When Iris Yamashita learned that Paul Haggis and Clint Eastwood chose her to write the screenplay for a companion film to "Flags of Our Fathers," she thought it would simply be an addition to the DVD package for the 2006 World War II film.

Not only did Japanese-language film "Letters From Iwo Jima" have a full theatrical run, Yamashita's work — her first professional screenplay — has been nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay. The Japanese-American writer, who lived in Honolulu and attended Punahou School until she was 10, was invited to meet Haggis.

"I had a few ideas about the story and some of the characters. He really went for them, so in the second meeting, he told me I was hired," said Yamashita, who lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif. "I had a full-time job as a Web programmer at the time, and he just said, 'You can quit your job now.' " From there, Haggis called Yamashita's agent and Warner Bros. to initiate contract negotiations.

"He called Clint's office to set up a meeting right away. It was surreal," said Yamashita.

Director Eastwood, who had wanted a Japanese-American writer for the project, approved Yamashita's first draft, which details the impossible odds that an estimated 20,000 Japanese soldiers faced trying to defend the strategic island.

"I had always been writing on the side as a hobby, as far as I can remember. But my Asian parents wanted me to pursue something 'practical,' so I majored in engineering," said Yamashita, who has a master's in engineering. "I had a couple of short stories published, and I thought I was going to write a novel."

But Yamashita found "it just takes too long. I could never really finish anything." So she took a screenwriting class at UCLA.

"I thought it was a medium that was faster, something that I could actually finish. I entered a screenwriting contest, and my current agent was a judge, and she picked me up."

The soft-spoken Yamashita, who spent a year at the University of Tokyo researching virtual reality, said she has always been fascinated with historical fiction. Although she didn't have much previous knowledge of the battle of Iwo Jima, she knew that using letters between soldiers and their families would create emotional resonance.

Recalling one scene from "Letters" in which the Japanese soldiers capture an enemy from Oklahoma, Yamashita said she patched together real-life events with her own imagining of what it would be like to be holed up in a cave during the 39-day battle.

"Baron Nishi supposedly rescued a downed Marine and had his doctors attend to him," she said. "He found a letter that was in the soldier's pocket. That tale was relayed by the descendants of Baron Nishi. They told that story to Clint Eastwood and producer Rob Lorenz, so they got back to me, very excited, and said let's put that scene in there."

One of the Japanese soldiers hears the words of the American soldier's mother and tells his comrades that his own mother gave the same advice on doing what is right.

"I didn't have the actual letter, and I don't know how true it was, because it was all hearsay, but I did think that Baron Nishi would have done that, because he had lived in the U.S. and became friends with people in the U.S.," said Yamashita. "I thought it was a great opportunity to show through the theme of the letters that was something in common on both sides, everybody had family and loved ones, so there has to be some sort of commonality there."

For the most part, Eastwood kept hands off, said Yamashita. It was Haggis and the film's star, Ken Watanabe, who had the most suggestions on the story. It was reported that Watanabe was not satisfied with the studio's translation and sought his own translators to complete the task.

In the end, the rookie screenwriter held her own, swapping ideas with Hollywood heavyweights. With the overnight success, movie-project offers (which she can't reveal yet due to contractual clauses) are landing in her lap.

At the moment, Yamashita has bigger things on her mind, such as the possibility of taking home a statuette at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday.

"I was very happy to see that the actors did so well. They really brought the characters to life, and were much better than I expected," said Yamashita. "I say that because the main character Saigo (played by Kazunari Ninomiya), the baker, he's actually a very popular member of a boy band. He's much younger than the character that I had written. But he pulled it off so well, and he was so brilliant in it. So I was so happy."

Former Honolulu resident Li Wang is film critic for the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot News.