It would be near insanity to say Letters from Iwo Jima constitutes an everyday war movie. Clint Eastwood not only created a film that sympathizes with the Japanese, but also acknowledges the fact that both the Japanese and Americans were wrong. The Japanese assumed Americans were cowardly fools and the Americans had been taught the Japanese were mindless imperial machines. These stereotypes are quickly cast aside as viewers of this movie acquaint themselves with Saigo and his friends. However, although this movie effectively accomplishes its goals, it still contains many inaccuracies. These errors eventually culminate to the point that the movie may seem sensationalized or even overly dramatized at points. More importantly, the cultural, geographical, and propagandized inaccuracies make it difficult to believe what Letters from Iwo Jima is trying to say; the Japanese fought even more bravely than the Americans despite what public opinion was.
Some of the most glaring errors that Letters from Iwo Jima has stem from either cultural misinterpretations or fallacies. Although many Japanese committed suicide during World War II and the Battle of Iwo Jima, it would have been ludicrous for a commanding officer to behead a subordinate in feudal Japanese fashion. As Kuribayashi said, “I don’t want you to kill my soldiers needlessly” (Letters from Iwo Jima). Killing soldiers would only make it easier for the Americans to take Iwo Jima and move closer to taking the Japanese mainland. Perhaps even more ridiculous is the fact that Saigo and Hanako were wearing kimonos. According to MIT, Kimonos ceased to be commonplace before the turn of the century (“Kimono Hypertext: History”). Assuming that a common baker and his wife would hav...
... middle of paper ...
...3131-00/sec2.htm>.
Alexander, Joseph H. “Suribachi.” Marines in WWII Commemorative Series. National Park Service, n.d. Web. 10 March 2010. .
“Battle for Iwo Jima, The.” Defense.gov. Department of Defense, n.d. Web. 9 March 2010.
Kennedy, David M., et al. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. 12th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Print.
“Kimono Hypertext: History.” JP NET Kimono Hypertext. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. Web. 9 March 2010.
< http://web.mit.edu/jpnet/kimono/kimono-history.html>.
Letters from Iwo Jima. Dir. Clint Eastwood. Perf. Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Ryo Kase, and Tsuyoshi Ihara. Amblin Entertainment, 2006. Film.
Hogan, D. (2004). Centuries of Service. Retrieved September 11, 2009, from the Center of Military History website
In January 1965, Caputo, now an officer, is sent to Okinawa, Japan with men in the Third Marine Division. While waiting for the call to join the war, the young men start getting antsy and discouraged by the long delay of battle. Two months later, on March 7, 1965, Caputo’s company, along with many others, are assigned to a war location, D...
Kennedy, David, Cohen, Lizabeth and Bailey, Thomas. “The American Pageant Volume II: Since 1865.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
The Japanese commander in charge of Iwo Jima was General Kuribayashi. General Kuribayashi believed that America would attack Iwo Jima just the same as they had attacked every other target, with a massive aerial bombardment. Kuribayashi was ordered to build up Iwo Jima the same as every other Japanese base even though they had proven to be useless against the aerial bombing techniques that America used. Despite what other Japanese officers above General Kuribaya...
5. Margiotta, Franklin D., Ed. “Brassey’s Encyclopedia of Military History and Biography”, Washington: Brassey’s, Inc. 1994
The title of the movie is called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Crouching Tiger is represented by Lo, and hidden dragon is Jen. It is apparently that Jen is looking for an absolute freedom in both
However in other parts the movie got it wrong. Although it is impossible to make the movie completely accurate I believe this movie could have done better. As the veterans stated in their critiques of the movie, hundreds of men and women who were at Pearl Harbor and served in World War II did receive the praise they deserved. On top of that many of the things that were inaccurate in the movie were way off. For instance the scene when they were listening to the airplane radio transmissions from Hawaii. Overall, the movie does a fine job of showing the horrors of the Pearl Harbor. It is a great way to get a close representation of the events at Pearl Harbor and the events of World War II after
“She represents the type of womanhood America needs, strong, red-blooded, able to shoulder the responsibilities of homemaking and motherhood. It is in her type that the hope of the country rests” (Martin & Watson, 2004, p.3). This was Samuel Gompers sharing his thoughts about the very first “Miss America”, Margaret Gorman. The Miss America Pageant was established in the most fitting of all decades: the 1920s. During a time when women were just starting to experience newfound independence and rights, the Miss America Pageant strengthened the idea that women had more freedom to express themselves. The competition began as a simple tourist attraction, but the fact that the Miss America Pageant survived throughout the decades exemplifies that the competition was so much more.
Bailey Thomas A., Kennedy David M, The American Pageant: A History of the Republic 10th ed , Lexington, Massachusetts, D.C. Heath and Company,1994.
... beauty pageants." Globe & Mail [Toronto, Canada] 9 Mar. 2012: L4. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
In the early morning of 19 February 1945, United States Marines assigned to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Division led the initial assault on the Japanese controlled island of Iwo Jima, with the objective of capturing and securing the island. This was the beginning of one of the fiercest and bloodiest; and more decisively, the most strategically important battles fought during World War II. After the dust had settled, and the smoke had cleared, the causalities and losses were astounding. 6,821 U.S. Marines along with 18,844 members of the Imperial Japanese Army had paid the ultimate sacrifice. A decisive US victory on the island of Iwo Jima later played a pivotal role in the overarching defeat of the Japanese Empire and its Armed Forces (Morison, 1945).
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant, 14e. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. Print.
Banet-Weiser, Sarah. ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity.” Berkley: University of California Press: 1999.
Killing thousands and thousands of men, The attack went down in history as one of the most horrific events by man in history, and also the day America lost its innocence. These are a few of the many reasons why producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay decided to make a film about this terrible disaster. Though when deciding to make the film they wanted to insure that the film was historically balanced, encompassing not only the American. perspective, but the Japanese as well. To make sure they managed to fulfill this idea, they had many Japanese advisors on hand throughout. the whole duration of the film, giving their opinions on how to do it.
In every movie one major factor that contributes to it is the setting of the movie; in this case hence the name, takes place in Iwo Jima, Japan. Director Clint Eastwood, asked permission from the Japanese government to sorta renovate the island; to use it for the “set” of his movie. This adds a level of realism to the movie, using the actual island in which the war was waged on adds a nice touch of authenticity. Continuing on, the defenses that were depicted in the movie ranged from a wide array, from bunkers to artillery encampments deep in the mountain sides, and even underground machine gun nests. The reason these are important is that it shows the strategy and tactics used by the Japanes...