Elyse Sandberg

Dr. Cooper
Conflict Resolution
8 May 2015

Unbroken Book Review

Part I

The book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand begins with several chapters

of background information on Louie Zamperini, including his early years,

college life, and time in the Olympics. There is much to be said in these

chapters about the distal individual factors that affected the way Louie

interacted in conflict moving forward. From early childhood, Louie was

thrilled by the challenge of doing the unexpected; the dangerous, and not

being caught for it. He got himself into more mischief by the age of eight

than most boys find themselves in all their life, and punishment only drove

him into more trouble, having the mindset of misbehaving again just to

show that he could. This mentality would carry with him into his later

years. Hillenbrand writes about Louie, Confident that he was clever,

resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, he was almost

incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this

resilient optimism would define him (7). Throughout Louies childhood and

young adult years, he continued to show this resilient optimism, and at the

age of 15, Louie made a change for the better. He began to put all his efforts

into running, using this resilience to push himself past his limits time and

time again. Louie could be said to have had an internal locus of control,

believing that his successes were based upon his own efforts, and he could
achieve whatever he set his mind to. This caused Louie to be tough and to

work hard, never allowing himself to give up, which eventually paid off,

leading him to qualify for the Olympics. This internal locus of control would

stick with him and be one of the sole reasons for his endurance and

resilience during the immense trials that lie ahead of him.

Part II

The next stage in Louies life journey was his time serving in the air

force. For much of this time, there wasnt much war to be fought, so Louie

and the rest of his crew found themselves hanging around with not much to

do. Louie engaged in pranking as usual, and specifically had some fun with a

certain lieutenant he did not particularly get along with. Louie responded

with behavioral reciprocity to this lieutenant who had previously tried to

make him and his crew fly a plane with only three engines. He played pranks

on him, embarrassing him in front of other people. This formed a cycle of

behavioral reciprocity, in which lied the antecedents for conflict to emerge

from this relationship. Eventually, this lieutenant was the one to send Louie

out on the mission that would lead to him becoming a prisoner of war. Louie

had been a part of a tight knit crew who flew in the airplane they called

Super Man. This crew was in an intense crash in which they lost their

airplane and six of their men. This meant that six new men were brought into

Louies crew to replace the lost men. From the beginning, this worried Louie

and his best friend Phil, and they didnt like the idea of flying with new men

one bit. The situation wasnt at all helped by the fact that the plane they
were given was The Green Hornet, the plane the men trusted the least of

all of them. These set of circumstances presented the antecedents for

conflict to occur, with a crew that was unfamiliar with each other flying a

plane they were all highly wary of. This situation held large possibilities of

conflict occurring, qualifying it as a latent conflict, which is the first stage

in Rummels Five Stage Model. The crew was promotively interdependent on

each other, meaning that one persons gains promoted the others gains, as

well as the same for losses. This caused an antecedent for conflict in and of

itself since the crew didnt know/trust each other fully, yet their fate lied in

each others hands. Not surprisingly, this led to losses for all of the men, for

that trip in The Green Hornet was the very trip most of the men would

never return from.

Part III

The Green Hornet didn't survive the mission and ended up going

down in the open sea, leaving only three survivors: Louie, Phil, and a man

they did not know very well named Mac. Once on the raft the men would live

on for the next several weeks, Louie approaches the conflict in a realistic

way, framing it as instrumental and affiliative. He focuses on the facts and

the substantive issues at hand, and seeks to work out what will be best for

everyone involved. He seeks to keep a good relationship with Phil and Mac,

and find a solution that will be pleasing to all of them. An initial conflict

arises when Louie awakes after their first night on the raft to find that Mac

has eaten all of their food. According to the style selection decision tree,
Louie handled this conflict in a contending way. This conclusion can be

reached through the following logic: the issue was of high importance to

Louie, for he knew that was all the food they had to survive on, but was of

low importance to Mac. Mac didnt have the will power to withhold himself

from eating the food, and therefore, clearly did not hold the issue in high

importance. The importance of maintaining a positive relationship in this

situation was high given the circumstances of being trapped on a raft

together. The amount of time pressure was high as well, for they could only

survive for so long without food. And finally, the degree of trust Louie had for

Mac was low, considering that Mac had already been starting to show

concerning signs of losing it, on top of the fact that Louie did not know Mac

well before, giving him no prior reason to trust him. This leads us to Louie

handling this conflict with a contending style, remaining flexible and trying to

have understanding/sympathy for Mac. He was concerned with keeping their

relationship peaceful, and therefore, was able to stay optimistic, refraining

from being angry with Mac for eating all of their food. Louie did not realize at

the time the gravity of the situation, or the true weight of the mistake Mac

had just made. Louies behavior in this situation, and on the raft in general,

stays true with his behavior in conflict from earlier times in his life. He stays

optimistic in the face of extreme times, and through this resilient optimism,

is able to endure through unspeakable trials while at sea.

After forty-seven days on the raft, Louie and Phil are captured by the

Japanese and taken to Kwajalein, also known as execution-island, where they

are held as prisoners, interrogated and treated with extreme cruelty. In the

conflicts between Louie and his captors on this island, the power is greatly

unbalanced. The captors hold all of the power in this situation, while Louie is

viewed as weak, holding absolutely no power over what happens to him. He

is at the hand of his captors, and since they hold all the power resources,

they can do whatever they like with him. The captors power resources are

endorsed by the other captors, as well as by the prisoners, since they have

no choice but to obey the captors and succumb to their power. Their only

chance of survival is to do what the captors say, therefore, placing full power

into the captors hands, creating this large imbalance of power in this

situation with Louie on the island.

There are many cultural factors that come into play in these power

dynamics. The Japanese highly value dignity, and highly fear humiliation,

which contributed to the way they treated prisoners of war during WWII. The

guards on Kwajalein sought to strip Louie and Phil of their dignity, for they

felt this would be the hardest and most painful for them to lose. And in fact,

it was. Even through the trials on the raft (loss of water, food, shelter), Louie

and Phil had still retained their dignity, their sense of self-worth and self-

respect, which was enough to push them through. However, on the island of

Kwajalein, Louie and Phil experienced an extreme loss of dignity that led

them to, for the first time, begin to lose their will to live. They came to learn

that dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen (183).

Without their dignity, they felt dehumanized, and their loss of it left them
with little hope and little will to survive. However, for Americans, and

especially for Louie, enduring through pain and not giving up are things that

are very highly regarded, which leads Louie to act the way he does and push

through when he is being held captive at the island.

Part IV

After Louies time on Kwajalein, he moves through a couple other

camps, where he repeatedly comes face to face with a man nicknamed The

Bird. The Bird seems to be out to get Louie from their first meeting, doing

everything in his power to strip Louie of his dignity. The Birds actions in

many cases cause Louie to lose face, treating him in such a way that

dehumanizes him and deprives him of his identity as a person. One of these

acts that almost pushed Louie to his breaking point was when the Bird

ordered Louie to pick up pig feces with his bare hands all day long, leaving

Louie feeling horrified and demoralized. Through these acts of the Bird

dehumanizing Louie, the Bird was exercising his need/want to be respected,

which is called competence face. The Bird acts the way he does because of

distal factors in his life, such as being denied the position as an officer,

leaving him to be simply a corporal. This felt like a failure to the Bird, and left

him feeling disgraced, infuriated, and bitterly jealous of officers. He then felt

the need to prove himself and make sure he was respected, seeking power

from being feared by prisoners.

While the bird was seeking competence face, Louie was seeking to

save-face in his interactions with the Bird, not wanting to allow the Bird the
satisfaction of seeing him give up. He resolved never to let the Bird knock

him down, and he stood his ground in even the worst beatings, with a

resilience that seemed to be unmatched by any other. This only seemed to

encourage the Bird more. After arriving at Naoetsu and re-meeting the Bird

and his attacks there, Hillenbrand said, Louie took his beatings with as

much defiance as ever, provoking the Bird to ever more violent attacks

(280). This resilience, endurance, and determination may have caused the

Bird even more motivation to destroy Louie, but it also played a primary role

in Louies survival during his captivity and time as a prisoner of war. He

continued to have resilience and strength from deep within him that kept him

pushing forward in even the worst of circumstances. Not only did Louies

internal toughness help him, but the toughness of his friends and fellow

POWs helped him as well. The climate among the POWs was one of

promotive interdependence, in which they were all going through the same

pains and were in an in this together mentality. They were able to trust

each other, and were willing to help each other out, even if it meant risking

their own safety. They had a common enemy, and this drew them together

and bonded them strongly. They were able to restore dignity to each other

when it felt that all dignity had been stripped from them. Louies friends kept

him sane and kept him from being entirely dehumanized by the Bird, which

most likely, saved his life.

The climate among the officers at these Japanese prison camps

allowed them to have the power to treat the prisoners in cruel ways,
enforcing each others power resources. The thinking of these Japanese

officers is largely cultural, leading them to act the way that they did.

Hillenbrand says, In Japans militaristic society, all citizens, from earliest

childhood, were relentlessly indoctrinated with the lesson that to be captured

in war was intolerably shameful (195). Japanese soldiers fought to the

death, and if captured, would either commit suicide or give a false name in

order to avoid the shame that would come to themselves and their families if

they were imprisoned. The Japanese felt a sense of disgust and

worthlessness for those soldiers who surrendered or were captured, and this

extended to their thoughts of American POWs. This thinking aided in creating

the climate among the officers and corporals that made it acceptable to treat

the POWs cruelly; beating, mocking, dehumanizing, and starving them even

to the point of death.

Part V

Following a long journey of the immense pain and suffering Louie

experienced as a POW, the war came to a close with a US victory, and Louie

and his friends were finally set free to return home. After some brief time of

rehabilitation, Louie returned to his home in Torrance, California, where he

was welcomed warmly with open arms by his mother, father, and elated

siblings. His family could not have been happier to have Louie home with

them once again, and sought to make him feel as loved and cared for as they

possibly could, not being able to imagine what he had been through. Louie

soon began to be put in the limelight, telling his victorious story all over
America. Not too long after his return, Louie met Cynthia Applewhite, and

two months later they were married. Louie seemed to be recovering well on

the outside, however, unbeknownst to others, he had been experiencing

extreme anxiety within him. The war and the Bird haunted his dreams, and

he had turned to alcohol to find an escape. As the thoughts and nightmares

worsened, so did the drinking, and before Louie knew it, his life was spinning

out of control. His marriage was on the rocks, and he was overcome by fear

and anxiety from thoughts of the Bird and the war. He resolved that the only

way to ease his suffering was to kill the bird, and this thought began to

consume him. His friends and family were worried sick about him, but

nothing they could say or do could get through to Louie. Cynthia, especially,

was worried senseless, and also wounded from the emotional toll Louies

state was taking on her. She pleaded and pleaded with Louie to get help.

Finally, in a last chance effort, she forced Louie to come with her to see Billy

Graham speak. It was there under that tent in Los Angeles, September of

1949, which Louie was brought back to life through the transforming and

redemptive love of Christ. From that day forward, Louie would never again

have a nightmare of the Bird. He was finally set free.

The following day, Louie walked to a park and sat under a tree with his

Bible. Hillenbrand writes:

Resting in the shade and the stillness, Louie felt profound

peace. When he thought of his history, what resonated with him
now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he
believed had intervened to save him. He was not the worthless,
broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him. In
a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and
 helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was
a new creation. Softly, he wept (376).

Listening to Billy Graham that night, Louie experienced the divine love of

Christ; and that love would go on to define Him and his actions and thoughts

for the rest of his life. It is that very love that led him to unimaginable

forgiveness, forgiveness that has glorified the name of Christ and inspired

millions around the world.

Louies story is nothing short of extraordinary. The trials he

experienced in the two and a half years he was at war are far more than any

man would dare to wish on his worst enemy. Most people would consider the

deeds done to Louie to be unforgivable, and by the worlds standards, are

fully justified in feeling this way. However, Louie came to a place in his life

where he was able to judge his captors not through the eyes of the world,

but through the eyes of Christ. Knowing that God had forgiven and extended

grace to him, a filthy sinner, Louie was able to extend grace and forgive the

unforgivable; the very men who had brought him so much pain and

suffering during the war. Louie not only forgave his captors in his heart and

mind, but went so far as to travel back to Japan to the very prison they were

being held in, and extend that forgiveness and love to them himself. Louie

was so inspired by the forgiveness and love of Christ he had experienced

that he couldnt think of anything else to do but share that love with the

Japanese officers.

He traveled to Sugamo, the prison that all of his captors were being

held at, and stood before them sharing his forgiveness with them as a
testimony to the forgiveness he had found in Christ. Among the captors, he

noticed one face that was missing: the Bird. Louie learned there that the Bird

had, supposedly, committed suicide after being hunted and exiled. Louie was

not sure how he would react to the Bird once being back in Japan, but

Hillenbrand writes that in that moment, He felt something that he had never

felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was

compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was

forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the

war was over (379).

From Louies story, we see the pure, invigorating freedom that is found

in true forgiveness. For the rest of his life, Louie taught about how holding

onto bitterness and resentment would only bring harm to oneself. He spoke

around the country and world, and even opened up a youth camp for boys.

He was able to inspire others to forgive by demonstrating his forgiveness for

his captors. In many ways, and especially in this way, Louie Zamperini can be

likened to a Christ-like figure. Christs physical suffering was a lot like the

physical suffering Louie went through. Jesus Christ was beaten, mocked,

dehumanized, and demoralized, and he also suffered through immense pain

and trials, finally being put to death on a cross, the ultimate form of public

shame and humiliation. Despite all of this, Jesus was able to forgive the very

people that inflicted this harm upon him. Following Christs example, Louie

was also able to forgive the Bird, who had attacked and beat him ruthlessly,

and inflicted unthinkable pain upon him; pain no one ever should have to
experience. Louie was able to see himself as a sinner who had been

undeservedly forgiven, and therefore, see the Bird and the rest of his captors

in that same light.

The forgiveness that Louie extended can be explained in no other way

than through the all-consuming, all-fulfilling love of Christ. This is a love that

penetrates so deep that not even the cruelest hurt and scars can escape its

healing. This is the love that penetrated the life of Louie Zamperini after he

returned from being a POW during WWII, and this is the same love that we

have available to us through Christ today. In Christ, and Christ alone, are we

filled with a love and a grace so deep that it heals our harshest wounds,

allowing us the freedom and compassion to forgive the very people who

caused those wounds. 1 John 4:19 says, We love because he first loved us.

Included in this love is forgiveness. We can forgive because Christ first

forgave us. In fact, we are commanded to do this as children of God.

Ephesians 4:32 says, Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving

each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. From Louie Zamperinis story,

we see that no action and no person are too far out of the reach of our

forgiveness. Ultimately, Louies life and his story of forgiveness are a living

testament to the truth that the love of Christ can bring forgiveness and

redemption into the darkest of depths, replacing all-consuming bitterness

and anger with the life-giving love and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This was the very love and forgiveness that had the power to set Louie

Zamperini free to live a long life full of peace, joy, and passion.