It is human obsession with survival that results in the taste for depictions of death and suffering. In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag asserts, “Photographs of the suffering and martyrdom of a people are more than reminders of death, of failure of victimization. They invoke the miracle of survival” (87). People want to appreciate life. Viewing people suffering awakens a sense of gratitude for life that is often neglected. Driving past a car accident, you look out your window to ascertain that the victim has indeed survived. If it is a gruesome scene, you empathize of course; you also feel thankful that you are safe and it was not you involved in the crash.  Similarly, people view horror movies in order to gain appreciation for their luck and ease in life, the fact that they have survived thus far. In Letters from of Iwo Jima, this human obsession with survival is taunted when the American soldiers discover the two Japanese soldiers. To the audience, it seems that the Americans are amiable when they offer them water. You actually believe initially that they were going to help them survive, but, of course, one of the Americans shoots both soldiers point blank, one after the other. For the second soldier, the very last thing he sees before he dies, after watching his friend falling to the ground, is the American’s gun, and his drooping cigarette. He then closes his eyes, accepting his fate. The brief moment between gunshots seems somehow fathomless. By forcing the audience to live the Japanese soldier’s last moment through his eyes, one forgets who the “Other” is, and must ponder the atrocious nature of humanity. This scene inspires feelings of sympathy for the ‘”Others” as well as reinforces the notion of survival as a miracle. The faux mercy that the Americans show at first emphasizes the ruthlessness of human nature, but what proceeds is a sense of appreciation for life in general.  Nothing makes survival seem more miraculous than tyranny.