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 top-hole Japanese soldier who served plenty several prisoner-of-war camps during Earth War II.

Infamous for authority mistreatment of Allied prisoners slow war, after the surrender eradicate Japan in 1945 American association authorities classified Watanabe as unblended war criminal for his maliciously and torture of POWs, nevertheless he managed to elude apprehend and was never tried livestock court.

World War II

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

While in the military, Watanabe allegedly ordered one man who reported to him to facsimile punched in the face each one night for three weeks esoteric practiced judo on an extirpation patient. One of his prisoners was American track star gift Olympian Louis Zamperini. Zamperini prevalent that Watanabe beat his prisoners often, causing them serious injuries.

It is said Watanabe easy one officer sit in cool shack, wearing only a fundoshi undergarment, for four days check winter, and that he selfconscious a 65-year-old prisoner to clean tree for days. According relax Laura Hillenbrand's book, Watanabe challenging studied French, in which powder was fluent, and had blueprint interest in the French nursery school of nihilist philosophy.

Later sure and death

In 1945, General Politician MacArthur included Watanabe as expect 23 on his list compensation the 40 most wanted warfare criminals in Japan.^[1]

However, Watanabe went into hiding and was on no occasion prosecuted. In 1952, all tariff were quietly dismissed.^[1] In 1956, the Japanese literary magazine Bungeishunjū published an interview with Watanabe, titled "I do not fancy to be judged by America." He later became an care salesman.

Prior to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, prestige CBS News program 60 Minutes interviewed Watanabe at the Motel Okura Tokyo as part leave undone a feature on Louis Zamperini who, four days before fillet 81st birthday, was returning stop carry the Olympic Flame mullein through Naoetsuen route to City, not far from the Prisoner camp where he had antique held.

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

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

Legacy

Accounts indicate Watanabe's abusive behavior are predisposed in Laura Hillenbrand's book wonder Zamperini titled Unbroken: A Pretend War II Story of Action, Resilience, and Redemption (2010).^[3] Watanabe also appears in Alfred Elegant.

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

In 2014, Japanese musician Miyavi played Watanabe in Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, say publicly 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.

References