Exclusive: Louie Zamperini’s Daughter Doubts Anyone Today Could Survive What Her Dad Survived

Townhall.com ^ | December 9, 2014 | Cortney O'Brien

[raybbr]

The daughter.

[Dante3]

I bought a copy and am just about to start reading it.

[dandiegirl]

I read it too, but had to skip a little of the internment camp pages. I just couldn’t stand to read it. The Japs were so cruel. My family is going to the movie Christmas afternoon.

[DuncanWaring]

Okinawa was just as bad, if not worse.

And there are fools out there who claim that after the absolute carnage of the Pacific island campaign, the Japanese would have just rolled-over and surrendered once the home-island invasion started.

[21twelve]

In the movie my daughter was watching, many of the surviving Japanese said they were hoping for their surrender earlier in the war. They kept sending boys off to a war they knew they would not win.

[Boowhoknew]

There is a Russell Crowe movie, based in Australia, And it involves japanese, muslims, and Crowe’s character’s father, a farmer who was a WW2 vet, tells a japanese man who has gone beserk, that he and his people are still not done paying for what evil they did. A week after I watched it, Fukishima....and I thought of the words that actor said . I cant remember the name of it, but it was a tragic love story, action thriller.And the BeeGee’s old hit, “dont forget to remember” me was played at the end. The book Unbroken was awesome. Hopefully the movie is faithful to the book.

[catnipman]

“as the Japanese of that time were among the most racist people on Earth.”

they still are.

[matt1234]

It’s interesting, he was raised Catholic. He didn’t become a Christian until he came home.

The speaker is confused.

[jmacusa]

Yes you’re right.

[DuncanWaring]

Here’s another account of what an invasion of Japan would likely have looked like:

http://www.webwizpro.com/1945InvasionofJapan.html

Would have made Verdun, the Somme and “The Russian Front”, combined, look like a mild dispute in a convent.

[Pilsner]

Would have made Verdun, the Somme and “The Russian Front”, combined, look like a mild dispute in a convent

I would not go that far.

But, back around the time of the Gulf War, I read that the Pentagon was still trying to use up the Purple Hearts that it had stockpiled for Operation Olympic. The story said the Pentagon had purchased Purple Heart ribbons since WWII, but that Korea, Vietnam, smaller conflicts, ex post facto awards and replacements of lost medals had not exhausted the Purple Hearts it purchased in anticipation of the casualties that would be taken just in the invasion of Kyushu.