The main thing I did today was read, and read some more. I finished around 150 pages of Unbroken, and it was well worth it. I also watch Spirited Away, which means a lot of Japanese in a day.
I have a lot to talk about Unbroken. Louis was a strong man, but it’s not enough to say that he survived without luck, or, to a believer, God’s grace. His postwar years were dreadful, but that made a powerful testimony, when he went from rage and murderous thoughts to redemption and forgiveness. He learned to forgive his enemies, and by that he had stumbled on a different path of life, not with revenge but with hope.
I’m not saying Louis’s life is the only life that mattered. I admire him, yet I give respect to the many others too. I have always overlooked veterans, what they had done for countries they were proud citizens, and what they had gone through as the returns and outcasts. The book was dedicated for the wounded and the lost because it took on their perspectives of a deadly war. A few hundred pages surely never change a person, but I walked out of the journey with more understanding. Never again I roll my eyes on veteran day. Never again I underestimate the support in academic institutions for those once strong yet hurt.
I also gained a different story on the Japanese side of the war. It was a shock to know how cruel their treatments of POWs were and how ironic their own punishments would become when the Allies needed them for the wars after. I’m glad Louis had forgiven them, because I myself find that impossible. But what can I say, I wasn’t there.
