olympian Louis Zamperini. Zamperini reported that Watanabe beat his prisoners often, causing them serious injuries. It is said Watanabe made one officer sit in a shack, wearing only a fundoshi undergarment, for four days in winter, and that he tied a year-old prisoner to a tree for days.

Prior to the Winter Olympics in Nagano, the CBS News program 60 Minutes interviewed Watanabe at the Hotel Okura Tokyo as part of a feature on Louis Zamperini who, four days before his 81st birthday, was returning to carry the Olympic Flame torch through Naoetsuen route to Nagano, not far from the POW camp where he had been held.

In the interview, Watanabe acknowledged beating and kicking prisoners, but was unrepentant, saying, "I treated the prisoners strictly as enemies of Japan." Zamperini attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormentor, but Watanabe, who had evaded prosecution, refused to see him.

Watanabe died on April 1, , at 85 years old.[2]

Legacy

Accounts of Watanabe's abusive behavior are given in Laura Hillenbrand's book about Zamperini titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption ().[3] Watanabe also appears in Alfred A.

Weinstein's memoir, Barbed Wire Surgeon, published in

In , Japanese musician Miyavi played Watanabe in Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, the film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book.[4]David Sakurai portrays Watanabe in Harold Cronk's Unbroken: Path to Redemption, a "spiritual successor" to Jolie's film, released in

References