The Golden Scribe
Iris Yamashita went from web programmer to Oscar contender with 'Letters from Iwo Jima.'
The story just keeps getting better - a web programmer originally from Missouri pens a screenplay about Japan on the eve of World War II, wins an award, and gets summoned to meet with one of Hollywood's most powerful screenwriters.
In a Warner Brothers office during their second meeting, Iris Yamashita listened in disbelief as Paul Haggis ("Crash" 2004) offered her the opportunity to work on a feature length project later titled "Letters from Iwo Jima," the Japanese language companion film to Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Father."
It was the first major project for Yamashita, a Shin Nisei, so she waited for a contract before quitting her day job.
In "Letters," Yamashita's story about Japanese troops on the black sand island gives a voice to characters usually relegated to stock silent roles. In her world, the warriors of war are also loving fathers and sons.
Then early one morning in January, Yamashita received news that she was nominated for an Academy Award.
"It's been incredibly amazing. I'm feeling over the moon," she said in a telephone interview days before attending the Academy's luncheon, a tradition to honor all the nominees. Of course the seductive idea of holding a golden Oscar statuette isn't far from her mind, but she knows what's going to happen if her name is called.
"I'll probably cry."
The Writer Within
Yamashita received her first diary at age eight. The blank pages tickled her mind and her first entry was in the first person, but from the point of view of someone from another time period. She minored in writing while earning a master's degree in engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and started writing novels that never had endings.
"I thought screenplays would be a better medium because there are less pages and more white space so I could actually finish!" said Yamashita.
She took screenplay-writing classes and wrote short stories including "Professor Hosokawa's Books" and a screenplay called "Traveler in Tokyo," which was inspired by her mother Kayoko's experience fleeing from her burning house in prewar Japan. It is also the screenplay that paved the way to meeting Eastwood.
Writing 'Letters'
The Battle of Iwo Jima devastated the Japanese forces - only 1,100 survived out of 22,000. To date, about 12,000 soldiers remain unaccounted. In Yamashita's family, she experienced both sides of war - she had one uncle who fought with the Japanese and another uncle who fought with the Americans in the Korean War - so the writer who speaks conversational Japanese began telling the other side of a WWII story.
"When we started [with 'Letters'], my agent and I didn't have a clear idea of what the project was. When we heard 'companion movie,' we thought it was something that was going to come out on the DVD, so when Paul Haggis said it was coming out in theater I said, 'Oh you mean in the U.S.?'" said Yamashita with a laugh.
At that time, the studio didn't have a director locked down and Yamashita was told they were looking for a Japanese director, but when she heard Eastwood was on board, she thought, "Oh good people might see the film!" The critical acclaim and the Oscar nod were icing on the cake, she said.
Yamashita spent months researching, outlining and writing the stories of the courageous men who lost their lives trying to protect the small island south of Japan. Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi was legendary for strength and valor, but from research Yamashita discovered his softer side in letters he wrote to his family before the war when he spent time in the U.S.
"It was striking to realize the highest commander was a gentle loving father writing these cute letters to his son," she said.
In "Letters," a baker yearns to see his newborn daughter while a general straps mines to his body and hides among dead bodies to blow up an American tank, but as days go by without a tank, the general decides to live. It was a true story Yamashita came across in her research and "had to put in the film."
Working on the film has also left a personal resonance on Yamashita.
"It certainly made me think a lot about how ... we're trying to find better and more efficient ways to kill each other," she said.
Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Future
When Yamashita began writing "Letters," she was nervous about dishonoring the fallen soldiers and their descendents, but Haggis, who shares writing credit, had advice.
"He said I should really be thinking about writing a good story."
"Letters" has won many fans including veterans and veteran families who approach Yamashita with touching stories.
Her father Tsuyoshi has seen the movie and seems to like it, but expresses it in a traditional Japanese manner.
"He's not very expressive, but he wanted to see it again," said Yamashita, who is close to inking a deal with work on another historical screenplay.
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