Posted on 06/22/2007 5:13:17 AM PDT by gobucks
Clint Eastwood's pair of films about the famous battle on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima have spurred former residents to campaign for the island's name to be officially changed. The site of the battle was a barren volcanic outpost that was home to only around 1,000 people before the war. Before 1944 it was always known as Iwo To.
It only became known as Iwo Jima because Japanese officers who arrived to fortify the island after its residents were evacuated got the name wrong.
That's perhaps not quite so surprising when you consider that Iwo To and Iwo Jima look the same when written down in Japanese and both mean Sulphur Island - although they do sound different. Earlier this week, the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute announced that from now on the island will be known as Iwo To, following a campaign by former occupants of the island, who are now scattered around Japan and beyond. The civilians were never allowed to return to the island by its US occupants and later Japanese military forces. At present, only 400 Japanese soldiers live there.
"These people are now scattered nationwide and are not able to go back to Iwo To," said the survey institute's Mitsugu Aizawa. "These people said that the place was originally called Iwo To and their claim led to this revision."
It is understood the campaign was sparked by Eastwood's films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, both of which referred to the island by its better-known name.
(Excerpt) Read more at film.guardian.co.uk ...
ping fyi...
Likely not. The alternative would be to put the original civilians (and/or their descendants) back, though. How long do you think it'd be before they were suing us for war reparations?
> How long do you think it’d be before they were suing us for war reparations?
(sigh) too right. Looking at the world as it is today, you’d think the Axis had won!
That's like the guy who officially changed his name from Al Capone to Ed Capone.
Leni
Why not? It's their island.
We won the war, then had to buy all their cars.
It will always be Iwo Jima to me.
Kam Fong as Chin Ho.
They could call it G-D Wally World and we would still know what it is.
Wo Fat is somewhere on this island!
> We won the war, then had to buy all their cars.
We lost the battle, won the war, and lost the peace...
That sucks.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It’s like changing a name between Rodham, Rodham-Clinton and Clinton.
Really?
I had no idea anyone was forced to purchase a more-efficient-than-GM car...
I don’t see a reason to label this as historical revisionism (like FoxNews did... they can make the slightest thing seem like the end of the world...).
Somehow, 400 Japanese soldiers living on Iwo To, I mean Iwo Jima, doesn’t ‘feel’ right to me.
I hear ya, this island should have been made into a memorial park/cemetary in memory of the lives that were lost there on both sides
I can see it now....
“where is my house...it was right over there. Those damn Americans!”
Humor. Always remember, a little humor.
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