Letters from Iwo Jima quotes

View Quote Endo: [about their prisoner] Sir, he's awake.
Takeichi Nishi: [in English] Where are you from, soldier?
Sam: [nervously] I-I'm a Marine. Able Company.
Takeichi Nishi: OK, Marine. I mean, where is your hometown? [pause] I lived in California, for a while. Do you know Mary Pickford and Douglass Fairbanks?
Sam: [puzzled] W-well, yeah, sure. Everybody knows them.
Takeichi Nishi: They are my friends. I've had them as house-guests, in Tokyo.
Sam: No kidding. You, you somebody famous?
Takechi Nishi: I was in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
Sam: That the God's honest truth?
Takeichi Nishi: [smiles, pulls out a photo] This is a picture of me, and my horse champion.
Sam: [views the picture and chuckles] No kidding! [pause] Oklahoma, it's where I'm from.
Takeichi Nishi: Takeichi.
Sam: Sam. [they shake hands]

View Quote General Tadamichi Kuribayashi: [Tadamichi turns up in time to stop Ito from beheading Saigo and Shimizu] I don't want you to kill my soldiers needlessly. Put down your sword. Put it down!
[Ito sheathes his katana and salutes]
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi: What's going on here?
Lieutenant Ito: These men ran from Suribachi.
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi: Lt. Ito, I gave the order that all survivors retreat to the north caves.
Lieutenant Ito: I am very sorry, General. It's just... Suribachi... has fallen.
[Tadamichi rushes to a cave opening and sees Mount Suribachi from a distance, with a U.S flag raised on the summit]

View Quote [In a flashback, Kuribayashi is attending a dinner party in the United States]
Officer's wife: How would you feel if America and Japan went to war?
Kuribayashi: I think we'd make splendid allies.
Officer: I think she means as enemies.
Kuribayashi: (a little surprised) The United States is the last country in the world Japan should fight.

View Quote [The Japanese have captured a wounded American Marine]
Lieutenant Okubo: Shall I finish him off?
Nishi: No. Treat him.
Lieutenant Okubo: But, sir -
Nishi: Okubo, you would expect the same, wouldn't you? Endo, treat him.
Medic Endo: We are low on morphine as it is.
Shimizu: Sir, the Americans would not treat a wounded Japanese soldier.
Nishi: Son, have you ever met one? Treat him. [Shimizu is lost for words]

View Quote [Two Japanese soldiers surrender to an American patrol and two US marines are left to watch over the two new POWs]
American marine A: Oh man. We're not gonna get stuck watching 'em all night, don't we? You're going to take them down to the beach?
American marine B: Are you kidding? They're sitting ducks, those two... I got a better idea.
[American marine B walks up to the two Japanese POWs, raises his M1 Garand rifle and shoots both of them dead]

View Quote [About Nishi's romancing skills] There are rumors about his womanizing...But there are no women left to woo.

View Quote [addressing his men before the battle] Men, the time has come to show your true colors. As a member of the Honorable Imperial Army, I trust that you will fight with honor. This island is of utmost importance to Japan. Should the island fall, the enemy will use it as their base to attack our homeland. For the mainland...For our homeland...Until the very last man..Our duty is to stop the enemy right here. Not one of you is allowed to die until you have killed ten enemy soldiers. Do not expect to return home alive. I will always be in front of you. [removing his hat and bowing] Long live the Emperor.

View Quote [after finding the dead bodies of Shimizu and another Japanese soldier who tried to surrender] (sadly) Let this be a lesson to anyone else who wants to surrender.

View Quote [Before the soldiers commit suicide by holding hand grenades against their chests] Men, we are honorable soldiers of the Emperor. Don't ever forget that. The only way left for us is to die with honor. This is our fate, to find our place at Yasukuni Shrine. I'll see you there. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai! [The men repeat 'banzai' each time he says it] Soldiers, farewell! [Shoots himself]

View Quote [Convincing Shimizu not to kill himself] We can die here, or we can continue fighting. Which would better serve the emperor?

View Quote [In response to a soldier saying death is honorable] Kashiwara died of honorable dysentery.

View Quote [Letter to his wife] We soldiers dig. We dig all day. This is the hole that we will fight and die in. Am I digging my own grave?

View Quote [moments before shooting himself] I'm sorry, Okubo.

View Quote [On Kuribayashi] He studied the Americans, so he knows how to beat them.

View Quote [reading letter] From headquarters. We regret that we are unable to send reinforcements to Iwo at this time. We earnestly hope you will fight honorably and die for your country.