Iwo Jima group backs Eastwood

A group representing Japanese survivors of the World War II battle for Iwo Jima said Thursday it had met with Clint Eastwood and fully supports his plan to film a movie on the tiny island that -- 60 years later -- remains a largely untouched testament to the ravages of war.

The American director is expected to begin filming an adaptation of the book "Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima" later this year, but has yet to ask the government's permission to shoot on the island, which is inhabited only by several hundred Japanese soldiers.

Any activity on the island is potentially controversial because Iwo Jima is considered by many to be hallowed ground -- nearly 7,000 American troops and more than 20,000 Japanese died in the battle from February to March 1945, and the bodies of thousands of soldiers remain unaccounted for.

But Kiyoshi Endo, an Iwo Jima veteran and a leader of the Iwo Jima Assn., said he and representatives of relatives of the fallen soldiers met with Eastwood in Tokyo on Wednesday and were convinced the project would be a positive one.