69 pages • 2 hours read
Laura HillenbrandUnbroken
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 31-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4 - Part 5
Chapter 31 Summary: “The Naked Stampede”
The news of the bombing of Hiroshima reached the POWs. Though no one could believe it, the news reported that one bomb had wiped out an entire city. Three days later, on August 9th, the city of Nagasaki met the same fate.
Rumors spread that the war was over and workers failed to report to their duties. Even the guards behaved unpredictably, refusing to speak to the prisoners; they were just as confused as the prisoners. On August 20th, they were told the war was over, and the Naoetsu prisoners, a total of seven hundred men, were invited to bathe in the river. An American bomber flew over the river, and by blinking his lights, the pilot communicated that the war was over. At the news, men ran up the hill, crushed the fence, cried, and cheered in a massive frenzy. They received a message from the plane that bombers would return with supplies. Another plane flew over and dropped some cigarettes, candy bars and magazine covers containing the image of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Cascades of Pink Peaches”
On August 22, Phil’s camp (Rokuroshi) was freed. The men celebrated with a party, complete with dancing, a bonfire, and inebriated soldiers.
Though the war had ended, the men in Naoetsu waited for more supplies, demanding the remaining Japanese guards for more food. They collected livestock from nearby villages, but these supplies were not enough. Finally, on August 26, American fighter planes flew over Naoetsu and dropped tins of tangerines and hard tack. After the soldiers fashioned a “drop zone” on August 29, six B-29s sent down pallets of fruit, vegetables, and cans of soup: “An orgy of eating and smoking commenced” (313).
On September 2, 1945, Japan signed their formal surrender. The POWs were told to stay in the camp until they were collected and then transported. Two days passed, but no evacuation team arrived. Commanding Officer Fitzgerald then ordered a train to Yokohama.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Mother’s Day”
On their train ride to Yokohama, the POWs witnessed the destruction of their enemy as they passed city after city in interior Japan. At first sight of the rubble, the men cheered, but their cheering eventually subsided.
When the soldiers arrived in Yokohama, the men were surrounded by Red Cross nurses. Robert Trumbull, a journalist, was looking for someone with a story to tell; Tinker directed him to Louie Zamperini. Trumbull believed that Louie was dead, and Louie saw the article in the Minneapolis Star Journal that announced his death.
Though Louie was given plenty of food and gained weight rapidly, he was still weak and suffering with dysentery. After a visit with doctors, Louie was convinced he would never run again.
On October 6th, Phil arrived home to his family and his fiancée, Cecy. The Zamperini family learned from the Los Angeles Times on September 9th that Louie was alive. The day was “Mother’s Day” to Louise Zamperini. Louie skipped several transports home because he did not want his mother to see him in such poor physical condition. Finally, when he arrived in San Francisco, his brother, Pete, greeted him and expressed surprised to see that Louie was not as emaciated as he expected. They spent some time together while doctors finally cured Louie of his dysentery.
Chapter 34 Summary: “The Shimmering Girl”
Louie’s family is ecstatic that Louie made it home safely, but his non-physical scars have not yet healed. When his sister Sylvia wanted to share a recording of his “broadcast” from Postman Calls, Louie reacted angrily, yelling at her to turn it off.
Hillenbrand also provides information about Watanabe’s disappearance and the aftermath that some of the Japanese war criminals would eventually face. General MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied forces, compiled a list of the names of these men. The first list involved the worst criminals; by many accounts, the Bird made that list, alongside Hideki Tojo, the mastermind behind the massacre of Pearl Harbor. The police searched for the Bird, but they could not find him. The men knew that Watanabe would commit suicide rather than face capture. He had an eighty-four count indictment.
Though he was safe at home, Louie was suffering. His psychological trauma began to manifest in anxiety as the press pursued him and he was commissioned for speaking engagements. He turned to alcohol to ease his nerves: “The whiskey floated him through [his speeches]...and so began a routine” (338).
Louie met a beautiful young woman named Cynthia Applewhite, and they became enthralled with each other. Their relationship was intense, adventurous, passionate and quick. They hurried through wedding plans, even though her family strongly disapproved of the match. Louie also began training for the 1948 Olympics.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Coming Undone”
The chapter begins with a story of an unexpected outburst from a former POW named Fred Garrett, who exploded into an outrage after being served rice at a restaurant. Hillenbrand then provides harrowing statistics of the physical disabilities and emotional trauma that the Pacific POWs suffered after World War II.
Louie had decided to commit to a fitness training regimen as a way of coping with his distress. While he pushed through a successful trial run, however, he “disastrously exacerbated his war injury” (351). Nightmares of the Bird still plagued him, leading him to Louie take up drinking again. He began flying into rages and experiencing flashbacks. Now that his Olympic dream was officially over, “Louie had found a quest to replace [it]...He was going to kill the Bird. He could conceive of no other way to save himself” (353).
Chapters 31-35 Analysis
Contrasting emotions continue to characterize Louie’s life even after the liberation of the POW camps and through the lens of these emotions, the theme of the preservation of dignity appears altered when compared to situations that took place earlier in Louie’s history. Hillenbrand describes Louie and the other men as “blissful” on more than one occasion, but the celebration of their survival and release was dampened in several ways. First of all, the men in Naoetsu were neglected during the first few days after the Japanese surrender; food and transport was late to arrive. For Louie, learning that he would never run competitively again was a sign of ultimate defeat; he had survived so much and gained an awareness of his own resilience, yet he had lost the ability to do the activity that had brought him so much reward and pride in the past. Louie the undying optimist, as he was characterized at the beginning of the story, disappeared as he admitted to a journalist that he would commit suicide if he knew he would have to face the same ordeal over again. This admission is ironic, as Louie had fought so defiantly to remain alive and to keep his dignity intact.
The destruction of Japan brought little relief to the men though many Americans were somewhat “thankful” for the end of their suffering. Some men never made it home, despite surviving the war, as their POW bomber planes crashed before they reached American shores. Alongside these grim realities, Hillenbrand paints several scenes of American victory. As the POWs were transported home, Hillenbrand incorporates visual images of liberation; for example, Phil’s camp had raised an American flag, Louie flew over Kwajalein, and several men told tales of receiving star treatment when they returned to America. The most triumphant scene takes place when Louie hugged his mother after “coming back from the dead”.
Hillenbrand points out through the continuation of Louie’s story that the end of World War II and the liberation of the Pacific POWs did not mean the end of their suffering. These men continued to suffer from trauma, as their spiritual and emotional states were damaged. The focus on the “body” that Louie had cultivated since the start of his running days shifted, and Hillenbrand describes several examples of the psychological trauma that Louie and other men suffered from upon their return home. Many men, including Louie, turned to alcohol to numb themselves and to disengage from the mental torture of terrible memories, foreshadowing difficult interpersonal situations with spouses and other family members ahead.
A few times in this section of the book, Hillenbrand flips the narration back and forth between Louie and the Bird, the protagonist and his antagonist. Even though the two men lived worlds apart, and Louie was no longer in harm’s way, Louie continued to suffer because of the Bird. Though the war was over, Louie believed peace would come only when he had destroyed Watanabe with his own hands. Just like the Bird had developed an obsession to destroy Louie when he first arrived at Omori, now Louie had developed his own obsession to kill the Bird. According to Hillenbrand, “[t]he Pacific POWs [...] had an intimate understanding of man’s vast capacity to experience suffering, as well as his equally vast capacity, and hungry willingness, to inflict it” (349).
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