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A Bataan Death March Survivor's Review of Clint Eastwood's film, "Letters from Iwo Jima"
The National Bureau of Asian Research's Japan (e-mail discussion) Forumn ^ | 2-15-07 | Lester Tenney, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Arizona State University

Posted on 02/15/2007 4:07:26 PM PST by CDB

For those Forum Members who have expressed an opinion on the movie Letters from Iwo Jima, please allow me to share how I re-acted to this film. For lack of a better way to begin, let me say, What “Nice Guys” the Japanese Soldiers Were.

It was obvious to me that the Japanese soldiers who fought the Americans on Iwo Jima were not the same soldiers who fought the Americans on Bataan, or were they?

As a survivor of the Bataan Death March, I can tell you for certainty, the Japanese depicted in “Letters From Iwo Jima” were in no way similar to the soldiers I encountered on the Bataan Death March. So what does that prove? Well, unless you truly believe that the Japanese soldiers fighting in the Philippines earlier in the war, were different than the soldiers on Iwo Jima, then you must come to the conclusion that the director, Clint Eastwood, was overcome by Japanese propaganda. Eastwood tried to “humanize” the Japanese soldier, and wanted to have the audience see the Japanese as nice guys fighting a war they didn’t want to fight, in a place they didn’t want to be.

The film "Letters From Iwo Jima," has been nominated for an Academy Award, which it may richly deserve for the quality of its acting, but the fact remains that as a historical movie, it’s a failure, it instead tries to show the enemy as the nice guys in the war and “so much like we Americans.”

Critics have praised the film because it "humanized" the enemy, but was it their humanity that caused the Japanese soldiers on Bataan to shoot and behead those men who were unable to keep up with the rest of the men on the Bataan March. The same Japanese soldiers, who fought on Iwo Jima and were depicted as being nice guys, were notoriously cruel and savage to prisoners of war. On the Bataan Death March, if you didn’t walk fast enough or didn’t bow low enough you were singled out and tortured, beaten and killed, all at the whim of the Japanese soldier, a private, a corporal, a sergeant or an officer.

Out of 12,000 American soldiers and more than 36,000 Filipino soldiers on the march, less than half of them returned home. In addition to the thousands that died on the March, thousands more died due to brutal barbaric treatment while in POW camps, unarmed and without any means of defense, were tortured and put to death.

This is the film where Clint Eastwood wants to portray the Japanese soldier as being, “just like the rest of us”: Sensitive, caring and concerned for our fellow man. Don’t you believe it!

Japanese soldiers, who were medical officers, carried out biological experiments on prisoners of war. The opening scene in "The Great Raid" movie showing Japanese soldiers burning American POWs alive is not fiction. It is reality.

The record of the atrocities inflicted by the Japanese soldiers on the American and Filipino civilians is numbered in the thousands. In Manila alone, as the war was winding down and the Japanese knew the end was near, they slaughtered more than 100,000 men, women and children.

The brilliant book "The Rape of Nanking" written by the late Iris Chang, chronicles the appalling savagery of the Japanese army during the 1930s. Ms. Chang uncovered the history of more than 360,000 Chinese men, women and children who were massacred by Japanese soldiers; some were, no doubt, the same “nice guys” on Iwo Jima.

It was the Japanese who attacked the United States: It was the Japanese soldier who savagely killed thousands of unarmed POWs, It was the Japanese soldier who placed POWs into bomb shelters and set them on fire so that no one could escape: and it was the Japanese soldiers who refused the offer of surrender when made, while knowing that to continue fighting meant death to hundreds of thousands of their own people,

There were one or two nice guys, but that’s about all. Yet the main thrust of the film was “The Japanese soldier is similar to the American soldier.” I personally knew of no “nice guy” within the enemy soldiers, and I offer this information as fact, not fiction. But the director, Clint Eastwood, along with the Japanese would want you to believe it was “fact”.

The above is my reaction to the film, sorry if I hurt some Forum members feelings.

Lester Tenney, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Arizona State University Former POW and survivor of the Bataan Death March


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: bataandeathmarch; clinteastwood; eastwood; iwojima; realityvhollywood
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To: Enterprise

My father who fought in France after D-Day spoke with
disgust of GI`s shooting Germans wanting to surrender.

War is hell.

The Japanese were systematic at being barbaric killers


41 posted on 02/15/2007 4:37:40 PM PST by 31M20RedDevil
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To: unkus

I have had the privilege of talking to the youngest survivor of the Bataan Death March who frequently speaks at Beale AFB. I can assure you that the brutality the Japanese soldiers inflicted on our soldiers was horrific. No movie showing the humane side of the Japanese soldier can whitewash that.


42 posted on 02/15/2007 4:41:50 PM PST by ExTexasRedhead
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To: Freee-dame
>"I think it is safe to say that Mr. Eastwood will not be getting any of our money."

Tell that to Time Warner Cable, or Dish Network!
Cerially! If more people shut off their piggybank, they will fade away!




ABC CBS NBC CNN its all the SAME, Propaganda.
Might as well call them all AmeriJazerra.
Show them how much Psychological Gravitas Hugh Bris has. Vote with your remote! Shut down the Alphabet channels. *"aka the ENEMEDIA

43 posted on 02/15/2007 4:43:53 PM PST by rawcatslyentist (This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being)
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To: MPJackal
"Marines are phonies and the Japs were saints."

There is a book out written by an American. The book's name, if I remember correctly, is American Samurai. Its about our Japanese American Soldiers who were interpreters in WW II. It makes for a good read. If you liked the movie "Gung Ho" with Randolf Scott (Circa 1942) don't bother to read the book. The author didn't paint a good picture of that raid.
44 posted on 02/15/2007 4:48:20 PM PST by Bringbackthedraft (I want my next President to have Balls! (Figuratively or literally depending on who is running))
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To: California Patriot
I suspect you're right -- few liberals (some, but few) would have complained about use of the A-bomb on Germany. Most are real hypocrites.

Liberals refuse to condemn the WWII-era atrocities of fascist, Nazi Germany-allied Japan . . . but they scold them for killing whales! How dare western cultures judge them for this quaint custom???

45 posted on 02/15/2007 4:48:28 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator ("Kol 'asher-dibber HaShem na`seh venishma`!")
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To: California Patriot

Yeah, I do. It's apparently the first time the Germans have done a movie about Hitler, and it's largely based on the recollections of Traudl Junge, one of his secretaries. (There's also a documentary about her called "Blind Spot" that's pretty good, too--two hours of a single medium close up of her in her apartment just telling the story ). The whole Last Days of Hitler in the Bunker has been filmed a couple of times before, but this is by far the best. There's this sense of the end of the world in it--the true believers, the cynics, the people trying to figure out how to escape, the people getting drunk. It's like a bad fever dream. And the scene of Magda Goebbels poisoning her children is just harrowing to watch.


46 posted on 02/15/2007 4:50:13 PM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: CDB

I read recently, either on Drudge or World Net Daily, that Mr Eastwood, through his movies, wanted to show the "futility of war." Yeah, I guess it was futile to fight against Hitler. We should have all just gone along. That way, Mr. Eastwood could be making movies about the Super Race.
I love it when libs say war is futile! What tripe! Is crime fighting also futile?? Is it futile for the police to hunt down and arrest thieves and murders? Is it futile for police to hunt down rapists?? Should women be told to just go along with rapists, because it's just so futile to fight against them, that nothing good ever comes from hunting them down and arresting them! Was Hitler, or any dictator for that matter, really any different from your average street thug?? The only real difference between a Hitler or a Saddam Hussein is that they were able to obtain a better vantage point, and have more weapons and minions at their disposal.
If war is so futile,, why would so many movie stars have such high security!! I am sure Mr Eastwood has a nice high wall around his villa! Why wouldn't he just have the attitude that it is futile to protect one self against crazed fans, futile to protect against robbers and thieves??
Oops,, I am ranting again!


47 posted on 02/15/2007 4:57:06 PM PST by freemike
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To: California Patriot
"Downfall" played on Cable TV a couple of times. Its one of many films portraying the last ten days of Hitler. This one was based on one of his secretaries version as to what occured in the bunker. Overall, it beats out all the previous ones made on the subject. You actually feel you are there when it all happened. It was very well made and it was the first one I've seen that was actually made in Germany.
48 posted on 02/15/2007 4:57:35 PM PST by Bringbackthedraft (I want my next President to have Balls! (Figuratively or literally depending on who is running))
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To: California Patriot
I've never heard of "Downfall." Do you recommend it?

Yes, get it. It's very good.

49 posted on 02/15/2007 5:03:50 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("When the government is invasive, the people are wanting." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: CDB

I knew a man who had a box full of photos from the Bataan Death March. I accidently found them in a shoe box while looking for something else for him in his study. The photos were taken by the Japanese and were horrid. He would not explain how he got them and refused to talk about them or the war. The gentleman has been dead for many years now. Whenever I hear about the death march I think of him and wonder....


50 posted on 02/15/2007 5:09:52 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Have you seen Rick Perry's brain? Neither has he!)
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To: CDB

That is why "letters from Iwo Jima" is not listed in my queue at Blockbuster and Netflix.


51 posted on 02/15/2007 5:17:50 PM PST by lowbridge ("The mainstream media IS the Democrat Party". - Rush Limbaugh)
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To: CDB

My uncle, a Marine, was killed at Iwo Jima and is buried there. My father felt that it would be too traumatic for their mother to bring his brother's body home (as their father had recently passed away as well). All I have of my uncle is my father's childhood reminiscences, and I gave my son his name as a middle name to honor him.
I won't be seeing that film.


52 posted on 02/15/2007 5:22:23 PM PST by visualops (artlife.us)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep

Interesting, thanks.


53 posted on 02/15/2007 5:28:05 PM PST by California Patriot ("That's not Charlie the Tuna out there. It's Jaws." -- Richard Nixon)
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To: Bringbackthedraft
"If you liked the movie "Gung Ho" with Randolf Scott"

I thought Michael Keaton starred in that ;-)
I guess we were fighting them in both.
54 posted on 02/15/2007 5:43:57 PM PST by MPJackal ("If you are not with us, you are against us.")
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To: MPJackal
For all those that saw and liked Eastwood's film, may I suggest that you rent "Bridge on the River Kwai" 1957. It was made by people who were there and who were of that generation. There is no "mellowing with time" in that account of the Japanese during WWII. How I wish our leaders and allies would sit down and watch it.

Just as an aside, Clint is off his rocker. I think that his lefty wife influences his work, much the same way that Sandra Locke did during the 70's. He did better work with the baboon, IMHO.
55 posted on 02/15/2007 6:34:49 PM PST by ishabibble (ALL-AMERICAN INFIDEL)
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To: CDB
...and wanted to have the audience see the Japanese as nice guys fighting a war they didn’t want to fight, in a place they didn’t want to be.

"I was only following orders" should not be considered an acceptable WWII excuse for torture and humiliation these days.

56 posted on 02/15/2007 6:56:07 PM PST by weegee (No third term. Hillary Clinton's 2008 election run presents a Constitutional Crisis.)
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To: CDB

Eastwood has directing down to a fine art. However, he's Leftus Celebritous thus, stupid.


57 posted on 02/15/2007 7:23:23 PM PST by onedoug
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To: visualops
My uncle, a Marine, was killed at Iwo Jima and is buried there. My father felt that it would be too traumatic for their mother to bring his brother's body home (as their father had recently passed away as well). All I have of my uncle is my father's childhood reminiscences, and I gave my son his name as a middle name to honor him.

My condolences to your uncle and his family, and to your dad and you, of course. Quite a moving post. May your uncle rest in peace on that h*llish island.

58 posted on 02/15/2007 7:23:26 PM PST by CDB (The Democrats "support the troops," in much the same way that Hanoi/Jihad Jane does)
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To: visualops

You may appreciate Vision Forum's documentary on Iwo Jima called The League of Grateful Sons.


59 posted on 02/15/2007 7:55:45 PM PST by Vor Lady (Welcome to grandchild #5: Lenora Lucille, 8lbs 11oz. Happy Birthday!)
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To: unkus
Iwo Jima was the last outlying bastion the Japanese had before the "Home Islands" and it was very important that they hold it.

Not actually true. Iwo had little to no strategic importance. You may be thinking of Okinawa, which was of enormous strategic value.

The American military originally wanted Iwo simply as a potential emergency landing field for American bombers. Highly unlikely that it was worth the price paid. Better to bypass it and let the Japs starve.

60 posted on 02/15/2007 8:11:22 PM PST by Sherman Logan (Recognition of one's ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.)
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