Louis zamperini the bird watanabe

Japanese soldier (–)

SergeantMutsuhiro Watanabe (Japanese: 渡邊睦裕, 18 January – 1 April&#;), nicknamed "the Bird" by his prisoners, was a Japanese soldier who served in several prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. Infamous for his mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war, after the surrender of Japan in American occupational authorities classified Watanabe as a war criminal for his mistreatment and torture of POWs, but he managed to elude arrest and was never tried in court.

Louis zamperini He was also introduced to a group of American and Australian POWs, who were obeying the Japanese and working as propagandists. Louis had hoped to do better in the Olympics, but they never happened. When Watanabe was transferred to Naoetsu, the most hellish POW camp in Japan, Louis Zamperini was eventually transferred there too as punishment for not doing the Radio Tokyo propaganda broadcast. This infuriated him and made him bitterly jealous of officers, including Louis Zamperini.

World War II

Watanabe served at POW camps in Omori, Naoetsu (present-day Jōetsu), Niigata, Mitsushima (present-day Hiraoka) and at a civilian POW Camp in Yamakita.

While in the military, Watanabe allegedly ordered one man who reported to him to be punched in the face every night for three weeks and practiced judo on an appendectomy patient.

One of his prisoners was American track star and Olympian Louis Zamperini. Zamperini reported that Watanabe beat his prisoners often, causing them serious injuries. It is said Watanabe made one officer sit in a shack, wearing only a fundoshi undergarment, for four days in winter, and that he tied a year-old prisoner to a tree for days. According to Laura Hillenbrand's book, Watanabe had studied French, in which he was fluent, and had an interest in the French school of nihilist philosophy.

Louis zamperini the bird watanabe Overnight I became fanatical. Growing up in relative poverty he showed a talent for sport and at first took up boxing to defend himself from bullies before switching to athletics. By Kevin Lang Published December 22, He practiced judo on an appendectomy patient.

Later life and death

In , General Douglas MacArthur included Watanabe as number 23 on his list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan.^[1]

However, Watanabe went into hiding and was never prosecuted. In , all charges were quietly dismissed.^[1] In , the Japanese literary magazine Bungeishunjū published an interview with Watanabe, titled "I do not want to be judged by America." He later became an insurance salesman.

Prior to the Winter Olympics in Nagano, the CBS News program 60 Minutes interviewed Watanabe at the Hotel Okura Tokyo as part of a feature on Louis Zamperini who, four days before his 81st birthday, was returning to carry the Olympic Flame torch through Naoetsuen route to Nagano, not far from the POW camp where he had been held.

In the interview, Watanabe acknowledged beating and kicking prisoners, but was unrepentant, saying, "I treated the prisoners strictly as enemies of Japan." Zamperini attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormentor, but Watanabe, who had evaded prosecution, refused to see him.

Watanabe died on April 1, , at 85 years old.^[2]

Legacy

Accounts of Watanabe's abusive behavior are given in Laura Hillenbrand's book about Zamperini titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption ().^[3] Watanabe also appears in Alfred A.

Weinstein's memoir, Barbed Wire Surgeon, published in

In , Japanese musician Miyavi played Watanabe in Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, the film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book.^[4]David Sakurai portrays Watanabe in Harold Cronk's Unbroken: Path to Redemption, a "spiritual successor" to Jolie's film, released in

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