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Dignity During World War 2 Essay

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Most everyday middle class Americans do not recognize the most basic rights we are given daily. We do not look at the value of food, water, or even talking as other people in the world do. Dignity is a most basic human value that we do not observe as POW’s would. During World War II a young olympic runner named Louis Zamperini and friend Russell Phillips (Phil) were drifting on a life raft after their plane crashed into the ocean. They were picked up by Japanese boat and transport to POW camps where they were brutally treated. The Japanese aimed to destroy the dignity of all americans to make them feel as if they are lesser beings. The decimation of dignity in Louis’ and others in POW camps left a lasting impact on the men showing that dignity is an essential basic right.

The Japanese aimed to destroy the most painful and deadly parts of being human or know as the mentality of POW’s. Specific Japanese soldiers aimed the most cruelly at them,such as The Bird or The Quack. Both who decimated the mentality of many POW’s and left permanent scars that would last the rest of their lives. Louie was forced to …show more content…

He constantly thought of The Bird and his inhumane treatments towards Louie. The Bird was haunting him in his dreams. Louie would regularly wake up screaming and was scared to go to sleep. Louie’s friends and family could see a dramatic change from the boy who ran the Olympics to the man physically and mentally destroyed by the war. A friend of Louie’s, Payton Jordan explained “It was like he got hit real and he was trying to shake it off” But at one point the mental unstableness the war had caused him shot to an all time high when Louis decided that he was going to kill The Bird. Louie thought that only The Bird could restore him from taking his dignity by watching himself kill The Bird. The use of dignity in Louie’s story shows the impact all POW’s faced while

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