“Twenty-four

Hunted
AFTER A DAY SPENT SHIVERING IN OMORI’S QUARANTINE area, Louie
was led into the main body of the camp, an enormous compound
crowded with some nine hundred prisoners. He wandered down a long
row of barracks until he found the one to which he was assigned. As he
walked in, several POWs came forward to greet him. One of them
slipped a cup of piping hot tea into his chilled hands. A Scottish prisoner
approached, carrying a spoon and a bulging sock. He dipped the spoon
into the sock and ladled out two heaping teaspoons of sugar into
Louie’s cup. To any POW, sugar was a treasure of incalculable value,
and Louie couldn’t understand how this man could have acquired an
entire sock full of it.
As he sipped his tea, Louie was introduced to two barracks
commanders, British lieutenant Tom Wade and American lieutenant
Bob Martindale, who began filling him in on Omori. They spoke about
the corporal who had attacked him at the gate. His name was
Watanabe, they said, but Louie should never refer to him by his real
name. Such was Watanabe’s paranoia that he often hid outside the
barracks, trying to[…]”

Excerpt From: Laura Hillenbrand. “Unbroken: A World War II Story Of

Survival, Resilience & Redemption.” Apple Books.

“through open windows. Men were told to always be ready, speak of

him only in whispers, and agree in advance on a subject to switch to if
the Bird ran into the room demanding to be told what they were talking
about. Men were advised to say that they were speaking of sex,
because the subject interested and distracted him.
The Omori barracks were arranged in two lines separated by a central
avenue. At the avenue’s end stood the Bird’s office, placed so that the
corporal could see the entire avenue through his large front window.
To get anywhere in camp, other than the benjos behind the barracks,
POWs had to step into the Bird’s view. One of his demands was that
men salute not only him but his window. He often left the office vacant
and hid nearby, ”

Excerpt From: Laura Hillenbrand. “Unbroken: A World War II Story Of

Survival, Resilience & Redemption.” Apple Books.