"What the numbers tell us is that fiscal packages do have an impact, " says Kuribayashi Hiroshi, an economist with Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

CNN: JAPAN'S BLIP FAILS TO STICK

Both the defender of the island, General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), and his friend and fellow-officer Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympic equestrian before the war, are such idealized figures modest, gentle, and gallant that they lose any serious interest as characters.

NEWYORKER: Letters from Iwo Jima