A quote from Clint Eastwood reads in part -
"These 2 films are not about who won or who lost. It is about what war does to people, people who would’ve gone on to live their full lives otherwise. From whichever perspective, soldiers who sacrifice their lives in battle are worthy of respect. These 2 films are my way of paying tribute to those fallen soldiers. By telling the stories of these men from both perspectives, it is my hope that the films will illustrate the things in common that both sides shared, and allow us to look at that difficult time in our history with entirely new eyes."
He is also quoted as saying he does “not want to make another bullshit John Wayne film”.
Flags of Our Fathers is based on the book Flags of Our Fathers
by James Bradley and Ron Power, about the battle of Iwo Jima and the lives of some of the men after the battle.
The battle for Iwo Jima took place in February and March of 1945.
20,915 Japanese soldiers, and 6.821 U.S. soldiers gave their lives, as well as another 19,000 wounded, during those two months on Iwo Jima. The battle was fought in preparation for an invasion of the Japanese mainland. As horrific and mind boggling as this sounds - it pales, if that is possible, in comparison to the battle for Okinawa - a battle which tends to be lost to history.
The last battle of the Pacific Theatre took place on Okinawa beginning on April 1st of 1945 . There is an important difference between these two battles - Okinawa had a large indigenous population; Iwo Jima did not.
Over 150,000 civilians were killed in the battle for Okinawa. In addition to the civilian deaths, the military deaths were incomprehensible - about 100,000 Japanese and 12,500 United States airman, soldiers and sailors were killed in the 3 month battle for Okinawa.
These quotes from the Wikipedia article on the Battle for Okinawa provide some sort of glimpse into the horror of that war -
- "7,613 were killed and missing in action, and the remaining sixty-four-odd thousand were almost equally divided between those wounded seriously enough to be out of action more than a week and non-battle casualties, chiefly victims of battle fatigue." (Feifer)
- "Ninety percent of the buildings on the island were completely destroyed, and the lush tropical landscape was turned into a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots."
- "By the end of May monsoon rains which turned contested slopes and roads into a morass exacerbated both the tactical and medical situations. The ground advance began to resemble a World War I battlefield as troops became mired in mud and flooded roads greatly inhibited evacuation of wounded to the rear. Troops lived on a field sodden by rain, part garbage dump and part graveyard. Unburied Japanese bodies decayed, sank in the mud, and became part of a noxious stew. Anyone sliding down the greasy slopes could easily find their pockets full of maggots at the end of the journey."
- "While on Okinawa, the marines and soldiers were going through their crucible of hell brought on by rain, heat, poison snakes, mosquitoes...the stench of human feces and rotting human flesh filled with maggots...."
I can't begin to imagine...
Over ten inches of rain fell on Okinawa in last days of May 1945, the Japanese Army was dug into fortified caves and bunkers; mainly on the South end of the island. The U.S. used napalm and gasoline to extricate or...
It's more than I can talk about. I just don't know, can't know.
One thing I do know is that the men and women who served, and serve, their countries are true heroes. Our world would be a very different place if not for them.
My father was a rifleman in the U.S. Army 7th Infantry on Okinawa, wounded on June 21st, 1945. He received the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. If he was alive I'm not sure if we'd talk about that time in his life or not. I don't think he ever thought of himself as a hero and was more interested in getting back to a farm in Montana and raising a family than reliving the war. I'm very proud of the fact that both he, and my grandfather in WWI, served their country.
The battle for Okinawa and tremendous loss of life was one of the reasons President Harry Truman elected to drop the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki in August 9th of 1945 in an attempt to put an end to the war without invading the Japanese mainland, with the forseen loss of military and civilian life.
Victory in Europe (V-E day) was declared on May 8th, and Victory in Japan (V-J day) on August 15th of 1945.
