Letters from Iwo Jima

One problem with this movie is that it appears to be a historical
documentary. Some of the things that really did happen are mixed in
with things that are pure speculation.

For example, the baron who came with his horse who had won the Olympic
Gold Medal was a real person. He really had won the Olympic Gold Medal
and he really was friends with Mary Pickford. He really did die on Iwo
Jima. Sounds unbelievable, but it is true.

On the other hand, scenes where General Kurabayashi is presented with
a gun and later uses that gun to kill himself are made up.

Nobody knows whether the general killed himself or died fighting. His
body was never found, so he probably died fighting.

Or, he could still be up hiding in those tunnels. Could be. Every few
years a few more Japanese come out of the jungles where they have been
hiding since World war II.

The most disturbing part to me was that the entire premise of the
movie was that a cache of letters the Japanese had written home in
1945 had been discovered buried in 2005. The movie, "Letters from Iwo
Jima", is supposedly based on these letters.

But, this is not true. No such letters were found. The letters quoted
in the movie were from another bunch of letters written from another
island in about 1930.

Sam Sloan

PS My uncle, Edward Sloan, fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima. You can
look it up.

Sam Sloan wrote:

> One problem with this movie is that it appears to be a historical
> documentary. Some of the things that really did happen are mixed in
> with things that are pure speculation.

That's a common technique, and I would have expected it to be that way,
some fact, some fiction, mixed together for realism.

> Or, he could still be up hiding in those tunnels. Could be. Every few
> years a few more Japanese come out of the jungles where they have been
> hiding since World war II.

I don't believe that. That might have happened a few years after the
war, but it's not happening now. Nobody could survive hiding that long.

> The most disturbing part to me was that the entire premise of the
> movie was that a cache of letters the Japanese had written home in
> 1945 had been discovered buried in 2005. The movie, "Letters from Iwo
> Jima", is supposedly based on these letters.

I haven't seen this movie yet, because I generally don't like war
movies. But the premise sounds interesting enough, and I never took it
as any more than a fact-based fiction. The war told from the OTHER
sides point of view is intriguing.

> But, this is not true. No such letters were found. The letters quoted
> in the movie were from another bunch of letters written from another
> island in about 1930.
>
> Sam Sloan
>
> PS My uncle, Edward Sloan, fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima. You can
> look it up.


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Alric Knebel

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