unbroken-laura-hillenbrand

punished. The race was about a mile and a half, in laps
around the compound. Louie had no intention of winning,
and lagged behind for most of it. But as he ran, he found that
his body was so light that carrying it was surprisingly easy.
All around the compound, the captives watched him,
breathless. As the finish approached, they started cheering.
Louie looked ahead at the Japanese runner and realized
that he had it within himself to pass the man. He knew what
would happen if he won, but the cheering and the
accumulation of so many months of humiliation brought
something in him to a hard point. He lengthened his stride,
seized the lead, and crossed the finish line. The captives
whooped.
Louie didn’t see the club coming at his skull. He just felt the
world tip and go away. His eyes opened to the sight of the
sky, ringed with the faces of captives. It had been worth it.
The guards thought they had taught him a lesson. Another
runner, his girlfriend in tow, arrived. Louie was ready to beat
him too, but before the race, the runner spoke to him kindly,
in English, offering to give him a rice ball if he’d throw the
race. It would mean a lot to him, he said, to win in front of his
girlfriend. Louie lost, the girlfriend was impressed, and the
runner delivered one rice ball, plus a second as interest. The
payment, Louie said, “made me a professional.”
——
In March, Phil was taken away. It seemed that he had at last
gotten lucky; officials said that he was being sent to a POW
camp called Zentsuji. Every captive longed to be transferred
to a POW camp, where, it was said, men were registered
with the Red Cross and could write home and enjoy vastly
better living conditions. Of all POW camps, Zentsuji was
rumored to be the best. The interrogators had long dangled