Unbroken

The story shifts to follow Mutsuhiro Watanabe and his new identity as a laborer for a farmer. He heard news reports on the radio of other Japanese war criminals being captured. In his diary, he “mulled over his behavior...but also expressed no remorse” (355). Eventually, the Bird told the farmer who he was, and the farmer encouraged him to keep silent.

While accompanying the farmer’s son on an errand, Watanabe longed to visit home. He ventured into Tokyo and narrowly missed being captured by the manhunt issued for him. He returned to the village where the farmer had tried to arrange a marriage for him. He declined, telling the woman “he had a burden which would make her unhappy” (360).

In the fall of 1946, a story circulated, and Watanabe was described as having been found dead alongside a woman; suicide was suspected.

Louie attempted and failed at several business ventures he created to raise money so that he could exact revenge on Watanabe: “He’d gone from drinking because he wanted it to drinking because he needed it” (363). His behavior towards Cynthia grew increasingly violent; once, he attempted to choke her in his sleep in a state of confusion after a recurring nightmare involving his strangling the Bird.