Adm. Chester Nimitz spoke the now-immortal praise, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” At first glance, the 36-day fight for Iwo Jima seems similar to many other battles that happened in the Pacific War: “American troops fiercely fought their way through booby traps, Banzai charges and surprise attacks while stalwart dug-in Japanese defenders struggled against overwhelming U.S. power in the air, on land and by sea.”
“For the United States Marine Corps, however, the Battle of Iwo Jima was more than one more island in a string of battles in an island-hopping campaign. The Pacific War was one of the most brutal in the history of mankind.”
Iwo Jima is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands lying south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. Iwo Jima is 660 miles south of Tokyo at approximately 2 miles wide by 4 miles long.
The Battle of Iwo Jima, (February 19–March 16, 1945) prepared the way for the last and largest battle in the Pacific: the invasion of Okinawa. After the battle, Iwo Jima served as an emergency landing site for more than 2,200 B-29 bombers, saving the lives of 24,000 U.S. airmen.
Shortly after its attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Japan gained control over much of Southeast Asia and the central Pacific. The Japanese sphere of control extended west to Burma, south to the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea, and east to Wake Island. The U.S. assumed command of Allied forces in the Pacific theatre and mounted a counteroffensive that incorporated a strategic combination of land, air, and naval assaults.
Iwo Jima was part of the Allies’ “Island Hopping” strategy, in which they would invade an island, establish a military base there, and then launch an attack on another island. As such, Iwo Jima was considered a stepping-stone for the invasion of mainland Japan.
Even before the operations to secure the Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian ended, U.S. Naval construction battalions were already clearing land for air bases suitable for the B-29 “Superfortresses.” These huge bombers had a range capable of reaching the Japanese Home Islands. The first B-29 bombing runs began in October 1944. But a problem became apparent.
Japanese fighters taking off from tiny Iwo Jima were intercepting B29s, as well as attacking the Mariana airfields. The U.S. determined that Iwo Jima had to be captured and mounted an amphibious invasion. It was a costly victory for the U.S., but provided proof of the Japanese military’s willingness to fight to the last man.
Allied forces bombarded Iwo Jima with bombs and heavy gunfire from ships positioned off the coast of the island. The Japanese defenders were dug into bunkers deep within the volcanic rocks and therefore suffered little damage and allowed them to repel the initial attack by the U.S. Marines.
On February 19, 1945, U.S. Marines made an amphibious landing on Iwo Jima and were met immediately with unforeseen challenges. First and foremost, the beaches of the island were made up of steep dunes of soft, gray volcanic ash, which made getting sturdy footing and passage for vehicles difficult.
The Marines were forced to shelter where they could, in shallow foxholes and among the wreckage of burning vehicles. The Americans suffered almost 2,500 casualties on the first day. Nevertheless, 30,000 were able to reach the shore, and over the following few days, the battle concentrated on Mount Suribachi, which the Americans captured on February 23.
Despite the capture of Suribachi, the Americans had taken only the southern part of Iwo Jima. They spent months inching north to conquer the whole island. The Japanese used the rocky terrain to hide and prepare ambushes, which hindered the Marines’ progress. Regiments began to measure their advances in yards. Japanese soldiers battered the Marines with artillery by day, and at night they would slip behind the U.S. rear and plant mines along roads to disrupt enemy movements.
Battles raged on in the northern part of Iwo Jima for four weeks, with the Japanese setting up a garrison in the mountains. On March 25, 1945, 300 of Japanese mounted a final banzai attack.
The American forces sustained a number of casualties, but ultimately quelled the attack. “Although the American military declared Iwo Jima had been captured, American forces spent weeks on end trudging through the island’s jungles, finding and killing or capturing Japanese “holdouts” who refused to surrender and opted to continue fighting.”
The Marines captured 216 Japanese soldiers; the rest were killed in action. Those few Japanese soldiers who survived were often ostracized at home because of their failure to defend the homeland with their lives. Two Japanese holdouts continued to hide in the island’s caves, scavenging food and supplies until they finally surrendered in 1949, almost four years after the end of World War II.
Approximately 70,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers took part in the battle. In thirty-six days of fighting, “the cost of US soldiers who died was staggering. The assault units of the corps—Marines and organic Navy personnel—sustained 24,053 casualties, the highest single-action losses in Marine Corps history. Of the casualties, 6,140 died. Roughly one out of three Marine or corpsman, who landed on Iwo Jima, became a casualty.
The distinguished flag-raising atop Mt. Suribachi took on historical proportions. Marines twice raised the American flag on Suribachi’s summit. The initial flag-raising was not photographed. The second flag-raising was photographed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945; five days after the battle began and several days after the original flag-raising. The photograph became one of the most famous combat images of World War II.
Rosenthal took the famous photograph of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the flag. Initially the flag raisers were listed as Cpl. Harlon Block, Navy Pharmacist’s Mate John Bradley, Cpl. Rene Gagnon, PFC Franklin Sousley, Sgt. Michael Strank, and Cpl. Ira Hayes.
Three of these men, Strank, Sousley, and Block, were killed before the battle for Iwo Jima was over. The photograph was quickly wired around the world and reproduced in newspapers across the United States. The image was used as a model for the Marine Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
In reality, the picture “has morphed into an all-purpose symbol of American military heroism. And maybe that is as it should be—the photo does accurately convey the bravery and sense of purpose of the flag-raisers.”
Despite the sacrifice, “a large part of the American success on Iwo Jima was due to the heroism of individual soldiers.” Twenty-seven Medals of Honor (our country’s highest military award for bravery) were awarded for action on Iwo Jima—more than any other battle in U.S. history.
The invasion of Iwo Jima had a special meaning for the American public of that time. It was the first soil in the island-hopping campaign that was technically part of Japan. “Because of the brutality of the fighting, and the fact that the battle occurred fairly close to the end of World War II, Iwo Jima—and those who lost their lives trying to capture the island—retain a great deal of significance even today, decades after the fighting stopped.”