Unbroken Page #15

looks sround with his hands splayed empty in his lap,

blinking.

201

EXT. OMORI GATES - MORNING 201

The gates close behind the Officers. Guards yelling and

moving them forward. A devastated Tokyo is beyond the bay.

The Omori Guards have bayonets in their guns.

A column of prisoners being led away from the camp. Miller is

assisting Harris, who seems unsure of what is happening.

A202

EXT. OMORI BRIDGE - MORNING A202

Wide shot of the men marched across the bridge.

202

EXT. TOKYO STREET - DAY 202

The men are led through the mostly bombed-out, burned-out

street. What houses are left are damaged, smoking.

There are sheets covering the many bodies that litter the

ground.

The victims stare at the POWs. Their eyes deeply sad and

haunted from the horror.

Louie and a woman lock eyes. He can feel her pain.

A203

EXT. BOMBED LANDSCAPE - DAY A203

The cold wind blows through a barren, bombed-out landscape.

The pan across speeds up as we pull back into-

203

INT. MOVING BOXCAR - DAY 203

Louie’s POV -Inside a small dark boxcar, only a small slice

of light streaming through the wooden slats.

Louie and the others rock with the motion of the train,

gazing out between the slats.

204

EXT. RAILWAY - DUSK 204

A train carries Louie and the others northwest, through the

landscape.

205

EXT. NAOETSU RAILWAY STATION - MORNING 205

Naoetsu is a seaside village on the West Coast of Japan. Snow

piles, high as 5 feet, shock some of the men as they exit the

train with their belongings and begin the mile walk to the

POW camp.

206

EXT. NAOETSU - DAY 206

The prisoners are marched across the work camp. CAMP 4-B is

fifty meters square, covered in snow.

It’s brutally cold. The Naoetsu camp is a shambles of shacks,

poorly constructed, uninhabitable, compared to Omori. 300

POW’s. Most are AUSSIES who look like stick figures. Some,

like Louie, still wear the tropical weight khakis they’d worn

when captured. Starving. Unable to speak and work the coal

barge. This camp is worse than Omori. They are covered in

black soot. Even their breath in the air has tinges of black.

207

EXT. NAOETSU POW CAMP - CAMP 4-B - DAY 207

Louie and the new arrivals trudge into the compound and are

lined up in front of a shack. They are told to stand at

attention by Guards with rifles.

Freezing, Louie, Fitzgerald, Tinker and the new POWs wait.

The wind from the sea whips around their faces. At last the

door to a rusty, corrugated shack by the main gate opens. A

JAPANESE COMMANDER steps out:

GUARDS:

KEIREI!

Louie sees the commander and his knees buckle. Tinker must

lean against him to hold him up. Louie is at his lowest

point:
if he had a gun, he would shoot himself right there.

We discover the Naoetsu Camp Commander is:

THE BIRD. He smiles like a child at Christmas as he steps out

onto the icy ground.

Beside The Bird is his henchman HIROAKI KONO. Wire rim

glasses, gold teeth and a pirate smile.

THE BIRD:

This is Naoetsu Prison Camp. I am

Sergeant Watanabe. I am your

commanding officer. You are

prisoners of the Imperial Japanese

Armed Forces.

THE BIRD (CONT’D)

You will help the Japanese by

working on the coal barges. Any one

who will not work, will be

executed...

The Men are stunned. This is far worse than Omori.

By this point The Bird is face to face with Louie. Louie

can’t look him in the eye. The Bird whispers like a friend:

THE BIRD(CONT’D)

why don’t you look me in the eye?

Louie can not. The Bird studies him, then hits him twice as

Tinker holds him up.

208

INT. NAOETSU BARRACKS - DAY 208

Louie, Tinker, Fitzgerald, Miller, Harris and other POWs

enter their two story barracks, on the edge of a cliff

overlooking a straight drop to the Hokura River. The sea

wind whistles through the cracks in the walls. Holes in the

roof makes it snow indoors. Infested with fleas, lice, and

rats trotting about the room. Beds are planks nailed to the

walls.

109

Mattresses are loose rice straw. Floorboards have been pulled

up for fire wood, creating huge gaps in the floor. CLIFT, an

Aussie POW leads the way.

CLIFT:

This is the end Mates. No one knows

we’re here. Best just to resign to

your fate.

209

EXT. COAL BARGE ON RIVERBANK - NAOETSU - DAY 209

A BARGE heaped with coal for the steel mill. Six of the POWs

have shovels. The Bird and Kono oversee the Guards ordering

the POWs to shovel the coal into LARGE BASKETS that are

strapped to the backs of other POWs, including Louie.

Louie notices how shaky the planks are they are forced to

carry the coal up.

Louie hauls the heavy coal up the plank to a railroad car,

along with Fitzgerald and Tinker.

210 EXT. NAOETSU - DAY 21EXT. NAOETSU - DAY 210

Days later.

Ants.

From a distance, all the POWs look like ants.

It’s hard to find Louie, and the others, as everyone is so

covered in coal they have lost their identity.

We find them carrying sacks of coal up the side of the cliff.

Louie looks down. The stairs are narrow and they are 50 feet

above the ground.

The sack of coal weighs heavy on Louie. Sweat pours down his

face, streaking through the layers of soot.

The line slows.

Louie looks ahead. A POW, a few men forward is collapsing. He

drops to his knees. The weight of the coal pulls him off the

stairs and he falls to his death.

Louie, Fitzgerald and the others continue on as if nothing

has happened. They are numb.

211 EXT. COAL BARGE - NAOETSU - MORNING 211

The hot sun rises over Naoetsu. The round red ball of the

Japanese flag.

Months have passed. Sweat streaks through the black coal

matted to the men’s faces.

An empty barge is being towed out to the open water as

another, piled high, is being pulled in and tied up by the

men.

Shovels in to coal. Coal into baskets. Same old routine.

Suddenly-

NAOETSU GUARDS:

Keirei!

The POWS stand at attention. The Bird steps forward.

THE BIRD:

Your President Roosevelt is dead.

The Bird watches the news sinks in. He then turns and walks

away. Louie has no reaction. He is empty inside.

The men are still. Silent. One man falls to his knees and

weeps. No one goes to him. No one moves. All we hear is the

sound of one man weeping.

212

EXT. BARGE - RIVERBANK/NAOETSU - WEEKS LATER - DAY 212

The sun is hot. Louie works among the other POWs carrying

baskets of coal strapped to their backs, up to the railroad

car. The ramp to the railroad car is perilous. The baskets

are heavy and make Louie top heavy, throwing off his balance.

Louie is weak, As he makes his way up the ramp, A Guard is

making his way down. As they pass each other, he pushes into

Louie, causing him to fall over the side, some five feet

down. One of Louie’s legs hits the ground before the other,

causing a tearing sensation, then scorching pain in his ankle

and knee.

Louie sees The Bird some 15 feet away looking off into the

distance. He knows these were his orders.

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