In our country the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima is immortalized in the famous photo, and in a large sculpture in Northern Virginia, in the D.C. area. This movie tells the story of the Japanese men who were on the island, waiting for the inevitable attack. We know it came, we know the outcome, as history tells.
The movie depicts the Japanese soldiers as not very different from the American soldiers. In the slow character development we learn that some were bakers, others store owners. One was exiled from an elite branch because he refused to shoot a family's dog that was barking too much back on the mainland.
We see that the men preparing for the invasion by the American troops were under-supplied in food, water, ammunition, and air support. Disintery was so bad that some died of it. Most of them knew that they would never go home again.
While most of the movie is told in 1944, in Japanese with English subtitles, short scenes in present day, 2005, begin and end the movie. We see Japanese exploring one of the caves that had been used for refuge 50 years earlier during the American bombardment. A buried sack is found, and in it a large number of "letters from Iwo Jima", never having been sent home. Presumably the contents of these letters formed the basis for the story in the movie.
The movie depicts the Japanese soldiers as not very different from the American soldiers. In the slow character development we learn that some were bakers, others store owners. One was exiled from an elite branch because he refused to shoot a family's dog that was barking too much back on the mainland.
We see that the men preparing for the invasion by the American troops were under-supplied in food, water, ammunition, and air support. Disintery was so bad that some died of it. Most of them knew that they would never go home again.
While most of the movie is told in 1944, in Japanese with English subtitles, short scenes in present day, 2005, begin and end the movie. We see Japanese exploring one of the caves that had been used for refuge 50 years earlier during the American bombardment. A buried sack is found, and in it a large number of "letters from Iwo Jima", never having been sent home. Presumably the contents of these letters formed the basis for the story in the movie.