Flags of Our Fathers (and a few others)

I just finished reading the book after having watched the movie on a recent flight.

I found a few details from the book interesting.

There is a recurring scene where Doc Bradley is looking for his buddy Iggy. The movie doesn't tell us what happened to Iggy. The book actually tells us in more detail what happened to Iggy.
p. 238 "On March 8, the Marines of Easy Company found Iggy. He had been grabbed, probably from behind, and pulled into a cave full of Japanese soldiers. As the company medic, it was my father's job to deal with what remained of Iggy's body after three days of brutal torture."
p. 344 "A few days later someone yelled that they'd found him. They called me over because I was a corpsman. The Japanese had pulled him underground and tortured him. His fingernails...his tongue...It was terrible. I've tried so hard to forget all this."
"Langley told me it looked to him as though Ralph Ignatowski had endured just about every variety of physical cruelty imaginable. "Both of his arms were fractured," Langley said. "They just hung there like arms on a broken doll. He had been bayoneted repeatedly. The back of his head had been smashed in." Those were the relatively benign wounds.
My father remembered the worst thing.
p. 346 "They tortured my buddy. The Japanese stuffed his pen!s in his mouth."

Iggy was not an isolated incident.

p. 65 Nanking - up to 350,000 Chinese civilians died - more civilians dying in one city in one month than died in entire countries during the entire war.
In six years of combat France lost 108,000 civilians; Belgians 101,000; the Netherlands 242,000. The Japanese in Nanking killed even more than the atomic bombs later would. (Hiroshima had 140,000 dead, Nagasaki 70,000). The Japanese "loot all, kill all, burn all" scorched-earth policy in North China would eventually reduce the population from forty four million to twenty-five million.
The US Army had encountered the Japanese army's ways in the Philippines and Burma. Stories of buddies found trussed like pigs, disemboweled with their severed genitals in their mouths circulated, as did horrifying accounts of boys staked in the hot sun, forced to endure the voracious bugs who savored the honey rubbed into the prisoner's eyes and mouth."

The Germans were different.
p. 65 "Gentlemen's agreements suspended hostilities for the day at five o'clock each afternoon, and each side held its fire for medics to care for the wounded."

"Letters from Iwo Jima" - Japanese army gets a balanced portrayal.
As referenced in the book, Japanese soldiers are instructed specifically to target corpsmen since American soldiers will try to save the corpsmen. This is never actually shown in the movie.
There is one scene where Japanese soldiers bayonetts one American soldier several times, presumably to death. On the other hand, Baron Nishi, an Olympic Gold Medalist, treats one wounded American soldier humanely. Despite protests from others, he orders the medic to administer morphine to the dying American prisoner. He also talks to the prisoner about his American movie star friends.
We also see an American act of brutality - American soldiers kill two Japanese prisoners despite receiving an order to guard them.
On the whole, the viewers are left with the impression that there are equal amounts of brutality on both sides. Here is a quote from one reviewer - "the film's true intent comes across the second time a Yank is nabbed by the doomed members of the Imperial Army, when the injured grunt movingly establishes an unlikely bond with his aristocratic Japanese interrogator. There were compelling reasons why the war was fought, but the unusual focus of "Letters" is the humanity of the Japanese soldiers who longed for home just like anyone else, knowing they would never leave the tiny strip of land alive." (Variety)

"Letters from Iwo Jima" vs "Flags of Our Fathers"
"Letters" is a better movie (for those of us who can get over the subtitles). "Flags" gets bogged down with Ira's alcoholism.

"Sands of Iwo Jima" starring John Wayne - I watched it to see the three actual flagraisers do it again at the end of this movie.

"Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970)
An old movie which also shows both American and Japanese sides. This movie sidesteps the issues altogether. It was the crazy Japanese Army (not portrayed in the movie) who wanted the war with USA. The Japanese Navy (portrayed in the movie) accepts the war as a given and carries out the tactically brilliant attack on Pearl Harbor. If the Japanese embassy staff in DC had better typing skills, Americans would have been notified before the attacks started.

Miscellaneous:
Ira Hayes inspired a book and 2 movies. One starring Tony Curtis, the other Lee Marvin - and a song by Johnny Cash would all later mythologize Ira's death.

Book link - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553384155/soohwankim