Kuribayashi angrily responds that the longer the island can divert crucial American forces, the more time it will provide the homeland to gather its own defenses. When Kuribayashi tells Ohsugi he is transferring him back to the mainland for health reasons, the admiral bluntly tells him that the cave defense is futile. Despite the navy's success in forcing Kuribayashi to construct traditional gun casemates and pillboxes along the landing beaches, the officers remain deeply concerned with Kuribayashi's methods. Saigo also recalls the day he was called into service and his promise to his then unborn daughter to return home. When the men continue to receive meager rations, a hungry Saigo confides in Nozaki that he and Hanako ran a bakery until the military's relentless requisitioning finally drove them out of business. Shimizu, from the prestigious police military academy, is a spy placed among the regular soldiers to report unpatriotic talk. Later, Saigo and Nozaki suspect that replacement Pvt. Continually sickened by dysentery, Saigo's friend Kashiwara dies. Despite their weakened physical state from limited rations and the constant nuisance of heat and bugs, most of the garrison commences the difficult work of digging into the island.
#Letters from iwo jima movie with subtitles series
When Kuribayashi announces his intention to build a series of caves and tunnels from which to mount their defense, Ohsugi and the other officers consider the action defeatist and doomed to fail. Later over dinner, Nishi informs Kuribayashi that with the thorough defeat of the Japanese fleet at the Mariana Islands, it is evident that Iwo Jima will receive no naval or air support. Kuribayashi welcomes Nishi and his horse, and the men reminisce about their days in the cavalry.
Takeichi Nishi, an equestrian gold medal winner at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Saigo, who also writes continually to his wife Hanako and their baby, whom he has never seen, relates the arrival of nobleman baron Lt. Despite the infrequency of mail pick-up ships stopping at the island, Kuribayashi writes to his wife and children on a regular basis, describing a sanguine situation and decorating his letters with idyllic drawings. Over the next several weeks, Kuribayashi struggles to unify the army and naval forces on the island and continues to confound his officers with unusual defense plans, including moving heavy artillery from the beaches to emplacements dug into the rocky terrain of the dormant volcano Mount Suribachi at the southern tip of the island. Saigo appreciates Kuribayashi's thoughtful treatment of the soldiers, but his friend Nozaki wonders about their fate upon hearing the rumor that their new commander is pro-American and the military's second choice for the island posting. Kuribayashi, who years earlier served as a military envoy in the United States, recognizes that America's great industrial strength gives their forces an enormous advantage, but is nevertheless determined to mount an aggressive defense of the island.
Upon making a walking tour of the island, Kuribayashi calls an immediate halt to the digging of trenches along the beaches, a traditional defense measure, which distresses navy and army officers alike, including dysentery-plagued Admiral Ohsugi, dedicated Lt.
Fujita, arrive at their new post in Iwo Jima to prepare defenses for the island's crucial airplane landing strips. In June 1944, Imperial army commander Lt. Sixty years after the end of World War II, Japanese researchers arrive on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima to explore the caves and tunnels built by their soldiers to defend against American attack forces.