Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe Character Analysis in Unbroken

The novel’s antagonist and the epitome of evil, Watanabe is the cruel and psychopathic prison guard who singles out Louie for emotional and physical torture. Driven by a desire to feel powerful, Watanabe derives sexual pleasure and self-worth by using torture to dehumanize the prisoners. Watanabe is also vain and delusional, believing that that prisoners love and respect him. At the end of the war, Watanabe lacks total self-awareness and compassion, casting himself as a victim, rather than a perpetrator, of the horrors of war.

Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe Quotes in Unbroken

The Unbroken quotes below are all either spoken by Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe or refer to Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe. 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:

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.

Related Characters: Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe, Louis “Louie” Zamperini

Related Symbols: The Bird

Page Number and Citation: 291

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Louie is forced to endure an especially awful punishment at the hands of the sadistic "Bird": he’s forced to crawl on the floor of a pig sty, picking up pig feces with his bare hands. Furthermore, Louie has to eat the feces just to survive. This torture is not only disgusting and horrific, it's also entirely dehumanizing--Louie is made to act like an animal, or something even lower than an animal. The Bird is trying to break Louie’s spirit, and this kind of torture tries to get him to think of himself as a mere beast.The passage Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit

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.

Related Characters: Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe, Louis “Louie” Zamperini

Related Symbols: The Bird

Page Number and Citation: 361

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Hillenbrand shows us how low Louie has sunk after coming home from World War Two. Louie endured incredibly harsh conditions in his POW camp—most of it at the hands of a Japanese soldier nicknamed “The Bird." The result is that Louie, despite having survived the war, feels a continued hatred for the Bird. He’s been so traumatized by his violent torture that he thinks the only solution is more violence. Thus, Louie plans to return to Japan and kill his old tormenter. He feels helpless and lost in America, and feels that he can only take meaningly Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitat

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.

Related Characters: Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe, Louis “Louie” Zamperini

Related Symbols: The Bird

Page Number and Citation: 373

Explanation and Analysis:

Here, Hillenbrand sums up Louie’s state of being after World War Two and before his religious conversion. He’s always been optimistic, and yet he’s now singularly fixated on the past rather than the future. Furthermore, Louie feels the need to struggle for his humanity and assert himself through violence. He spent so long being treated like an animal that he internalized some of the feelings of inferiority that the Bird was trying to make him feel. Louie rationally knows that he’s a human being, but he can’t help but hate himself as a result of the humiliating exercises he was Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus

In Sugamo Prison, as he was told of Watanabe’s fate, all Louie saw was a lost person, a life now beyond redemption. He felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.

Related Characters: Louis “Louie” Zamperini, Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe

Explanation and Analysis:

Louie was unbroken during the war because he faced the terrible traumas of the war, of the Japanese camps, and of the Bird with a refusal to give in or give up. He faced all these obstacles as enemies to be beaten, and he beat them. And yet after the war he found that the skills that allowed him to beat those obstacles -- rage, refusal to give in -- were essentially eating him alive. He survived the war; it did not break him physically. But it broke him emotionally.As this quote shows, though, through religion Louie finds a way Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perf

Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe Character Timeline in Unbroken

The timeline below shows where the character Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe appears in Unbroken. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...the Omori camp, Louie encounters a handsome prison guard with large, brutish hands named Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Watanabe inspects the new arrivals at the camp, shouting that they should each state their... (full context)

Mutsuhiro Watanabe was born to a wealthy Tokyo family. He had lofty expectations for himself as a... (full context)

At Omori, Watanabe gains a reputation as an especially cruel guard who uses psychological and emotional torture on... (full context)

Watanabe also seeks the friendship and affection of the inmates in order to boost his vain... (full context)

When Louie meets the other prisoners, they tell him not to call Watanabe by his real name. If he hears the prisoners using his name, he will beat... (full context)

Watanabe’s attacks intensify. When the Bird demands that Louie look him in the eyes, Louie refuses,... (full context)

After Watanabe leaves, the kind guard Yukichi Kano takes his place and the Bird’s reign of terror... (full context)

Watanabe had specifically requested that the Omori camp officials transfer Louie to Naoetsu so that he... (full context)

Watanabe escapes the prison before the men have a chance to take revenge on him. On... (full context)

In the winter of 1946, the Japanese police expand their search for Watanabe. An aged police officer travels to the largest home in a small mountain village and... (full context)

Watanabe had come to this out-of-the-way village and taken the job as a servant to evade... (full context)

In the mountain village, the farmer requests that Watanabe accompany his son on a trip through major cities. In the cities, no one recognizes... (full context)

Watanabe returns to the farmer’s village. The Bird works as a waiter in the farmer’s son’s... (full context)

...gunshot wound obscures his face, the police think that the man matches the description of Watanabe. They bring in his mother, Shizuka, to identify the dead body. She says it’s her... (full context)

Two years after the Japanese government announced that he was dead, Watanabe sees his mother again. The last time they spoke was two years ago when he... (full context)

After the Japanese announced his death, Watanabe spent several years working as a farm hand. In 1952, he read a newspaper article... (full context)

In the following years, Watanabe marries, has two children, and makes a small fortune by starting an insurance agency. In... (full context)

At Louie’s request, Mihailovich tries setting up a meeting between him and the Watanabe during the Olympic Games, but the Bird refuses. Unable to offer his captor forgiveness, Louie... (full context)

Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe Character Analysis

Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe Quotes in Unbroken

Chapter 28 Quotes

Chapter 35 Quotes

Chapter 37 Quotes

Chapter 39 Quotes

Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe Character Timeline in Unbroken