Letters From Iwo Jima movie

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:46 pm

I, too, have no use for "their side", per se.

Their entire cause during WWII was an unjust one, and for Clint Eastwood to portray their line troops as just a bunch of "Joes" (if that's what he did in the movie - I haven't seen it), who's story is really no different from that of our own fighting men and needs to be told, makes me sick. They were not like us, and in the end they got what they deserved.

Anybody who's read in depth as I have regarding the Pacific war knows that in general the Japanese were a bunch of ruthless savages when it came to conducting warfare. Ask the Chinese about those good ol' Joes in Japanese uniforms!

Yeah, all sides had "atrocities", but geez, you ain't in no way going to compare us vs. them when it comes to unconventional warfare, are you? Please don't insult my intelligence ...

You bet your tushy if those slimy bastards had the A-bomb along with the means and opportunity they would have dropped it in a heartbeat, with the DC mall as ground zero.

Sure, the "history" is quite interesting - and we should learn all we can about all sides to help balance our perspective, but not like I'm thinking this movie portrays. My main point with this post is that this movie, if it in any way makes one person sit there and think, "Gosh, why'd we drop the bomb on them - they were pretty much just like us!", well, that would be an atrocity in itself.

Wade

Ztex · **Posted:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:49 pm

As a movie buff I think you should see both Flags and Letters. They book end each other like no two pictures have before. Eastwood is a good film maker, although his movies always seen to drag in places...I think he's trying too hard to psuh some point or feeling across.

Lawrence of Arabia is one of my favorite films...I own it and watch it about once a year or so...the pictures are amazing the characters are great, the history is real (as real as Hollywood gets :roll:

)

(look at me...junior film critic..hehe...I like movies)

EDowning · **Posted:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:57 pm

I would recommend seeing "Flags". I think it was very well done and pretty much what I expected. I had read "Flyboys" and was somewhat familiar with Author James Bradley's somewhat bitter point of view about the way his father was treated. I think if one tries to look at the point of view that he would have, had growing up, it is understandable.

I thought that the first half of the book Flyboys took every possible oppourtunity to take the view that the U.S.'s bad behavior in the past somehow conditioned or justified the Japanese behavior leading into and during WWII. I re-read it recently and really thought most of the negative picture that it painted wasn't required to tell the "Flyboy" story. It was all accurate but I really don't think our treatment of the American Indian has any bearing on what the Japanese did going into China or during WWII.

Back to your original question about "Flags", Bradley's development of the outcome of Ira Hayes' post WWII problems is overly simplified in the movie.

But, all in all, I think it is worth seeing it.

fotobass · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:08 am

Yes, the Japanese soldiers were brutal as hell. But they didn't kill 10 million people in concentration camps, either.

See the movie or not, it's entirely your call. But out of curiousity would those who choose not to see it also avoid movies from the German side of view?

*NOTE* Curiousity only...no judgement here...

Ztex · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:23 am

Quote:

they didn't kill 10 million people in concentration camps

Over 14 Million people died in the "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"

I think they were quite nasty in their own right.
Z

Bill Greenwood · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:28 am

Wade, I don't know where you got your info from, but the movie is not much about what you wrote. there's nothing about the atomic bomb. It certainly shows atrocities by the Japanese, shooting civilans, even a dog. It does show a GI shooting prisoners as happened(Lindberg wrote about this) but the Americans really aren't the focus of the movie. It is Japanese soldiers of all ranks trapped on the Island and the letters they write home. It doesn't get into much ideology, just the futilty and savegery of the war. From a tactical standpoint if nothing else, I think we need to know other people, especially the enemy. If we invaded Iraq, and did not understand about the religeous factions, then we weren't as prepared as we should have been.

fotobass · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:36 am

I should have worded that better, as I certainly was aware of the horrific brutality perpetrated by the Japanese.

What I meant was that the Japanese and Germans both were horrifically brutal, and it seems that often the Japanese get more longterm revulsion than the Germans, and it's always intrigued me.

Ztex · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:45 am

I didn't mean to sound rude...It's just I get tired of hearing about how evil the Nazi's were, how one can't even speak the word swastika...and the Rising Sun still flies over Japan.
This is the first "American" movie I can recall that is from the Japanese side of things...there have been lots form the German side.

I guess maybe the long term stuff comes from Pearl Harbor?..who knows...Of course I have met men who get steamed when a Volkswagen rolls by....

Z

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:39 am

fotobass wrote:

What I meant was that the Japanese and Germans both were horrifically brutal, and it seems that often the Japanese get more longterm revulsion than the Germans, and it's always intrigued me.

Perhaps because the Germans don't deny what took place, as the Japanese still seem to do. Also the Germans have a European culture, and the 'ordinary' fighting man was the same as ours, where as the Japanese military had a culture we didn't understand and was essentially brutal throughout the ranks ( not just certain arms of it).
You could perhaps draw a parallel to what is happening in Iraq, we don't understand people driving a car full of explosives into crowds of civilians, this is a step further away from our culture than Kamikaze attacks were , which at least were directed against the opposing military. Can of worms really :roll:

Dave

Mudge · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:47 am

Lynn wrote:

Quote:

that the P-51 was a fighting piece of funiture.

At the risk of sounding dense, please 'splain that to me.

Mudge the slow

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:55 am

If there is a movie that shows the German side of WWII, no I am not interested in seeing it. "Hitler was a mass murdering F@!#head" as many historians will tell you. I am 26 years old. I take what I read from history books seriously, but what I learn form veterans, the men that were there, even more seriosly. My family members that served in the pacific to this day will not buy a Japanese car. The stories i heard form them are true. They saw them with their own eyes. No P.C. crap tp tell them what was going on. Volkewagon doesn't admit that the first cars they built were for Hitler. The Bug is a relative of that line. The Germans are better about living up tp what they did, although, not at first. The Japanese still don't. I won't see this movie as I am not interested in why they murdered, yer, murdered millions of people. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I am not one to hide my feelings.

Bill Greenwood · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:03 pm

Re. Japanese and Germans: I think my facts are close. Only 10% of prisoners lived through Japanese camps, more than 90% of Allied prisoners survived German camps. Japanese mistreated everyone, prisoners especially, but also hundred of thousnds of civilians and even their own soldiers, as in the movie. You could survive as a civilian under Nazi occupation as millions did in France, etc. as long as you cooperated and weren't Jewish. From the first there was a pofessional officer core to the German military, and it did not have a history of mudering women and children, until the Nazis took over. Many of these soldiers resented Nazis and finally rebelled against Hitler. I personally have heard Gunther Rall say they were wrong then. If the Japanese ever said that I haven't heard or read it.

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:21 pm

Waltz41 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:21 pm

Didn't the Japanese put all the military 'drop-outs' if you will in charge of the prison camps and such? I thought I read that somewhere.

My wife's uncle just got the DVD (he's part of the academy or something) so we will watch it soon. It's a movie about WWII, and therefore, I am going to watch it. I don't think it says something about me as a person or what my beliefs are or anything. I just want to watch a movie.

Brian

Ztex · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:49 pm

Mustang Driver,

Quote:

Volkewagon doesn't admit that the first cars they built were for Hitler

Just FYI...Volkswagen has paid reparations for it's slave labor use in WWII (as have quite a few German companies) They do "admit" they built cars, tanks, and other machines for the German army between 1938 and 1945. Our Uncle Sam brought this company back from the brink after WWII (as they did for many companies)

How far do you go with your stance on the use of former Axis companies stuff? Do you use the US Postal Service? They use Siemens machines to sort the mail...do you get X-rays? a lot of those machines are Siemens... of course they built RADAR and V-2 guidance systems and code machines and many others...there is a Degussa plant here in town that sells stuff for General Motors automobiles...you drive a Chevy? Well you are supporting the company that developed Zyklon-B...

How far do you go?
We live in a global economy..we are in touch with millions of people form all over the world...we might as well know something about them.

(sorry ...Rant over)

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