Jeffrey Vanegas
Period
Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.
Laura Hillenbrand, the well-known American author of many magazine articles such as “A Sudden Illness” in the New Yorker, and the novel “Seabiscuit”, published in 2001, has enjoyed horses, history, and literature her entire life. She has received several prestigious awards including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Book Sense Nonfiction Book of the Year Award, and the 2004 National Magazine Award, making her a high profile author (1). In 2010, nine years after her first publication, Hillenbrand published Unbroken: …show more content…
The major struggles Louie faced all occurred during his time as a bombardier in the Army Air-Corps and during his difficulties as a Japanese Prisoner of War (POW). On the other side of the world, Hitler killed thousands of Jews, the Allies and Axis Powers battled for many years, and the whole world strived to achieve peace, making Louie’s story merely an account of what many POW’s suffered throughout the War. Shortly after Louie enlisted into the Army Air Corps, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, which officially placed the U.S.A. at war, and required Louie to soon go into the battle field. Had this event not occurred, the United States may have not joined the War, and Louie may have never had to enter combat. After an engine in Louie’s plane malfunctioned, the aircraft crashed into the Pacific, leaving Louie and two other crew members on the sea. Louie and his two crew mates, Phil and Mac, spent many weeks on the raft, losing Mac to starvation, and the Japanese soon captured the two survivors, taking them in as POWs. In Japan, an American “B-29” aircraft, a major advancement in the Air Force during World War II and the Korean War, flew over Tokyo, allowing Louie to see the plane, instilling a glimpse of hope in his life as POW. The B-29 gave the Americans the edge they needed to penetrate Japan. America also detonated the first “Atomic Bomb” using a B-29 over Hiroshima, and ended the war soon after. The Atomic Bomb caused the war to cease, and liberated Louie from further imprisonment in Japan, allowing him to return