The defeat in the Battle of Midway directly announced the defeat of the Japanese army in the Pacific battlefield. The Japanese army, which was fighting stubbornly, still held on to Iwo Jima, the southernmost island of Japan. This seemingly inconspicuous island staged the most tragic war in the Pacific during World War II. Lieutenant General Kuribayashi Tadamichi (played by Ken Watanabe) was the commander of the Japanese army on Iwo Jima, responsible for the last line of defense of the Japanese army. Lieutenant General Kuribayashi vigorously reformed the bad habits and shortcomings within the Japanese army, and designed a complete set of combat plans to deal with the US military, mainly based on delay. Although he and the 20,000 officers and soldiers of the Japanese army were united, facing the 40,000 US soldiers who had the advantage in the air, Kuribayashi knew that this would be a war with no way back. Before the final battle, Kuribayashi wrote his last letter home...