War’s Dark Transforming Power
In 1887, an English politician wrote, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." People often have an intense desire for more power, which can turn them into victimizers. In the light of war, this desire for power can also result in their victims responding in ways that are counter to their own characters. Louis Zamperini and the Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a.k.a. the Bird, are two men who lived during the World War II era. Louie was a Second Lieutenant, and later a Captain, for the U.S. Air Force, who served as a bombardier. His plane crashed in the ocean where he was stranded for over a month until the Japanese found and imprisoned him in camps. The Bird, however, was a Corporal, then a Sergeant, in the Japanese military, …show more content…
He was accustomed to being at the top of the social ladder, yet he also wished that he were something more, someone, with even more power. Therefore when his application to become a military officer was rejected, along with this opportunity for power, he became unstable and almost deranged. Also, if someone was famous or an officer like Louie, he hated them with exceptional vigor. Using The Bird, Laura Hillenbrand conveys that war often brings out the dark side in people. After targeting Louie, The Bird, “Jerked his belt off. Grasping the end with both hands, he swung it back, then whipped it forward like a baseball bat. Straight into Louie’s temple” (185). To start, under normal circumstances, it is against to human nature to repeatedly inflict pain on another human, however, The Bird seems to delight in causing Louie horrible pain. The Bird, propelled by his spewing hate and the corruption the war caused in him, unleashed unnatural amounts of hate and rage, showing the darkest parts of his character. Additionally, after catching thieves, and charging Louie and other officers with provoking the theft, The Bird orders that “each enlisted man would punch each officer and thieves in the face, with maximum force” (209). This is a horrible punishment as there were over one hundred enlisted men. More than that, The Bird conceived this punishment to destroy the POWs’ …show more content…
During his imprisonment and persecution by the power-hungry and in the years that followed, Louie was forced to resort to desperate measures, even going so far as to consider murder in order to respond to the dire events around him. Hillenbrand utilized Louie, differently than she utilized The Bird, to support Unbroken’s theme of war causing one’s worst to emerge. To begin with, Louie had taken so much disrespect and violence from The Bird that when “the conspirators discussed who would join the group that would capture The Bird and throw him to his death. Louie volunteered” (216). Louie was a fine man. However, the continued war brought out a darkness in him, so much so that Louie even planned to commit murder. Similarly, the lingering effects of the war resulted in a freed Louie “going to bars and drinking hard, trying to drown the war. He often drank so much he passed out” (255). The fear of The Bird and the trauma of the war broke Louie and allowed alcohol to consume him. Before the war, this wouldn’t have been a possibility, but it caused such horrible pain that Louie soon wished that he could forget the war entirely. Louie felt an overpowering urge to bury his memories of the war. His strength slipped and he gave in, turning to alcohol. Furthermore, memories of the war left Louie excessively violent, causing him