This Memorial Day, I want to tell you about a Japanese general most Americans have never heard of. His name was Tadamichi Kuribayashi. In 1927, he lived in America. He studied at Harvard. He drove across your country and wrote letters home about how kind Americans were. Eighteen years later, he commanded the Japanese forces at Iwo Jima. He knew he would lose. He knew he would die. He fought anyway, to buy his homeland time. For 36 days, 6,800 of your Marines died on that black sand. So did 21,000 of his men. Including him. He never saw his three children again. Today, American and Japanese veterans return to that same island together. They lay wreaths side by side. The fallen of both nations rest in one place now. On the memorial stone there, his widow’s words are carved in stone: Once enemies. Now friends. Never again.