Iwo Jima: Memories in Sand

With a background of mournful Latin religious hymns sounding a respectful dirge, this film revisits one of the most brutal, bloodiest, and deadliest battles of WWII: Iwo Jima. Survivors of that horrific month--and interviews with many reveal the emotions still very near the surface more than half a century later--saw more men killed, more incredible acts of courage, and more battle-hardened veterans psychologically snap under the unrelenting pressure of enemy fire than perhaps in any other single battle in the Pacific Theater. Iwo Jima was strategic to the Japanese because losing it meant the Americans would have a base from which to bomb Japan; the Americans wanted the hellish island to serve as a landing field for planes they previously had to ditch in the ocean due to lack of fuel. With WWII veterans passing on and their personal stories being lost to future generations, videos such as this capture an important legacy. Iwo Jima: Memories in Sand preserves forever the sights and sounds of a day when unimaginable horrors confronted the young men of a long-ago America and left them with dreams that will haunt them till the day they die. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Carlson)