Letters from Iwo Jima

[fotobass]

Just a few responses, if I may.

When it comes to the Japanese I simply don't care enjoy a movie or a story that attempts to humanize their cause.

Maybe that is part of the problem right there. I don't think anyone here is trying to humanize their cause. I can say vehemently that I have no such interest. I tried to read a book about the Rape of Nanking..and I couldn't. It was too inhuman, and I couldn't go there at that time in my life.

No, the guy I wonder about is exactly the 'regular guy' bandied about in this discussion. How did he get there? What did he think? The guy that befriended the US prisoner mentioned in 'Flyboys', who knew this poor prisoner was going to be executed, or the guard who smuggled Jacob DeShazer a Bible for him to read, or the guy who smuggled Boyington food...these are guys worth reading about for me. They did exist, and they did rise above their regime...did it happen before, during or after?

I know what their side of the story was, I read it in a book published in Japan in 1946 by the Japanese government.

I'm really interested in this book if you remember the name of it.

If you all want to do so then great but as much as you want me and those of my opinion to respect your ambitions to discuss the merits of he story, why don't you all extend the same consideration to those of us who want to discuss our dislike of the movie or subject. Instead we are accused of being fanatics.

I personally haven't accused anyone of being a fanatic, nor will I ever in a discussion like this. The biggest reason I haev a problem with some of the opinions (and NOT those who posted them) in this thread is that I cannot and will not believe that all (insert name here) are (insert generalization here) when it's expressed in a way that stereotypes an entire nation. Most or many may have been fanatical, etc, but ALL were not.

Look at the civilian suicides on Saipan. Why did a mother jump over a cliff holding her infant rather than be captured? Because of what she had been propagandized into believing by her government. Was she a fanatic? No. She had been told by her government that US Marines eat babies alive and more horrifically untrue things. Pretty sure we can guarantee that a US Marine has never eaten a living human, but she had no way of knowing that.

The fact is the intolerant group on this site are the ones who claim to be the most open minded and unbiased.

Umm...wow. I'll say this...if thta were to be aimed in my direction, you couldn't possibly be more wrong.

[muddyboots]

So now we are down to saying that if a person believes there can be more than one side to an issue, or that America's hands were not entirely clean, then we are somehow intolerant?
That's a pretty broad condemnation.

Just because I am trying to point out that your view isn't the only one, I'm somehow weakminded or unpatriotic or just plain weak? And that somehow makes me intolerant?

Bah! Hypocrasy at it's finest.

[rwdfresno]

This conversation has obviously become a train wreck so I don't wish to add any further comments. I regret not having the self control to stay out of it in the first place it detracts from what is otherwise a great website.

Happy WIXing.

[fotobass]

Ryan, I'm sorry you feel that way. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've got no interest in beating anyone down...I'm not that guy. If you took anything I've said here in that manner, please disregard that. Not my interest or intention.

Happy WIXing, indeed. I hear there's gonna be a bunch of Mustangs in Columbus towards teh end of this year...

[rwdfresno]

Joe,

I don't have that feeling about your comments.

[EDowning]

This kind of CRAP is my least favorite part of WIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[airnutz]

This kind of CRAP is my least favorite part of WIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I reckon it depends on what your definition of is, is. Is it crap for folks who've seen the movie to discuss it...Or
is it crap for people who haven't seen the movie to berate those of who have..or consider seeing it? Those who
haven't seen "Letters" have an opinion on a period in our history...but they bring nothing to the table as far as
the subject of this thread..the movie..."Letters From Iwo Jima".

Politically I'm a moderate..a middle-roader who figures he was "raised right", but the polarization of our world
into left-winger and right-winger bastards is starting to piss me off. A common-senser can't catch a break between
extremists....

A VERY poigniant point was revealed to me in watching the "Info" DVD to "Letters". Since the Japanese school system doesn't teach the whole history of WW2, the Japanese actors had to learn their history off of the internet....

Sooo...if we refuse to discuss points of history based on hatreds of the past, then those folks will carry on another generation of the un-informed because some idiots prefer to carry on the hate.

Sigh...

[Mudge]

airnutz wrote:

Politically I'm a moderate..a middle-roader who figures he was "raised right", but the polarization of our world
into left-winger and right-winger bastards is starting to piss me off. A common-senser can't catch a break between
extremists....

Gee...how extremely broad minded of you. If we're not "moderates" we're "Bastards". What a "common sense" way to look at things.

Mudge the assumed bastard

[Broken-Wrench]

Nobody is going to change any minds here. Left is left, Right is right, and there are some in no mans land.. Let's pull the plug on this.. politics is ruining WX. Let's just stick with the planes instead of who what and why.

[muddyboots]

Sadly, I guess you are right. We'll be stuck posting: "here is a plane. It is yellow. It has big tires," for all eternity instead of actually talking about where the plane came from, the people who built it and what effect the plane had on their society and ours, what they believed which led them to build the plane...all that "librul" stuff... Which is the real story, of course.

[airnutz]

airnutz wrote:

Politically I'm a moderate..a middle-roader who figures he was "raised right", but the polarization of our world
into left-winger and right-winger bastards is starting to piss me off. A common-senser can't catch a break between
extremists....

Gee...how extremely broad minded of you. If we're not "moderates" we're "Bastards". What a "common sense" way to look at things.

Mudge the assumed bastard

Hmmm...My words, but not what I meant. The comment was referring to what has become all subjects
in the "world at large" boiling down to an either/or, and how that mentality seems to be affecting us
on an individual level. I believe it was Mustangdriver who lamented he was "becoming Archie Bunker"...
The Bunker/Stivic Syndrome.

Apologies for any WIX members egos bruised by the event...your mother's virtue remains unsullied.

Thanks for your comments on the film...

[rwdfresno]

[airnutz]

No, the guy I wonder about is exactly the 'regular guy' bandied about in this discussion. How did he get there? What did he think? The guy that befriended the US prisoner mentioned in 'Flyboys', who knew this poor prisoner was going to be executed, or the guard who smuggled Jacob DeShazer a Bible for him to read, or the guy who smuggled Boyington food...these are guys worth reading about for me. They did exist, and they did rise above their regime...did it happen before, during or after?

I know what their side of the story was, I read it in a book published in Japan in 1946 by the Japanese government.

I'm really interested in this book

The "regular guy", in this case Fotobass, is rendered by the character Saigo. About a year before the battle
Kuribayashi was assigned by Tojo and the Emperor to prepare Iwo for the eventual invasion of the island
As near as I can figure it, Saigo, a baker with a child on the way, was impressed by the Kempeitai
and sent to Iwo about 3months before Kuribayashi's arrival.

Yes, I'd like to see that book as well...always more room in the library.

I've got one for your libraries that has been helpful to a period understanding
of the Japanese culture and it's relationship with the West.
(Edit: Sorry, I was in a hurry. Eckstein's book actually covers a wide brushstroke
of their mentality, internal politics, assasination,brutality, order, their idea
of themselves in the scheme of things, history, their own deceptions to themselves
and other countries, etc. A small book, just over 300 pages, not an easy read
..but informative of the people prior to WW2.)

"In Peace Japan Breeds War", by Gustav Eckstein, originally written in 1927,
it was reprinted several times. I have the 1943 edition..very informative book.
I can't imagine MacArthur or other leaders of the day not having read this book.



.

Last edited by airnutz on Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Randy Haskin]

There is no horse too dead to beat

[ACarey]

Somebody stole my dad's only uniform on an island in the Pacific. There were still Japanese dead. So, he hunted for a uniform. Found one about his size and started to undress the body when a Marine came along and said, "Strange way of collecting trophies, fella!" Dad, replied #@#. He boiled the uniform, painted his boondockers red, and wore the uniform on a mission. Most in the squadron figured Dad as a somewhat unusual character and let it be. However, the squadron commander found out and made sure dad had a new U.S. Navy issued uniform.