I've been reading this great book that has been made into a movie (it started playing stateside, but not here) about the battle of Iwo Jima during WWII. It's a great book because it explores so much about the nature of war. The human cost, the heroism, the friendships and all the damage, physical and mental, that it inflicts on soldiers.
It follows the life of the six soldiers who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Three of them died in subsequent battles. But the other three were paraded around the country, raising support for the war. One of them enjoyed the short lived celebrity but became bitter with life. Another, a Native American called Ira Hayes, drowned his wounds with alcohol and died 10 years after Iwo Jima. The other, the father of the author of the book, refused to ever talked about what happened on that island.
The book also explores the horrendous odds of surviving these soldiers faced. And the terror of the day before the landing. It's impossible to imagine a scenario like that, looking around realizing more than half of your fellow soldiers would die the next day and wondering whether you were going to be one of the lucky ones.
After reading this book I am really looking forward to seeing Clint Eastwood's critically acclaimed film.
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