A War in Letters

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The correspondence home from two men–an American Marine and a Japanese general–reveals how their destinies converged on a tiny Pacific island called Iwo Jima.

ON THAT INFAMOUS DAY in December 1941 when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Tom and Milly Kennedy were working in an electrical parts plant in northern New Jersey. The young couple–both were only 22–was originally from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, but had recently relocated. Married the previous June, the Kennedys were eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child. Mary Beth was born in July 1942 and Tommy arrived in August 1943. Because of his family status, Tom Kennedy wasn’t drafted, but he felt a conflicted sense of duty to both his country and to his family. In May 1944, Tom finally succumbed to the "slacker" pressure and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Soon he was immersed in the rigors of South Carolina’s Parris Island boot camp.

Like many thousands of couples separated by the war, Tom and Milly corresponded faithfully, writing volumes of letters, sometimes as many as three a day. In a letter written from boot camp, Tom reassured his apprehensive wife that he was safe and well.

Hello Darling,

I just received a short note from you and wanted to answer it right away to tell you that you’re worrying entirely too much about me. I’m fine, and the safety precautions that they have here are so tight that no one gets hurt unless they’re really stupid. There is always a senior officer or instructor with us, and I’m watching out for myself all the time. I have too much to come home to for me to get careless.

When we go to the rifle range each morning we have to watch a training film before we start shooting. Most of the fellows fall asleep because it’s so early in the morning. But so far I have kept wide-awake. I don’t want to miss any small detail that may help me to qualify as an Expert or that may help to save my life when and if I see combat. It might even help to keep me in the States as a rifle instructor.

As he chronicled life in boot camp on that steamy June morning, Tom Kennedy couldn’t have known that eight months later he would go ashore on a Pacific island and take part in one of the fiercest battles of World War II. Neither could he have known that the man who was then assuming overall command of Japanese defense operations on that island shared Tom’s devotion to family, his loyalty to country, and coincidentally his initials. Yet for 36 days in 1945, Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi and Private first class Tom Kennedy would share an ugly lump of volcanic rock called Iwo Jima.

THE JAPANESE government knew that it was only a matter of time until the Americans invaded Iwo Jima. Japan considered the island part of its homeland and knew its strategic value to the Americans. By capturing the island, the United States would gain airstrips valuable for a bombing campaign against Japan.

On June 22, 1944, 53-year-old Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, a well-respected veteran military strategist, arrived on Iwo Jima. Kuribayashi’s assignment was accompanied by a sobering admonition from Japanese Premier General Hideki Tojo, who warned, "The entire Army and the nation will depend on you for the defense of that key island."

Although age, culture, and ideology separated Kuribayashi and Kennedy, their ties to home joined them in a bond that was personal as well as universal. Like Kennedy, Kuribayashi was a devoted family man who corresponded regularly with his wife, Yoshie, and their three children, who were waiting out the war in Tokyo. Responding to a letter from his wife, the general described his situation on Iwo Jima:

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