Undoubtedly, the Second World War is one of the biggest black marks in human history. In addition to the events happening at the front, there are also things happening behind the front. Much more horrific versions of the systematic massacres carried out on civilians also occur in prison camps. Moreover, not only the Nazis were doing these, but everyone. One of these atrocities was committed by Japanese guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe.
The whole world learned the name Mutsuhiro Watanabe thanks to American Louis Zamperini, who was his prisoner during the war. In this true story, which appeared before the audience with the movie Unbroken after Zamperini’s biographical novel, we see everything Mutsuhiro Watanabe did in its most naked form. What’s worse is that although Mutsuhiro Watanabe was a war criminal, he lived a long, happy life and died a natural death.
Young runner Louis Zamperini joined the US army when the war broke out:
His full name is Louis Silvie Zamperini, he was born on January 26, 1917, in New York, USA, as the son of an Italian immigrant family. During his high school years, he discovered that he had a natural talent for running and joined the school’s athletics team. Participating in the 1936 Berlin Olympics on behalf of the USA, he broke the tour record and finished 8th.
When World War II began, like many young Americans, he enlisted in the army and served as a lieutenant in the US Air Force. On May 27, 1943, he and his unit went on a search and rescue mission with a B-24 model aircraft. Only three people were alive when the plane crashed into the ocean as a result of an unexpected accident.
He didn’t die, but something worse happened, he fell into the hands of Mutsuhiro Watanabe:
Only three people survived from the crashed plane. Sergeant Francis McNamara died a few days later. That leaves pilot Russell Allen Phillips and Louis Zamperini. The duo, who drifted in the ocean for 47 days, were finally noticed by Japanese sailors and took them to the Marshall Islands, which was under Japanese occupation at that time.
Here they were well received at first. They were given plenty of food and a comfortable bed. A few days later, the beatings and torture started. Thinking this was the worst thing that would happen to them, Louis Zamperini was sent to Omori camp outside Tokyo. Here he fell into the hands of Mutsuhiro Watanabe, who would give him hell while he was alive.
‘You attracted a lot of attention, Zamperini!’
Mutsuhiro Watanabe’s nickname was The Bird. Mutsuhiro Watanabe, the most sadistic guard of the camp, was beating the prisoners at will, starving them, tying them naked to trees for days in the cold, and moreover, doing judo training on them. He took particular pleasure in what he did to Louis Zamperini.
One day, Mutsuhiro Watanabe came to the prisoners with a belt made of heavy brass material in his hand. He said to Louis Zamperini, prisoner number 1, for no reason: ‘You attract a lot of attention, Zamperini!’ He shouted and hit him with a belt. When Zamperini fell and got up again, he shot him again. Zamperini walked deaf for two weeks.
Things calmed down a bit when Watanabe was assigned to another camp in December 1944. After a while, Louis Zamperini was also assigned to another camp. As soon as he stepped into the camp and heard Mutsuhiro Watanabe’s voice, he fell down and fainted. Watanabe had sent him to this camp on purpose.
Zamperini was free, but could not easily gather himself together:
After the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the USA in August 1945, Louis Zamperini and other prisoners of war were released. Within two weeks, Zamperini’s physical wounds completely healed, but his psychology was in shambles. He constantly saw Watanabe in his nightmares.
Louis Zamperini began losing sleep and drinking constantly. He would sometimes accidentally hurt his wife during his nightmares. A priest told him to return to Japan and face his demons. And so he did. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t find Watanabe. He would find out later what was going on with this sadist.
Mutsuhiro Watanabe lived a peaceful life:
When the war ended, General Douglas MacArthur declared Mutsuhiro Watanabe one of Japan’s most wanted war criminals. For years, Watanabe escaped in disguise. He worked in the fields and in local markets. It is also said that he secretly visits his mother from time to time.
When all charges against him were dropped in 1952, Mutsuhiro Watanabe started working as an insurance salesman. He had a beautiful house and a peaceful life in Tokyo. His first interview was published in a Japanese literary magazine in 1956. He gave his next interview to the British Daily Mail in 1995. He apologized to the prisoners, but he was not sorry, saying that he fulfilled the conditions of war.
Zamperini and Watanabe lost their lives without confrontation:
Louis Zamperini came to Tokyo years later to carry the Olympic torch at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998. CBS News wanted to interview Watanabe and bring the two together, but Watanabe refused. In this interview, he admitted to mistreating prisoners.
Mutsuhiro Watanabe died on April 1, 2003, at the age of 85. Louis Zamperini died on July 2, 2014, at the age of 97. We don’t know what Watanabe was thinking, but Zamperini said in his letter that he forgave him.
We know all this from the book Unbroken, which was later made into a movie:
In the biography book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, written by Laura Hillenbrand in 2010, the real life story of Louis Zamperini met with the reader. The book, which broke sales records, was adapted into a movie called Unbroken in 2014. Angelina Jolie is the director of the movie. A sequel to the film was made in 2018, titled Unbroken: Path to Redemption.
Is what is being said really true?
Since there are many witnesses to what is described in the book, we can say that all these events are real. There were indeed people torturing prisoners in Japanese prison camps. However, it is also a fact that the United States, which made the bloody atmosphere of the Second World War even more bloody, tried to make people forget the millions of people it murdered with the atomic bomb by making such events even more intense.
We answered frequently asked questions such as who is Mutsuhiro Watanabe, the war criminal known as the most brutal guard of the Second World War, and what did he experience with Louis Zamperini. Remember that what happened in history must be evaluated according to the conditions of that period.
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