Letters from Iwo Jima is the 2006 companion film to Flags of Our Fathers. Also directed by Clint Eastwood, this film depicts the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers defending the island as told through their own letters. The film would go on to receive four Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director.
The following weapons were used in the film Letters from Iwo Jima:
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is presented with an original Colt M1911 pistol by an American Officer (Mark Moses) in a flashback to his time in the United States. Near the film's end, a U.S. Marine finds the pistol and places it in his belt. On a side note, the 1911 model in this movie had an ivory grip (possibly to differentiate its significance from the other 1911A1's with wooden grips that the Marines used).
When Lieutenant Fujita attempts to behead General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), a distant Marine sniper is seen firing a shot and then operating the bolt action of his rifle. The rifle used was a M1903A1 Springfield, the predominately used bolt action sniper rifle by the Marines (and other US forces) during World War II.
A source from ISS (which supplied the weapons for the film) has confirmed that the rifle, which was supplied by key armorer David Fencl, was indeed an M1903A1 Springfield fitted with a 7.8x (8x) Unertl scope, and that the Marine sniper using the weapon was one of the film's technical advisors, Master Sergeant Tom Minder.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingA pair of M1903A1 Springfield sniper rifles (.30-06) with 7.8x Unertl scopes. The guns pictured here were the actual rifles used in Letters from Iwo Jima (one is primary, the other is a back-up), and the rifle was fired by Master Sergeant Tom Minder, one of the technical advisors, in the film.Error creating thumbnail: File missingA distant shot of the Marine sniper operating a bolt on his Springfield. The rifle was fired by Master Sergeant Tom Minder, one of the technical advisers on the film.Error creating thumbnail: File missingA close-up of the 7.8x scopes on the rifles from the film.Error creating thumbnail: File missingA close-up of the butts of the rifles used in the film.
M1 Garand
Many Marines were equipped with this weapons (some of them were used with M1 bayonets). When Shimizu (Ryo Kase) surrender, a marine, using his M1 Garand rifle, executed him and an another Japanese POW. In the final scene, when Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) was surrounded by Marines, most of them used M1 Garand rifles.
US Marines are armed with the M1 Carbine during the Japanese Banzai charge. A U.S. Marine lieutenant carries an M1 Carbine while finding the M1911 pistol of General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe)
During the night assault led by the Navy Lieutenant Ito, US Marines utilize Browning M1919A4 machine guns to counter the Japanese charge. A Marine also fires an M1919A4 at fleeing Japanese soldiers later on in the film.
