FAQ for
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Letters from Iwo Jima can be found here.

Letters from Iwo Jima is based on a screenplay by Japanese-American screenwriter Iris Yamashita. She based her screenplay on two nonfiction books: (1) 'Gyokusai Soshireikan' no Etegami [English: Picture letters from the Commander in Chief] (2002) by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (who is played by Ken Watanabe), and (2) So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War (2005) by Kumiko Kakehashi.

Iwo Jima (now Iwo To) is a volcano Island in the northwest Pacific Ocean south of Japan and east of Taiwan.

It was filmed mostly in Barstow and Bakersfield in California. A skeleton crew was allowed only one day to make on-location shots on Iwo Jima, and that was only after being given special permission from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, because more than 10,000 missing Japanese soldiers still rest under the soil.

Letters from Iwo Jima portrays the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers (2006), which depicts the same battle from the American viewpoint. Both films are directed by Clint Eastwood.