Word: zamperini
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...September, they arrived in Yokohama, where a Jap officer struck Zamperini's nose with a flashlight because, when they were transporting him in a sedan, he could not get his long legs under a jump seat...
Prisoners of War. One ordeal was over. The fishermen treated them decently. And when Zamperini and Philips were delivered to the base at Wotje, Japs there also treated them decently. But when they were moved again to Kwajalein, another ordeal began...
Guards, jabbing them with pointed sticks, made them sing and dance for their amusement, hurled them food - gobs of rice - so that they had to scramble for the grains on the filthy cell floor. Learning that Zamperini was a famous miler, they forced him to compete against healthy Jap runners, bribed him (with food) to stall so the Japs could score a glorious victory...
They were shifted to Truk, put aboard a transport for Japan. Men in the crew, infuriated when the flyers said they thought Japan would lose the war, punched them in the face, broke Zamperini's nose. For weeks he held the broken bones in place until they had healed...
...Bird." The man Zamperini will never forget was Sergeant Watanabe, who made prisoners do "pushups" over latrine troughs until they collapsed with their faces in the excrement, who beat Zamperini on the head until he bled, gave him bits of paper to staunch the wounds and when the blood stopped, said "Oh, it stop, eh?" and beat him again. Watanabe had a head like a frog's. The prisoners called him "The Bird...