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Hmmm....

Posted by EBerlin on July 20, 2007 at 21:06:36:
...I don't know exactly what "knowing many Japanese people" adds up to, but I didn't find it at all a negative portrayal of the Japanese soldiers. In fact it wasn't even as much about the actual fighting as I expected. It was more a collection of character studies.

My background is as someone who is a long-time Japanophile who has read much on Japanese history, literature, and aesthetics, including some books about Japanese soldiers in WWII.

The character of Saigo can readily be interpreted as a stock literary character, what literary theory often calls the "rustic." This is a familiar presence in Japanese stories too. This sort of character embodies a kind of observational innocence within whatever drama transpires around them. You can see similar figures in Ugetsu, and perhaps in extreme form in Dodes'kaden, Kurosawa's surreal masterpiece (the "train guy").

It's just absolutely true that the Japanese were hardly visible to the Americans and dug into the miles of caves and fortifications that Kuribayashi had ordered built. Even the scene where the Japanese pay homage to the dead young American soldier they tried to save is redolent of honor and respect; that's not a racist view at all. And there's no cowardice in a Japanese soldier committing suicide. It's one of the most noble of all ends for a traditional Japanese warrior (doesn't everyone know this?).

OTOH it's also true that one captured US soldier was found after the battle horribly mutilated by the Japanese. Keep in mind that the Japanese were indeed capable of great brutality.

I really don't get what you might see as an insulting, degrading, portrayal, aside quite possibly from the fact that they were living in horrifically untenable conditions by the time the battle was joined and things just got worse...
E Berlin