Warner Bros. Entertainment Kazunari Ninomiya as Saigo in 'Letters From Iwo Jima'. Click photo for larger image. 'Letters From Iwo Jima' Starring: Ken Watanabe. Director: Clint Eastwood. Rating: R for graphic war violence. In Japanese, with English subtitles. Web site: iwojimathemovie.warnerbros.com

When a pregnant wife begs for her husband to be spared from military service, an older woman sternly reminds her, "We have all sent our husbands and sons to war."

But the mother-to-be knows the men never come home. Not a single soul.

The fearful woman and her husband are Japanese, and he will be shipped to Iwo Jima, an island of unforgiving volcanic rock, black sand and strategic location that will claim almost 7,000 American soldiers and more than 20,000 Japanese during World War II.

In "Letters From Iwo Jima," director Clint Eastwood does the simplest and most complicated of movie maneuvers: He turns the camera and perspective around and tells the story of the Japanese who tried to hold the island under the most arduous and impossible of conditions.

He concentrated on the Americans in October's "Flags of Our Fathers," and now he does an equally brilliant job in "Letters," named best foreign film at the Golden Globes and a favorite foreign or overall movie on year-end lists.

The 76-year-old Eastwood, who was a teenager in 1945 when this bloody battle was raging, grew up with war pictures featuring "good guys and bad guys," as he describes it. "Life is not like that, and war is not like that," he says in the movie's notes.

"These movies are not about winning or losing. They are about this war's effects on human beings and those who lose their lives much before their time."

As with "Flags," he focuses on a handful of soldiers, but the rank and pay grade are much higher here with the inclusion of Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), a strategist whose travel in the United States gave him a unique perspective on how to hold the island. It will also prompt another officer to brand him a weak American sympathizer.

Before his arrival, the grunts are digging trenches on the beach, wondering if they're preparing their own graves. When Kuribayashi arrives, he not only brings a touch of benevolence -- "A good captain uses his brain, not a whip" -- but an innovative strategy the enemy will not expect.

He orders the building of a sophisticated, unseen web of tunnels (which had to be carved out by men battling dysentery and dwindling food and water), caves and pillboxes. The Americans would expect to be attacked on the sand below, not from the rocky cliffs above.

Eastwood, directing a screenplay by newcomer Iris Yamashita based on a story she wrote with Oscar winner Paul Haggis, puts a face on the enemy. Several faces.

In addition to the general, "Letters" introduces: a baker (Kazunari Ninomiya) who yearns to see his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), a dashing equestrian and 1932 Olympic gold medalist; a former military policeman (Ryo Kase) who arouses suspicion; and Lt. Ito (Shidou Nakamura), a traditionalist who believes suicide is preferable to surrender.

"Letters" makes it clear that the Japanese thought that if Iwo Jima fell, the Americans would use it as a base to attack the mainland. The Japanese are told they are not allowed to die until they have each killed 10 Americans.

One of the most heartfelt moments comes when the Japanese treat a wounded American and read a letter he's carrying from his mother.

Her chatty note about a ruckus with a neighbor's rooster also tells him not to worry, to come back safely and to do what's right. A current of worry pulses beneath her words, which could have come from any of their mothers.

The less well-known actors are as fine as the familiar Americans in "Flags," although the picture hinges on Watanabe, who played the Chairman in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and co-starred with Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai." He gives an understated, excellent performance as a man caught in a Gordian knot.

The general promised to fight to the death for his family, but thoughts of his wife and children make keeping that promise difficult. He was welcomed by the Americans and now is charged with defeating them.

Eastwood, who references "Flags" with a faraway shot of Old Glory fluttering atop Mount Suribachi, has made two superb movies, one in English and one in Japanese. But both address sacrifice and honor and raise a single voice against war.