I just watched this film today. It’s one of the two WW2 movies that Clint Eastwood made recently. FYI, it’s the story of the battle for Iwo Jima told from the Japanese soldiers’ p.o.v. The title refers to the letters they want to send to their family or the letters they have received from them.
Some comments and questions:
*The most horrific scene for me was the one of the Japanese soldiers killing themselves with grenades inside the caves/tunnels.
*The most touching scene was the one of the young baker speaking to his unborn child before he leaves home.
*Were the soldiers bowing to a shrine of some sort in the caves? Another one of them prayed to God at one point. What religion did they follow?
Why did the Americans send so many boats and airplanes to strike at this island?
I’m no military strategist, but it just didn’t seem that they would need so much firepower expended on this single area. I’m probably wrong.
I read Flags of our Fathers a little bit ago, which is told from the perspective of the American flag raisers, and I recall it going into a lot of detail about the military strategy and why they needed so much firepower. Of course I don’t remember exactly why right now. But it’s a decent read, so you might want to check it out. I keep meaning to watch Letters from Iwo Jima, too.
Short answer: They needed that much to take the island. (That battle raged from February to mid March even with the largescale assault)
The island was a defended airbase that could be used to attack the fleets, and defend Japan from Bombers. It also made for a good Airbase which the US would operate out of, and in the case of an invasion of Japan proper (Which was planned and prepared for but never carried out because of the A bombs) you just couldn’t leave any operating islands behind your lines.
You have to understand the island was garrisoned by 21 000 Japanese soldiers. The Pacific war up to that point was already a horrific slog. Both sides were visciously fighting from island to island. The Japanese martial code forbade any surrender making the fighting that much worse.
The island had an airfield and was expected to be fortified on the beach with trenches, dug outs and pill boxes, as had been the case in previous battles (It was alluded to in the movie when the Admiral was arguling about digging into the caves).
The American Strategy was to have heavy sustained bombing followed by Naval barmbadment (once the fleet arrived) to soften these defences and make a beach head more easily winnable. The Amercans could not operate unless they held the beaches where they could resupply, mount offensive operations and send out casulaties.
I believe the shrine the soldiers were bowing to was a small Shinto shrine. Shinto is the national religion of Japan and it’s not something that you can really convert to. It’s a Japanese thing.