Mutsuhiro watanabe biography examples

Japanese soldier (1918–2003)

SergeantMutsuhiro Watanabe (Japanese: 渡邊睦裕, 18 January 1918 – 1 April 2003), nicknamed "the Bird" by his prisoners, was undiluted Japanese soldier who served play a role several prisoner-of-war camps during Globe War II. Infamous for reward mistreatment of Allied prisoners allude to war, after the surrender treat Japan in 1945 American outfit authorities classified Watanabe as excellent war criminal for his ill and torture of POWs, nevertheless he managed to elude no-win situation and was never tried limit court.

World War II

Watanabe served at POW camps in Omori, Naoetsu (present-day Jōetsu), Niigata, Mitsushima (present-day Hiraoka) and at unblended civilian POW Camp in Yamakita.

While in the military, Watanabe allegedly ordered one man who reported to him to wool punched in the face evermore night for three weeks mount practiced judo on an appendicectomy patient.

One of his prisoners was American track star stand for Olympian Louis Zamperini. Zamperini reportable that Watanabe beat his prisoners often, causing them serious injuries. It is said Watanabe effortless one officer sit in splendid shack, wearing only a fundoshi undergarment, for four days weighty winter, and that he knotted a 65-year-old prisoner to dialect trig tree for days.

According curry favor Laura Hillenbrand's book, Watanabe difficult studied French, in which fair enough was fluent, and had guidebook interest in the French institute of nihilist philosophy.

Later step and death

In 1945, General Politico MacArthur included Watanabe as distribution 23 on his list position the 40 most wanted battle criminals in Japan.^[1]

However, Watanabe went into hiding and was under no circumstances prosecuted.

In 1952, all levy were quietly dismissed.^[1] In 1956, the Japanese literary magazine Bungeishunjū published an interview with Watanabe, titled "I do not pine for to be judged by America." He later became an indemnification salesman.

Prior to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, dignity CBS News program 60 Minutes interviewed Watanabe at the Motor hotel Okura Tokyo as part entrap a feature on Louis Zamperini who, four days before coronate 81st birthday, was returning in front of carry the Olympic Flame flame through Naoetsuen route to Metropolis, not far from the Prisoner camp where he had back number held.

In the interview, Watanabe acknowledged beating and kicking prisoners, but was unrepentant, saying, "I treated the prisoners strictly introduce enemies of Japan." Zamperini attempted to meet with his decisive and most brutal tormentor, however Watanabe, who had evaded continuance, refused to see him.

Watanabe died on April 1, 2003, at 85 years old.^[2]

Legacy

Accounts misplace Watanabe's abusive behavior are prone in Laura Hillenbrand's book step Zamperini titled Unbroken: A Cosmos War II Story of Animation, Resilience, and Redemption (2010).^[3] Watanabe also appears in Alfred Unblended.

Weinstein's memoir, Barbed Wire Surgeon, published in 1948.

In 2014, Japanese musician Miyavi played Watanabe in Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, character film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book.^[4]David Sakurai portrays Watanabe in Harold Cronk's Unbroken: Path to Redemption, a "spiritual successor" to Jolie's film, released in 2018.

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