Letters to Iwo Jima
The movie is set during WWII during the battle over the island of Iwo Jima between the Americans and the Japanese. The movie begins with Japanese soldiers who are digging trenches on the beach. One of them complains about the labor and even insists that they just hand over the island to the Americans. An officer overhears Saigo and he is punished before being rescued by Kuribayashi. The soldiers are commanded to stop digging trenches and instead focus their attention on the lone mountain on the island. They build a maze of tunnels running throughout the mountain and wait for the Americans to attack. The Americans invade with about 20,000 men and quickly reduce the Japanese forces to almost nothing. In an attempt to “die with honor”, the remaining commanders inside the mountain each commit suicide with only two soldiers escaping and joining forces located elsewhere on the island.
On the North side of the island, the Japanese continue to lose the fight. Several attempts at retaking the mountain are met with complete failure. One even tries to blow up a tank by walking into the battlefield and laying down with explosives. Also occurring at around this time an American is shot and captured by the Japanese; however, he is not tortured but instead treated for his wounds. A commander reads a letter that was written for the American from his mom. The Japanese soldiers are troubled by the nature of the letter as it similar to the one’s their mom’s had sent them. Eventually the Japanese are nearly defeated and reduced to eating worms to survive. Kuribayashi becomes blinded and has his assistant try and kill him with honor. His assistant; however, is shot before he beheads his commander and Saigo stumbles upon Kuribayashi. Kuribayashi then kills himself with the American Colt that was given to him as a gift from his time spent in America. Saigo then buries Kuribayashi before the Americans stumble upon him. In the end, a scene is shown where an excavation team is shown finding a bag of letters from the Japanese soldiers to their families. The letters were never sent out and were buried by Saigo.
I really enjoyed the movie as it showed the battle from a different point of view. Several of the Japanese soldiers did not even want to be there and forced by their corrupt leaders to die unnecessarily. One thing that bothered me was how the Japanese continuously committed suicide or even shot their soldiers who did not obey. The only thing that seemed to matter to them was to “die with honor”, yet I do not see how shooting yourself in the head while hiding in a cave is dying with honor. The movie captured the horror and brutality of the war. Overall, the movie was excellent and I would recommend it.
Comments
Excellent movie and excellent summary!!