1200 km south of Tokyo, halfway to Saipan, lies a volcanic island approximately 21 square kilometers in area. The most prominent feature of this island is the dormant Mount Suribachi that rises up at the Southern tip. Sixty three years ago, as the Second World War reached its climax, US and Japanese armies met on this island, in an epic battle for supremacy on Japanese soil. What was predicted to be a quick rout was transformed into nearly 40 days of heroic combat by the sheer will and determination by the Japanese soldiers who were expected to die in defense of their homeland. As Admiral Chester Nimitz put it, “Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
On February 23, 1945, Joe Rosenthal photographed five US marines raising the stars and stripes atop Mount Suribachi. That photograph and its commercial exploitation to aid the American war efforts was the crux of Clint Eastwood’s phenomenal “Flags of our fathers”. It took another month for the US troops to secure the island of Iwo Jima, and the determined fight to death by the Japanese army forms the essence of Eastwood’s twin film to “Flags”, the award-winning “Letters from Iwo Jima” (Iō Jima Kara no Tegami).
Based on a non-fictional work, “Letters from Iwo Jima” relates the story of the brave Japanese resistance on the island through the letters of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) and the ordinary soldier Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) addressed to their wives. The story is spun through the eyes of two people from different walks of life – Saigo is a baker by profession, who pines for the pregnant wife he has left behind, while Kuribayashi has been to America and understands the futility of the war he is fighting. On landing on Iwo Jima, Kuribayashi realizes that the impending attack cannot be met by the traditional Japanese technique of diving headlong into the landing enemy troops and embracing a brave but futile death. As General Patton famously said, “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” However, Kuribayashi’s train of thoughts and ideas are not endorsed by other generals who believe in outright victory or glorified sacrifice. The average Japanese soldier is torn between this clash of opinion – whether to die rather than face dishonor or to live and fight another day. Kuribayashi, and his trusted lieutenant Nishi hold fort against the odds even though the denouement would be an inevitable death.
From a broad perspective, there is nothing new in the plot of the film. “Letters from Iwo Jima” treads the beaten path of many a war movie – of how war is futile; of how the soldier is driven to his appointment with death and glory by the machinery that controls the war from somewhere safe; of how there is a human side for the people on the front on either side. But we still love to watch these moments on the screen, perhaps partly due to the fact that these are people who venture into the action, knowing perfectly well that they might not live to see the next day, and partly because we chose not to venture out from our own couches to fight for our country. And thankfully, Eastwood treats the viewer with well controlled doses of these much-clichéd scenes. The soldier’s anguish is expressed with subtlety in the letters that Saigo writes to his pregnant wife (“Hanako, This is the hole that we will fight and die in”), and through the letters that Kuribayashi addresses to his wife Taro, we can see the image of a man who knows he cannot win, but is determined to fight and die for his country. There is no specific story woven into the film – just a splash of history, interspersed with human emotions. But those splashes leave indelible impressions on our heart.
Eastwood shot the film in shades of dark taking the viewer along on a gruesome journey of the volcanic hell that the island of Iwo Jima turned into in those few days. The characters leave a lasting impression in our minds. Ken Watanabe, as ever, towers over the film in the role of General Kuribayashi. He once again proves without doubt that he is one of the finest actors Asia has produced - in my honest opinion, it was a sin to deny him an Oscar for “The Last Samurai”. Kazunari Ninomiya essays the role of Saigo with ease and makes it easy for the viewer to empathize with the baby-faced soldier pining for his beloved. Tsuyoshi Ihara is a surprise in the role of Baron Nishi – the Olympic champion who once partied with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, and still turns up to die for his homeland. The story leaves us with some unforgettable memories – the light moments between Baron Nishi and the wounded American POW, Sam, as they exchange pleasantries; the spellbound faces of the Japanese soldiers as Nishi reads out a letter from Sam’s mother; the final moments of Kuribayashi before he shoots himself (“Is this still Japanese soil?” he asks Saigo); and finally, the grim picture of what the future holds – recuperating on a stretcher, Saigo watches the horizon with a weak smile as the sun sets on the Empire of the Rising Sun.
“Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of our Fathers” are two sides of the same coin, both masterpieces in their own right. It does not matter which one you watch first. For those who have never heard of the island before, “Letters from Iwo Jima” serves as an eye opener to the heroic combat between two determined armies, and for those who have heard of the Battle of Iwo Jima, it provides the new perspective that there was more to Iwo Jima than a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. Historically, Iwo Jima was an eye opener to the Allies. The stark realization dawned on them that they could never accomplish an invasion of Japan without heavy losses (the Allies suffered 27,000 casualties in Iwo Jima, whereas the Japanese had only around 20,000). The result was even more devastating for the world – for it paved the way for the most destructive weapon ever dreamed of by man – the Atomic Bomb.
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