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John Fitzgerald A confident and capable U.S. commander who is a POW. After the war, he takes it into his own hands to arrange for a train to pick up the POWs at the Naoetsu prison camp.
- Francis “Mac” McNamara
The only other survivor of the plane crash, Mac is a new...
- Louis “Louie” Zamperini
The Unbroken quotes below are all either spoken by Louis...
- Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe
The novel’s antagonist and the epitome of evil, Watanabe is...
- Russell Allen “Phil” Phillips
The Unbroken quotes below are all either spoken by Russell...
- Pete Zamperini
The Unbroken quotes below are all either spoken by Pete...
- Kunichi “Jimmie” Sasaki
Get the entire Unbroken LitChart as a printable PDF. "My...
- Chapter 2
Hoping sports will channel Louie’s energies into a more...
- Francis “Mac” McNamara
- Louis Silvie Zamperini (“Louie”) The man whose life journey is chronicled in this book. He was a celebrated Olympic runner before he became a World War II soldier.
- Pete Zamperini. Louie’s devoted brother who served as his initial running coach. He served stateside in the military but never stopped worrying about his brother.
- Louise Zamperini. Louie’s mother, who never stopped believing that her son was alive, even after the War Department had reported him dead. She developed a severe rash on her hands when Louie went missing.
- Anthony Zamperini. Louie’s quiet father whose voice is seldom heard in the book. When Louie is a boy, he argues with his father and runs away before deciding to return home.
- Did Louis Really Start Running Track to Avoid Getting Into Trouble?
- Did One of The Crash Survivors Really Eat All of The Chocolate?
- Did They Really Spot A Rescue Plane The Day After The Crash?
- How Long Did Louis Zamperini Spend Stranded at Sea on The Raft?
- Were Louis Zamperini and His Fellow Survivors Bombarded by Sharks?
- Did A Japanese Bomber Really Shoot at The Life Raft?
- Had Louis Zamperini Really Been Declared Kia?
- How Much Did Louie Weigh at The End of The 47 Days Stranded on The Raft?
- Were Conditions in The Pow Cells Really as Bad as in The Movie?
- Was The Japanese Prison Guard Known as "The Bird" Based on A Real person?
Yes. The Unbroken true story reveals that, like in the movie, the real Louis Zamperini had a knack for getting into trouble when he was growing up. Some of his early antics included jumping from the caboose of a train when his family was on their way to California. He also had a penchant for stealing and fighting. He started smoking at age five, pi...
Yes. Our investigation into the Unbroken true story confirmed that, in an act of panic, tail gunner Francis "Mac" McNamara ate all of the chocolate bars (approximately 6) as the other men slept in the two rafts during the first night. This ruined Louie's plan to allot each man one square of chocolate in the morning and one in the evening, which wou...
Yes. "It's weird," said the real Louis Zamperini. "From the sky a thousand feet up, a raft looks like a whitecap, and they didn't see us." -CBN
After his plane went down in the Pacific Ocean on May 27, 1943, the real Louis Zamperini spent 47 days stranded at sea on the life raft. Like in the movie, tail gunner Francis McNamara survived 33 days on the raft, eventually succumbing to dehydration and starvation. Zamperini and pilot Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips were picked up by the Japanese o...
Yes. Starting the first day on the raft, sharks were a constant nuisance. They were so close at times that the men would only have to reach out their hands to touch them. Louie described them as varying between six feet and more than twenty feet long (the latter being a great white shark). The three men could feel tremors from the predators rubbing...
Yes. On their twenty-seventh day adrift, the three men were strafed several times by a Japanese bomber, which left dozens of bullet holes in the life rafts (they would later be told by the Japanese that this was impossible, as it was a violation of their military code of honor). Phil's raft became unusable, and Louie cut up the canvas from it and u...
Yes. First he was declared missing at sea, and then on May 28, 1944, a year and a day after his plane crashed, he was mistakenly declared KIA (killed in action). The following month Louie's parents received a death certificate signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. "In grateful memory of First Lieutenant Louis S. Zamperini, A.S. No. 0-663341, w...
Both Louis Zamperini and pilot Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips lost half their body weight or more. Prior to crashing at sea, Louie's last recorded body weight was 155 pounds. Upon their capture by the Japanese, Louie weighed 67, 79.5, or 87 pounds, depending on the source. "When they first put us in a cell, I just looked down at my knees, my bones, ...
Yes. In a lot of ways, the real-life experiences were much worse. "The worst part I think about being in the cell was [Japanese] submarines," Louie revealed in a CBN interview. "A submarine came in and of course, they never see prisoners. So, they can't wait, so they line up in front of your cell, 75, 80 men lined up like going to a movie premiere....
Yes. Louis Zamperini met Corporal Mutsuhiro Watanabe (aka "The Bird") at the Omori POW camp located on an island in Tokyo Bay. 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. Prison guard Mutsuhiro Wat...
Dec 24, 2014 · Zamperini talked to his fellow prisoners, including John Fitzgerald (Garrett Hedlund), in the cell block. Ruling: False. Speaking amongst prisoners at Ofuna camp was strictly forbidden. After...
People also ask
Who was John Fitzgerald?
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Who are the characters in unbroken?
Garrett Hedlund as Lt. Cmdr. John Fitzgerald (captain of submarine USS Grenadier) Miyavi as Sgt. Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe, a sadistic prison camp commander who treats Louie cruelly. Finn Wittrock as T-3 S/Sgt. Francis "Mac" McNamara; Jai Courtney as Lt. Charlton Hugh "Cup" Cupernell; Luke Treadaway as Miller; Spencer Lofranco as Harry Brooks
Commander John Fitzgerald The second-ranked commanding officer among the POWs at the Ofuna interrogation center. He was cruelly tortured—his fingernails were ripped out by Japanese interrogators—and was later imprisoned with Louie in the Omori and Naoetsu POW camps as well.
