Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II by Louis Zamperini
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I sat down and read this whole book in B&N about a year ago. Zamperini's pre-war story and the shipwreck set this apart from other WWII POW narratives, but the themes largely echo those of others including the PTSD and broken lives after the war. The thing that truly made this story stand out for me was the depth of treatment Zamperini & Rensin gave to the post-war deep hatred of the Japanese many Americans brought home with them, and seemed to associate with any and all Asians here or abroad. His desire to find, confront, and kill Watanabe, the most cruel of his prison guards, was all-consuming. Zamperini's arduous path to free his soul took decades after his physical release. I don't know if I'll ever read Unbroken, so I don't know if it does the same, but exploring the humanity of POW camp guards is one of the strong points of this story.
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