Invisibility And Resistance Of Pows And Interns In The Life Of Louie Zamperini

Invisibility and Resistance of POWs and Interns

Isolated and alone, many attempts from both sides, America and Japan, to force the feeling of invisibility on their POWs or Japanese-American internees. Separated from friends, denied human rights and on the brink of starvation demolishing their dignity. Louie Zamperini was a POW who was originally an Olympian athlete. He was taken captive by Japan while laying raft for over a month. Miné is a Japanese-American intern who had been condemned to an intern camp during World War Two. The experience that Louie and Miné have undergone are those that challenge the two in a very psychological way. However, they have recovered showing their resilience and how humans can recover even from scarring events.

An example of this feeling is when Louie, a POW, has been sent to Ofuna, a “high-value” prison camp. “They can kill you here, ‘Louie was told. ‘No one knows you’re here.”(Hillenbrand 147) This quote drills into Louie a sign of dread that there is nothing the prisoners could do in this situation, no one had known that he was there. Another example from the same book, Louie had been isolated for a week with no correspondence with other friends or captives. “Louie had been on Kwajalein for about a week when his cell door was thrown open and guards pulled him out. Terrified, thinking he was about to be beheaded, he was marched into a building.”(Hillenbrand 141) This shows how long he has no contact for and the terror built up in him as he was driven to the edge of his mind as well as the forceful pulling to march him into the building digs him even deeper. Miné and her brother were assigned a family number when they were being sent to the intern camp. “...they were assigned collective family number 13660, and were never again referred to by officialdom by their given names.”(Curtin 2) The quote is an example of invisibility and dehumanization by reducing their names a number and to be never again referred to by the “officialdom” by their names. Many events happened to POWs

During Louie’s stay at Ofuna, the POWs at the camp started communicating utilizing Morse Code although communication with others wasn't allowed. “At night if the guards stepped away from the cells, the whole barracks would start tapping out Morse Code.” (Hillenbrand 154) An example of resistance is shown in the quote as they were secretly rebelling against the guards as the POWs at the camps were not allowed to communicate with each other. Simultaneously, Miné, an intern like others, didn’t allow the intern camps to block her communication with her friends outside the intern camp. “From her first week in internment to her last, she kept up an extensive correspondence with friends outside.”(Curtin 3) The quote shows that Miné still kept unbroken contact with her friends on the outside even when the camp was meant to enforce loneliness and disconnection. Although the camps were meant to destroy the interns or POWs dignity, they held on by either sabotaging or playing against the rules like Miné who strengthened a tether she had with those outside the camp that the camp had attempted to fray. Overall, although there were countless traumatizing occurrences, Louie and Miné were able to sustain themselves through them by keeping correspondence, documentation, and supporting the new society in a