“Banzai!” is the familiar battle cry of Japanese soldiers as heard in every stereotyping depiction of *their* side in old Hollywood’s one-sided World War II movies. The yelling enemy troupes were a nameless, inhuman monolith of willful bloodthirstiness then.
The call of “Banzai” is heard again in Clint Eastwood’s unforgettable “Letters From Iwo Jima.” But this time it seems to signify the fading hope and tragic desperation of fully realized men — race and nationality be darned — who know they are about to leave behind forever the families who love and need them.
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