The present head of the Kuribayashi family, whose great-uncle was an illustrious general, picked up the cards, brushed a thin film of dust off them with his finger, and tucked them neatly into his breast pocket.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I visited Tarô, Kuribayashi Tadamichi’s son, in the autumn of 2003 for the simple reason that a single phrase in one of the letters from Iwo Jima really spoke to me. My research for this book dates from when Tarô welcomed me, a complete stranger, with such warmth, and let me handle and read the letters he had so carefully preserved. Tarô passed away on March 24, 2005, at the age of eighty. I am sorry that he was unable to read the completed book.
I interviewed Tarô’s younger sister, Shindô Takako, several times from late 2003 to early 2004. Takako, who sang me “The Moon in the Rain” and “The Sky of Home,” also passed on, about six months after that, at the age of sixty-nine. They both provided me with precious information and encouraged me in my writing. I thank them from my heart.
I belong to a generation ignorant of war. I was only able to write about this poorly documented battle thanks to the numerous people who helped me with my research, including the Association of Iwo Jima, the survivors who wrote accounts of their experiences, and professional historians of Iwo Jima. I take this opportunity to thank you all very much.
Last of all, speaking as one of the following generation, I would like to express my respect and gratitude for everyone who took part in the war and endured indescribable hardships before dying far away from their homes.
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES
Kuribayashi Tarô; Kuribayashi Fumiko; Kuribayashi
Naotaka; Kuribayashi Hideko; Kuribayashi Kaoru; Kuribayashi
Toshinori; Kuribayashi Kazuko; Kuribayashi Matsue; Shindô
Takako; Sadaoka Nobuyoshi; Ôkoshi Harunori; Yamagiwa
Yoshikazu; Egawa Mitsue; Egawa Jun; Kobayashi Michiko;
Tanaka Kenichi; Fushiwara Takahiro; Shishikura
Madoka; Shishikura Eiko; Nozu Naoko; Suwabe
Junichirô; Nakamura Tadanori; Tamura Akiko.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kumiko Kakehashi was born in 1961 in Kumamoto Prefecture. After graduating from Hokkaido University, she worked as a freelance writer producing numerous interviews and articles for newspapers and magazines. She is one of the regular contributors of human interest–based reportage to the “Gendai no Shôzô” (“Present-day Portraits”) section in AERA magazine. She also edits books and was in charge of compiling Yoshimoto Takaaki’s Hikikomore and Chôrenairon (Daiwashobô). This is her first book.
1943. At the barracks of the South China Expeditionary Force in Canton, China. Kuribayashi sits (front center) holding a German shepherd. Sadaoka Nobuyoshi, an army civilian employee, who tried unsuccessfully to follow Kuribayashi to Iwo Jima, is standing behind him (third from right).
ILLUSTRATED LETTERS THAT KURIBAYASHI SENT TO HIS YOUNG SON TARÔ, WHILE HE WAS AWAY STUDYING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1928 TO 1930
‘Dear Tarô, I’ve just bought this fabulous car… if you were here I’d drive you around all you want. How about it? Fancy a ride?” Kuribayashi actually cut the illustration of the car from a catalogue and stuck it on to the letter.
Kuribayashi leaving his lodgings in Buffalo, NY, for Washington D.C.
A letter dated November 17, 1944, that Kuribayashi wrote to Takako, his younger daughter, from Iwo Jima. Takako had been evacuated to Shinshû at the time. It talks about how he had had a dream of being together with the family.
Taken in August 1943, this is the only surviving group photograph of the family, showing, among others, Kuribayashi’s wife, Yoshii (back row, far left); his younger daughter Takako (seated, third from left in back row); and his older daughter Yôko (front row, extreme left).
Like any good father, Kuribayashi corrects the Japanese characters that Takato had gotten wrong in one of the letters she sent him.
A letter dated November 28, 1944, with diagrams on how to stop the draft in the kitchen
From a letter dated June 25, 1944, the note outside the printed margin line reads: “Do not let anyone else see this letter under any circumstances. Do not talk about its conte
nts.”
A letter dated December 23, 1944, from Kuribayashi to Takako, talking about the four chicks he was rearing
A strategy meeting on Iwo Jima (top), and surrounded by the guards on duty (bottom). Commander in Chief Kuribayashi is in the center in both pictures. (Photographs by Shishikura Tsunetaka, Asahi Shimbunsha)
February 23, 1945, The Stars and Stripes being raised on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima (top), and American troops moving forward using a flamethrower to burn out underground bunkers (bottom). (Photographs courtesy of Kingendai Photo Library)
The farewell telegram sent to Imperial General Headquarters on March 16, 1945. Kuribayashi's death poem appears below.
From the front page of the Yomiuri Hôchi newspaper of March 22, 1945. All three stanzas of Kuribayashi's death poem have been printed, but the end of the first line has been changed to “mortified, we fall.” (With permission from Yomiuri Shimbunsha)
The telegram of early morning March 17 containing the rousing address to all the officers and men on Iwo Jima. The last line reads: “I will always be at your head.”
Translation copyright © 2007 by Shinchosha Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Presidio Press,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Presidio Press and colophon are
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in Japan as Chipuzo Kanashiki by
Shinchosha Co., Ltd., Tokyo, copyright © 2005 by Kumiko
Kakehashi. English translation rights arranged with
Shinchosha Co., Ltd. through Japan Foreign-Rights Centre,
Tokyo/Writers House, LLC in New York.
Translated by Giles Murray
All photographs, except those on page 6 of insert,
are courtesy of Fumiko Kuribayashi.
Photographs on page 6
copyright © Tsunetaka Shishikura
Map: © Jmap
eISBN: 978-0-307-49791-8
www.presidiopress.com
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