Letters From Iwo Jima - Plot

Plot

In 2005, Japanese archaeologists explore tunnels on Iwo Jima, where they find something in the dirt.

The film flashes back to Iwo Jima in 1944. Private First Class Saigo is grudgingly digging trenches on the beach. A teenaged baker, Saigo has been conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army despite his youth and his wife's pregnancy. Saigo complains to his friend Private Kashiwara that they should let the Americans have Iwo Jima. Overhearing them, an enraged Captain Tanida starts brutally beating them for, "conspiring with unpatriotic words." At the same time, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi arrives to take command of the garrison and immediately begins an inspection of the island defenses.

Kuribayashi orders Captain Tanida to stop beating them, and instructs him to deny lunch rations to Saigo and Kashiwara instead. After completing his inspection, Kuribayashi receives bad news from Lt. Col. Baron Takeichi Nishi, an Olympic gold medalist show jumper. The Japanese Combined Fleet, upon which the island had been depending for support, has been destroyed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Disgusted, Kuribayashi tells Nishi, "Imperial Headquarters is not only deceiving the people, but us as well."

The next day, Kuribayashi orders the garrison to begin tunneling defenses under Mount Suribachi. He explains that the United States military will take the beaches quickly, and that only subterranean defenses have a chance for holding out. Kuribayashi's subordinate officers are outraged and regard these strategies as a betrayal of bushido. With Nishi's support, however, the tunnels began to be dug.

Poor nutrition and unsanitary conditions take their toll, and many soldiers die of dysentery, including Kashiwara. Kashiwara's replacement, Superior Private Shimizu, arrives for duty. Saigo is certain that Shimizu has been sent by the notorious military police, or Kempeitai, "to report on treasonous thoughts."

In February 1945, the first American air raids occur, causing significant casualties. A few days later, U.S. Marines land. Kuribayashi waits until the landing beach is filled with Marines and orders his men to open fire. The Marines suffer heavy casualties, but, as Kuribayashi predicted, the beach defenses are quickly overcome. The attack then turns to the tunnels below Mount Suribachi. While delivering a request to Colonel Adachi, Saigo overhears the Colonel pleading with Kuribayashi for permission to lead his men in a banzai charge. Kuribayashi refuses to permit this, however, and instead orders the Suribachi garrison to retreat to the north caves. Adachi, however, regards this as cowardice.

Ignoring the General's orders, Adachi orders his officers and men to commit suicide. Although Saigo explains Kuribayashi's orders to the contrary, Captain Tanida cuts him off, screaming, "Escape is the coward's way!" At Tanida's order, the soldiers of his unit detonate hand grenades against their stomachs. Captain Tanida too commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. Saigo, however, convinces Shimizu that they would better serve the Emperor by continuing to fight. Leaving the corpses of their comrades, they find two other soldiers, but one gets incinerated by a Marine with a flamethrower. They also witness a captured Marine being beaten and bayoneted to death as revenge for the burnings.

Saigo and the survivors of Mount Suribachi try to flee with Lieutenant Colonel Oiso at night, but they run into Marines, who wipe out all except Saigo and Shimizu. They report to Lieutenant Ito, a Navy officer and hardline believer in bushido, announcing that they have arrived from Suribachi. Ito screams, "You survived Suribachi? How dare you!" He raises his katana to summarily execute them, but Kuribayashi arrives and reprimands Ito for attempting to needlessly kill two soldiers. To Ito's horror, Kuribayashi confirms that he has given the order to retreat to the north caves. "Fight for your fallen brethren," he tells Ito, "until the end."

Calling Kuribayashi, "a weak American sympathizer," Ito plans a mass banzai charge against U.S. positions. When the Lieutenant demands his obedience, Col. Nishi, accuses Ito of needlessly jeopardizing the lives of his men. Nishi orders Ito to either obey Kuribayashi or hand over his command. Instead, Ito leads his men toward the American lines. Then however, he orders them to join Nishi. Ito then straps three land mines to himself and walks toward the battle zone, intending to throw himself under a tank.

The next morning, Okubo, Nishi's executive officer, shoots a Marine named Sam, who is subsequently captured. To the surprise of his men, Nishi orders them to use their scarce morphine to treat Sam's wounds. After Sam's death, Nishi finds a letter from the Marine's mother and reads it aloud in Japanese. The soldiers are moved by the letter, Shimizu no longer thinks of the Americans as savages.

Then, a shell hits the cave entrance and Nishi is blinded. He orders his men to regroup with Kuribayashi. As they depart, Nishi orders Lieutenant Okubo to leave him a rifle. Left alone, Nishi removes the bandage from his eyes and fingers and removes his boots to pull the trigger. Moments later, Okubo and the soldiers hear a gunshot as Nishi kills himself.

Saigo announces that he is going to surrender and dares Shimizu to denounce him. To his surprise, Shimizu reveals that he was dishonorably discharged from the Kempeitai after five days of service. He had refused to kill a family's dog for his commander, who was simply annoyed by its barking. Deeply moved, Saigo tells Shimizu, "at least now only the enemy hates you." Shimizu and Saigo plan to flee. Saigo suggests Shimizu pretend to have urgent need and leave first, then Saigo can follow. When Shimizu leaves, one soldier asks to go to surrender together, but are found out by Lieutenant Okubo who then shoots them. Fortunately, Shimizu survives and is able to surrender to a Marine patrol and finds himself with another Japanese POW. The American patrol moves on, leaving them guarded by two Marines. As Shimizu and his fellow POW discuss their plans for after the war, the two Marines grumble about having to guard them. Finally, one of the Marines summarily executes Shimizu and the other POW. The two bodies are found by Lieutenant Okubo, who cites them as a lesson against surrender. Weeping, Saigo wraps Shimizu's senninbari over his corpse.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Ito, desperate and malnourished, breaks down and returns to the caves. When found by a Marine patrol, he surrenders without incident.

Later, Saigo and the rest of Okubo's patrol are forced to pass through a firefight while retreating to the north of the island. Several men, including Okubo, are killed in the process. They rendezvous with General Kuribayashi, who is impressed to learn that Saigo has come all the way from Mount Suribachi. Kuribayashi is amazed to learn that he has twice saved the Private's life, and then comments that things always come in threes. After gathering the rest of his men, the General orders Saigo to stay behind and burn all documents and letters during the final attack rather than join the fighting, thus saving his life a third time. Saigo, however, cannot bring himself to burn his comrades' letters to their families and buries them instead.

Attired as a common infantryman, Kuribayashi launches a final charge at the head of his surviving soldiers. The Marines and the Japanese engage in a fierce hand-to-hand battle to the death. Kuribayashi, however, is mortally wounded when shrapnel is lodged in his legs. Fujita, the general's loyal adjutant, drags him away from the battle as American reinforcements have come to finish off the rest of the Japanese forces.

By the next morning, the Japanese forces have been overrun, and the Americans have taken the rest of the island. Beginning to succumb to his wounds, Kuribayashi orders Fujita to behead him. As a weeping Fujita raises his katana, he is shot dead by a Marine sniper.

Private Saigo arrives and the dying General orders his last soldier to bury him where the enemy will never find his body. Then, Kuribayashi draws his M1911 pistol— a gift from an American officer friend before the war. He asks Saigo, "Is this still Japanese soil?" Saigo responds, "Yes, this is still Japan." The General fatally shoots himself and a weeping Saigo drags Kuribayashi's body away for burial.

Meanwhile, a Marine patrol find Fujita's body and a katana. The leader of the patrol, a Marine Lieutenant finds Kuribayashi's pistol and tucks it in his belt as a trophy. They search the area and find Saigo with his shovel. Seeing Kuribayashi's pistol in possession of the enemy, an enraged Saigo begins swinging his shovel at the Marines but is too weak to fight. However, the Lieutenant orders his men not to shoot him. Instead, he knocks Saigo out with a rifle butt and has him sent by stretcher to the POW camp. Awakening, Saigo glimpses the sun setting over the black sands of the beach and smiles grimly.

The film ends with the Japanese archaeologists finding the letters that Saigo had buried.