Analysis

For Louie, there is no escape from the hellish abuses in the Ofuna interrogation center, but there are redemptive moments. The prisoners’ secret rebellions and symbolic acts of resistance, even in the smallest ways, draw the men together. In the midst of his suffering, Louie is able to cling to these moments and to his fellow POWs as restorers of stolen dignity, as reminders that there is hope.

Additionally, these little rebellions reinforce to Louie and the other POWs that they don’t belong in this systematic hell created by their Japanese captors. They are citizens of a better place, a country where freedom and dignity is a constitutional right. A symbolic “heaven” in America is waiting for them if only they can stay alive to see it.