Japan of Today

>> Letters from Iwo Jima

"Letters from Iwo Jima" describes the war from the side of Japan pretty well.

Rating : 4.0 (out of 5)

It is a 2006 Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning film directed by Clint Eastwood. The film is about the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of Japanese soldiers while "Flags of Our Fathers" is about the same battle from the perspective of American soldiers.

First, I was pretty impressed at how accurately Japanese people are depicted in this Hollywood film. It should be partly because Japanese actors, who are well known in Japan, played the roles of the soldiers. Though some words of them sound too modern, it isn't a big matter. I think it was described pretty rightly how ruthless and also irrational the Japanese army was during WWII.

Yasukuni Shrine, which was mentioned in the film is now a hot issue in Japanese foreign policy. Because Yasukuni enshrines war dead, including Class-A Japanese war criminals, China and Korea have strongly criticized visits to the shrine by Japanese prime minister.

After all, among war films that show wars too violently, uglily, or beautifuly, I like "Letters from Iwo Jima," which depicted the battle from Japanese soldiers' view as real as it must have been.