'Iwo Jima: From Combat to Comrades' review: Survivors remember

Marines raised the American flag of victory atop Mt. Suribachi... — Marines raised the American flag of victory atop Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945 -- only 5 days into the 36 day battle of Iwo Jima. Credit: AP / Joe Rosenthal

By VERNE GAYVerne.Gay@newsday.com @vernejgayNovember 10, 2015

THE DOCUMENTARY "Iwo Jima: From Combat to Comrades"

WHEN | WHERE Tuesday night at 8 on WNET/13

WHAT IT'S ABOUT This past March, a few survivors from the battle of Iwo Jima converged on the island to mark a battle -- Feb. 19, 1945, ending March 26, 1945 -- where 6,800 U.S. soldiers (mostly the Marines and Army) were killed, and about 18,000 Japanese defenders died, either in combat or by ritual suicide. One day a year, Japan allows survivors to attend a memorial ceremony on the island.

This past March, Hershel "Woody" Williams, 92, a Marine and a Medal of Honor recipient, attended for the first time. Other attendees included Lt. Gen. Larry Snowden (USMC, Ret.), the highest-ranking U.S. officer on Iwo Jima still alive. This film is told from the American and Japanese perspective.

MY SAY The battle to take Iwo Jima was launched 70 years ago this past February, so those who bore witness are close to 90, or well beyond that. Thus, reduced to a hard reality, broadcasts like this one are a numbers game. There may or may not be an 80th anniversary reunion among survivors, along with the resulting TV special. The likelihood is remote. That's precisely what makes "From Combat to Comrades" so moving, but also important. We won't pass this way again. Best to bear witness now, while you still can.

There have been many documentaries and movies about this blighted island and what happened there so long ago; Clint Eastwood even made a pair of Oscar winners from it. But this short film's special claim on viewers' attention is that these memories and emotions aren't fogged with the passage of time, but immediate and visceral. "Real Marines don't cry, at least in public," says Williams. "I had to flick 'em [the tears] off. Sneaky like." Jerry Yellin, a U.S. Army Air Corps P-51 fighter pilot, effectively collapses a lifetime of intense emotion and memory into a few words, then pictures -- notably of his son, who married a Japanese woman, and of his three grandchildren.

A spirit of reconciliation seemed to permeate the ceremonies in March, although as "Combat to Comrades" notes, those who did the actual reconciling were few. Only one Japanese survivor, Tsuriji Akikusa, 89, a radio operator with the Imperial Navy, could make the trip. He offered this observation, which almost had the hushed power of a prayer: "I hope there will always be peace," he said, otherwise those who died on Iwo Jima will have died in vain.