Abe enjoys 'Letters from Iwo Jima'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday enjoyed "Letters from Iwo Jima" at a Tokyo movie theater with his wife Akie and mother Yoko. After watching the movie that depicts the 1945 Battle of Iwojima, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, from the Japanese perspective, Abe told reporters that the last scene, in which letters left by Japanese soldiers for their families are dug out many years after the battle, was the most memorable.

"Love for families was put into the scene," Abe said. "It was a very good film." The movie is one of Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood's two films about the monthlong battle for the Pacific island. The other — "Flags of Our Fathers" — opened in Japan in late October and chronicles the stories of the six U.S. soldiers who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi as a symbol of victory.