One of the worst Japanese war criminals, Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe is the novel’s epitome of evil, representing humankind’s utmost capacity for violence. In the wild, birds often are seen to represent freedom, so the Bird’s nickname emphasizes the freedom he has in comparison to the POWs, specifically with regards to his unrestricted freedom to torture the prisoners without consequence.
The Bird Quotes in Unbroken
The Unbroken quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Bird. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 28
Quotes
Now he was condemned to crawl through the filth of a pig’s sty, picking up feces with his bare hands and cramming handfuls of the animal’s feed into his mouth to save himself from starving to death. Of all of the violent and vile abuses that the Bird had inflicted upon Louie, none had horrified and demoralized him as did this. If anything is going to shatter me, Louie thought, this is it.
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Chapter 35
Quotes
Louie had no idea what had become of the Bird, but he felt sure that if he could get back to Japan, he could hunt him down. This would be his emphatic reply to the Bird’s unremitting effort to extinguish his humanity: I am still a man. He could conceive of no other way to save himself. Louie had found a quest to replace his lost Olympics. He was going to kill the Bird.
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Chapter 37
Quotes
No one could reach Louie, because he had never really come home. In prison camp, he’d been beaten into dehumanized obedience to a world order in which the Bird was absolute sovereign, and it was under this world order that he still lived. The Bird had taken his dignity and left him feeling humiliated, ashamed, and powerless, and Louie believed that only the Bird could restore him, by suffering and dying in the grip of his hands. A once singularly hopeful man now believed that his only hope lay in murder.
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The Bird Symbol Timeline in Unbroken
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Bird appears in Unbroken. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 24: Hunted
...them for fear that they are plotting against him. Instead, the prisoners call him the Bird because it carries no negative connotations in case he finds out about the nickname. At...
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...defiance of the Geneva Convention’s law that protects POW officers from having to work, the Bird makes the officers, including Louie, into slave laborers, forcing them to clean the toilets in...
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...from the sadistic Japanese doctors. But Kano could do nothing to protect Louie from the Bird’s violent attacks.
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Watanabe’s attacks intensify. When the Bird demands that Louie look him in the eyes, Louie refuses, prompting more vicious attacks. To...
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Chapter 25: B-29
The appearance of the bomber makes the Bird even more vicious. On one occasion, the Bird runs into the barracks, calling for everyone...
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Chapter 26: Madness
...B-29 bombers over Tokyo, destroying the city. Whenever a B-29 flies over the camp, the Bird cracks down on the prisoners, beating them and prohibiting them from small enjoyments like singing...
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...the Japanese Red Cross. He meets one of the POWs who tells him of the Bird’s cruelty. By New Years, the Bird receives order to transfer to a distant isolated camp....
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Chapter 27: Falling Down
After Watanabe leaves, the kind guard Yukichi Kano takes his place and the Bird’s reign of terror ends. William Harris arrives in the camp with a group of new...
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...in front of a shack in the compound. Suddenly, the door flies open and the Bird runs at the prisoners. Louie collapses from shock and fear.
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Chapter 28: Enslaved
Louie would remember that moment when he saw the Bird as the darkest of his life. But the Bird is overjoyed to see him, thinking...
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...a factory. When the the Japanese guard charged with overseeing the officers complains to the Bird that the officers are lazy, he punishes the men, making them carry tons of coal...
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...full rations and suffering from dysentery, Louie fears he will starve. Desperate, he asks the Bird for work. Savoring the request, the Bird makes him clean out the pig sty with...
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Chapter 29: Two Hundred and Twenty Punches
When the men return to camp, the Bird claims that the officers must have been involved in the theft. As punishment, he makes...
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Chapter 30: The Boiling City
...a work detail, the officials send Louie back to half rations. After Louie begs the Bird for work, the Bird commands him to watch over the camp’s goat. The Bird says...
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As punishment, the Bird makes Louie carry a thick, six-foot beam over his head. The Bird says that if...
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...the strength he has to hold up the beam. In a flurry of motion, the Bird charges towards him and rams his fist into Louie’s stomach. The beam falls Louie’s head,...
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Each day, Louie grows thinner and weaker. One day, the Bird approaches Louie and tells him that tomorrow he will drown him. After spending the day...
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Chapter 31: The Naked Stampede
...them from testifying about the guards’ war crimes. A week before the kill-all date, the Bird disappears from the camp and the guards tell the prisoners they will soon march into...
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...worries that the guards will still kill them. Five days before the execution date, the Bird returns. Louie thinks that he looks changed, but cannot pinpoint the difference.
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...have a chance to take revenge on him. On the day of the announcement, the Bird, knowing that the Allies would charge him with war crimes, stole a bag of rice...
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Chapter 32: Cascades of Pink Peaches
...news and magazines to the POWs. A celebration of eating and smoking commences. With the Bird gone, Louie gives up his desire for revenge. Throughout the camp, forgiveness reigns and the...
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Chapter 34: The Shimmering Girl
...goes up to his boyhood room and falls asleep. That night, he dreams of the Bird.
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In the Japanese metropolis of Kofu, the Bird hears on the radio his name on a list of war criminals. He decides to...
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...full of interviews, fancy dinners, and speeches, but at night he dreams only of the Bird. At one speaking engagement, Louie begins to drink more than normally in order to calm...
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Chapter 35: Coming Undone
In Louie’s life, the Bird continues to haunt his dreams. Louie withdraws from his wife and friends and into training...
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...prospect of the Olympics, Louie’s depression deepens. During the day, he obsessively thinks about the Bird and his nightmares only get worse. Drinking heavily, Louie becomes enraged easily, beating up strangers...
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...helped arrest one of his wartime captors, Louie starts fantasizing about finding and killing the Bird. Louie feels as if vengeance is the only way to save himself from his spiraling...
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Chapter 36: The Body on the Mountain
...wife, and their live-in servant. The officer leaves, not realizing that the servant was the Bird.
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...his son on a trip through major cities. In the cities, no one recognizes the Bird, which gives him the hope that he can visit his family, who he hasn’t seen...
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Watanabe returns to the farmer’s village. The Bird works as a waiter in the farmer’s son’s coffee shop. After a young woman falls...
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...the dead body. She says it’s her son and the Japanese government announces that the Bird is dead.
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Chapter 37: Twisted Ropes
Living in Hollywood, Louie does not know about the announcement of the Bird’s death. Drinking heavily and consumed by a desire to kill the Bird, Louie is unable...
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...bring himself out of his rage and alcoholism. One night, while dreaming of killing the Bird, Louie wakes to find himself strangling his pregnant wife. He stops himself and lies back,...
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Chapter 38: A Beckoning Whistle
...That night he dreams of Satan hunched over his bed, holding the same belt that Bird used to beat him.
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...sink. For the first time since arriving in the U.S., he doesn’t dream of the Bird that night. The next morning he finds an old Bible and goes to sit under...
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Chapter 39: Daybreak
At the camp, Louie learns that the Bird had killed himself. All Louie feels is compassion and forgiveness for the man whose life...
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Epilogue
...producer, Draggan Mihailovich, who is making a film on his life tells Louie that the Bird is still alive.
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...its relationship with Japan so they dropped the charges against the war criminals. When the Bird returned to his family in Tokyo, they received him with open arms. The Bird told...
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...makes a small fortune by starting an insurance agency. In 1995, in his mid-seventies, the Bird feels ready to publically discuss his role as a prison guard. Perhaps motivated by guilt...
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...setting up a meeting between him and the Watanabe during the Olympic Games, but the Bird refuses. Unable to offer his captor forgiveness, Louie writes him a letter where he details...
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...past his former prison, he has no bad memories of the war or of the Bird. He feels only joy.
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