Mutsuhiro Watanabe - Louis Zamperini

Louis Zamperini

Mutshiro took a special interest in American track star Louis Zamperini. He felt that Zamperini challenged his authority because he was a legend to the villagers of Ofuna, Japan. Once he made Zamperini hold a heavy wooden log over his head for over 37 minutes, at the end of which Watanabe punched him in the stomach. Watanabe openly admitted getting a sexual thrill from beating prisoners. Watanabe had unceasing mood swings, one minute he would be beating a prisoner and the next, he would be handing them fistfuls of candy and cigarettes. Zamperini was transferred to Naoetsu, a beautiful snowy mountainous region. Excited at the prospect of being free of "The Bird", his hopes were crushed when he found out that Watanabe had also been transferred to Naoetsu. In 1945, General Douglas MacArthur included Watanabe as number 23 on his list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan. Watanabe went into hiding for seven years and was never prosecuted, emerging back into society only after war crimes prosecutions were stopped and the U.S. Occupation of Japan was ending. During his time in hiding, Watanabe, worked on a farm and in a small grocery store, he also visited his mother at a restaurant every few years to let her know he was alive. In 1956, the Japanese literary magazine Bungeishunjū published an interview with Watanabe titled "I do not want to be punished by America."