The Flags Of Our Fathers Historical Accuracy

The film, The Flags of our Fathers, recreates the American perspective in the Battle of Iwo Jima. The storyline was focused on the three of the six men who raised the flag in the famous and iconic photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. To discover more about the events and if Clint Eastwood portrayed the battle in a historically accurate manner, I decided to base my research on this topic. I came to the decision to make my hypothesis, “Clint Eastwood accurately presented the experiences of the Battle of Iwo Jima.” I formed and developed questions regarding the accuracy of the film in regards to the American and Japanese perspectives of the films the director, Clint Eastwood presented. My primary questions are, “Does the film accurately represent the

Marine Corps says Eastwood's film is “historically true to events”, including “its depiction of the war-bond drive, the spectacular scenes of ships coming to Iwo Jima, and the congestion on the beach during the invasion. He said, “the film accurately represents the dangers faced by Navy medics and acknowledges that the U.S. flag was raised and photographed several times and that the image that persists today is that of the second flag-raising.” Although two flags were raised, the second flag was raised in order for it to be seen clearer, while in the film, it was replaced because the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal requested the flag for himself as a souvenir. This source can confirm the accuracy of Eastwood's Flags of Our Father. It is also quite reliable as it has supporting statements, evidence, and opinion from a historian with extensive knowledge of

In the film, General Kuribayashi was shown to be a humble and strong leader as he was in real life. General Kuribayashi was believed to have died due to suicide, his body was never identified, as presented in the Japanese film. He wrote a lot of letters to his son and wife in particular, but in the film, it focused on him writing letters to his son while Saigo also wrote letters back home. This provides us with a glimpse of the fate and experiences the Japanese soldiers endured, knowing they will die on the island without seeing their loved ones. Many Japanese troops even performed ritual suicide and this was also sadly shown in Letters from Iwo Jima. Furthermore, this film also correctly demonstrated how the beach landing really happened in real life, in which they waited quietly in the underground tunnels and seized their fire until most marines landed on the beach. A blog written by an individual believed that overall the film was historically accurate and he concluded with the statement “Based on the analysis, I must say that the movie was quite successful in portraying the realities of the Battle of Iwo Jima (through the perspectives of the Japanese).” Blogs may be highly biased and opinionated, but the author comprehensively identifies the accuracies,