Clint Eastwood's World War II epic Letters From Iwo Jima has been lauded for depecting the humanity of the Japanese soldiers—a rarity in Hollywood. Here's a really interesting article from the Washington Post on Hollywood's history of portraying the enemy: The Japanese Soldier, a Casualty of War Films. By the writer's count, of the more than 600 English-language World War II movies made since 1940, only four have even acknowledged the humanity of the Japanese soldiers.