I’ve been lucky lately in that I’ve actually had time to read for pleasure.  On recommendation from friends and family, I indulged my inner history geek and bought “Unbroken” and “With The Old Breed:  At Okinawa and Peleliu”.

Unbroken, by Lauren Hillebrand, is primarily about the life of Louis Zamperini, a reformed juvenile menace, Olympic runner, World War II bombardier, and POW.  The first part of the book deals with Zamperini’s childhood and adolescence, where he finds a way off the path to prison by becoming a track star.  He does well enough that he becomes a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic track team, and competes in Berlin.  As it became more and more apparent that the United States would become involved in World War II, he joined the Army Air Force and became a bombardier on B-24 bombers.  During a search and rescue mission over the Pacific, his airplane crashed.  Zamperini and his pilot survive the crash and an almost 2000 mile trip drifting across the Pacific.  The Japanese capture them, and they spend the rest of the war in Japanese prison camps, much of it without being declared as captured.  After the war, Zamperini falls into depression and alcoholism, but eventually finds his way toward redemption and a good life through the love of his wife and an awakening of his relationship with God.

With The New Breed:  At Okinawa and Peleliu, a memoir by E.B. Sledge, discusses his life as a Marine  in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  Sledge gave up a safe slot in college to join the Marines, and joined the 1st Marine Division as they prepared for the invasion of Peleliu.  The book details his training and preparation for this campaign, as well as the campaign on Okinawa.  He does an excellent job describing how Marine Corps training led to the excellent esprit de corps that has marked Marines for over two centuries, and how that spirit and dedication to each other kept men alive in the hard fighting of the Pacific island campaigns.  Sledge also brings the horror, insanity, and fear that he faced in these two campaigns to vivid life as he describes both battles from the perspective of someone watching it over a gunsight.

While these two books deal with the same over-arching event, World War II in the Pacific, their over-arching messages are far apart.   Unbroken, even though it deals with how inhumanely man can treat his fellow man, is a story of hope.  Zamperini and his fellow prisoners lived through privation and abuse, but still kept up hope of deliverance.  With The Old Breed, on the other hand, deals in detail with the tension of extended battle and the despair felt by Sledge as he survived it.

Both stories are important.  Knowing the horrors of war and the impact that it has on those who carry it out, is of utmost importance.  When we forget these things, sending our young men and women off to war becomes much easier, and the shock at the cost of such decisions is much worse.  However, knowing that even in the worst of times that hope, along with a lot of hard work, can bring things to a good ending is just as important.

Both of these books are well worth your time, and I heartily suggest that you read them if you haven’t already.  They will both lead you to think about war and how it affects human beings, but in different ways.  These are definitely going on my list of books that I recommend to others and I will have them both available for my kids to read when they are ready.