The last time this column mentioned "Iwo Jima," it was connected to an important date in Japanese American history - Feb. 19, 1942, when President Roosevelt signed E.O. 9066. that led to the Evacuation of some 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast to inland concentration camps.
On the same date in 1945, the Marines landed on Iwo Jima, some 650 mile south of Tokyo, that was the costliest Marines Corps campaign in the Pacific. What was expected to be a 14-day offensive for the force of 70,000 Americans against Japan took 36 days and ended with 5,961 killed and 17,372 wounded.
The entire Japanese garrison of 22,000 army and navy troops died in battle except for prisoners of war. The Daily Variety review of Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" says only 216 survived.
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At the All Veterans Reunion for Americans of Japanese Heritage last month, my tablemate was Beans Sogioka of Chino Hills, a WWII medic at Fort Lewis General Hospital who worked in the PW ward caring for German, Italian and Japanese prisoners of war. He brought along one of those vest-pocket Army How to Speak booklets, this one Italian, but made priceless with signatures in kanji of the Japanese PW patients from Iwo Jima.
Added was a hand-written glossary of English-Japanese terms in alphabetical order, starting with "atomic - genshi." Beans explained the dozen or so words really helped while chatting with the Japanese. His memorabilia was shown to others around the table: Harry Fukuhara (MIS) from San Jose, Mike Yaguchi (Iraq-Gulf-Afghanistan), Grant Hirabayashi (Merrills Marauders), both from the Washington, D.C. area, and Jimmy Kanaya (442) from Seattle.
And the final scene in the Eastwood film where the wounded Japanese PW, Saigo, lying on a stretcher with other Americans at the beach and Bean's brown booklet made my day at this luncheon.
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This past week, Hy Shishino also at the luncheon, passed a story that unfolded in the San Jose Mercury News of a Menlo Park resident, Miyuki Hegg, whose father survived the Battle of Iwo Jima. Brad Kava's warm story tells of the hand-written diary written by Yoshikumi Mashiyama, "a reluctant soldier ... a civil engineer who had three young children when he was drafted in 1941."
The diary tells "a tale strikingly similar to that of the movie's main character, the baker Saigo. In fact, Mashiyama's writings inspired Eastwood's movie."
The reporter adds, "Mashiyama's journal depicts the evolution of a soldier blinded at first by nationalism, who grew - after seeing the horrors of war, and the lives of his American captors - into a passionate believer in democracy and internationalism."
Miyuki remembers that "when he came back, he realized the world is so big, he wanted us to see that there were other views outside Japan. And, since he 'died' once, he threw himself into contributing to his country."
What soldier Mashiyama found was even tougher than what was portrayed in the film. "Iwo Jima seemed like a sauna. If we buried a pot of rice about one foot underground, the rice would cook in about 30 minutes . . . We could not last for more than 20 minutes at a time when we tried to dig trenches. Water on the island was provided only by rainfall and the Japanese army commanders offered a reward to anyone who could come up with a way to find more water." He did this by engineering a system that harnessed the many small geysers to make water drinkable. He was rewarded with 3.6 liters of the kind of sake reserved for officers.
The diary tells how Japanese soldiers survived, hiding in rock-covered holes, avoiding gas and flamethrowers U.S. troops used to smoke them out. Mashiyama's hole was finally found by troops who threw candy and cigarettes, trying to get Japanese soldiers to surrender. Humiliated and expecting to be killed, he was first treated at the aid station, then shipped to a hospital in Hawaii for intestinal problems. He was down to 90 pounds, almost dead from hunger and thirst.
Months later, he and other Japanese prisoners were taken to the mainland and across the U.S. by train and bus. That he spoke some English helped Mashiyama to meet with Americans troops.
On his 40th birthday, Mashiyama returned to Japan in January, 1946. His family was shocked that he was still alive. He encouraged his daughter to study in America. After attending college, she met her future husband, Warren Hegg, an American in Tokyo, in 1970.
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Today, Miyuki is director of the San Jose office of the Deloitte accounting firm in charge of tax statements for those working overseas.
Warren, a journalist, met Miyuki at a party while pursuing a doctorate in Asian economic history in Tokyo. He now heads Digital Clubhouse Network, collecting interviews with veterans, many done by students and found at www.digiclub.org/sofs. Miyuki adds that her father's memoirs show, "How important it is to write things down. It's the way to pass who you are to another generation."
Certainly, "Letters from Iwo Jima" comes across as another great war film.
Published March 16, 2007
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