War is pretty much a failure to communicate on a global scale. Men in power fail to make a peaceful compromise, and instead decide to sentence thousands of others to death to get they want. Miscommunication trickles down to the soldiers too. In Unbroken, English-speaking men are taken prisoner by Japanese-speaking soldiers, and their inability to talk to one another only builds tension that is already thick enough to cut with a butter knife.
It's difficult to have peace when the world doesn't speak a common language.
Questions About Language and Communication
- How do the nicer Japanese guards make efforts to communicate with their prisoners?
- In what ways to the POWs use the language barrier in order to rebel against their captors?
- Would the POW camps have been a different place if the guards shared the same language as their prisoners?
- How does miscommunication cause a delay in information being transmitted around the world at this time?