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Two things separated Watanabe from other notorious war criminals. One was the emphasis that he placed on emotional torture. . . .The other attribute that separated Watanabe from fellow guards was his inconsistency. Most of the time, he was the wrathful god of Omori. But after beatings, he sometimes returned to apologize, often in tears.
This quotation highlights two key elements of the Bird’s characterization: his disturbing tactics and his erratic tendencies. Different from every other Japanese guard whom Louie encounters, the Bird fixates on the most degrading and confusing methods possible for torture. At Omori and Naoetsu, the Bird seems absolutely determined to strip all men, especially Louie, of their innate human rights with horrific and emotionally charged beatings, then he completely changes his demeanor and treats the prisoners as friends. This duality suggests a deep rift in the state of the Bird’s mental health and makes him the most evil character Louie encounters during the war.
POW Jack Brady summed him up in one sentence. “He was absolutely the most sadistic man I ever met.”
This description of the Bird nods at the excruciating nature of his torment toward the POWs. A particularly distributing and sadistic element of his abuse is the sexual gratification the men see him attain from fits of torture. It’s clear that the Bird derives real pleasure from inflicting pain on his victims, especially when that pain comes from emotionally driven cruelty. This sadism is obvious in moments like when he burns letters from the men’s families in front of them or forces the men to punch each other until they are unconscious.
The man at Mitsushima mentioned something he had overheard Mutsuhiro say: He would rather kill himself than be captured.
Though the Bird’s treatment of POWs in the camp is the opposite of honorable, it’s evident in this statement that the Bird is still influenced and guided by the strict honor culture of his country. In fact, poor treatment of POWs in general may have been justified by many officers, rooted in the Japanese belief that to be captured was the most humiliating fate possible for a soldier. The Bird evidently shared this belief, and his disappearances after the war suggest that his highest priority was to evade capture and conviction.
Now he was condemned to crawl through the filth of a pig’s sty, picking up feces with his bare hands and cramming handfuls of the animal’s feed into his mouth to save himself from starving to death. Of all of the violent and vile abuses that the Bird had inflicted upon Louie, none had horrified and demoralized him as did this. If anything is going to shatter me, Louie thought, this is it.
This quotation describes what Louie sees as the pinnacle of the cruelty inflicted upon him by the Bird. The Bird’s command to Louie to clean the pig sty with his hands is one of the clearest examples of the horrific and oppressive treatment that nearly drives Louie to a breaking point. The Bird’s primary goal in all his torture of Louie is to crush him, stripping him of his rights and inflicting any kind of wound possible upon him.
