(Marines raise the flag on Iwo Jima, Japan, Feb. 23, 1945. Photo ccurtesy of Joe Rosenthal, via DOD)
By David Vergun
DOD News
The Battle of Iwo Jima took place from Feb. 19, 1945 to March 26, 1945.
The island, only 8 square miles in area, was considered crucial to the strategy of the Pacific campaign because capturing it would put heavy bombers within a close 750-mile strike range of mainland Japan using the island’s three airfields.
The task for doing this fell to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine divisions, the Army’s 147th Infantry Regiment and the Navy’s 5th Fleet.
The invasion fleet consisted of about 70,000 Marines, around 450 naval ships of various types, as well as several thousand Navy Seabees. The Seabees were naval engineers who were experts at building roads and would be needed to reopen the island’s three airfields.
Over the course of the battle, the Marines suffered more than 25,000 casualties, including nearly 7,000 deaths. The casualty rate was so high that the regiment landed a month later to help with mopping-up operations.
Some lessons can be gleaned from the battle.
First, boots on the ground matter.
Plans to capture Iwo Jima unfolded, June 15, 1944, with Army Air Forces and Navy bombardment of the volcanic island. This continued on and off again right up until and after the invasion.
Battleships blasted the island for three days prior to the invasion, pulverizing almost the entire island.
The bombardment by the Americans of Iwo Jima had relatively little effect on about 21,000 Japanese troops holed up underground. In fact, the heavy bombs created numerous craters that proved to be advantageous to the defenders, providing additional cover for them while slowing the Marines’ advance.
(The battleship USS New York fires its main guns on Iwo Jima, Japan, Feb. 16, 1945. USS Navy photo)
Marine Corps Gen. Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith, commander of Task Force 56 during the battle, said of the pre-invasion bombardment, “All this added up to a terrific total of destructive effort, which the uninitiated might expect to blast any island off the military map, level every defense, no matter how strong and wipe out the garrison. But nothing of the kind happened. Like the worm, which becomes stronger the more you cut it up, Iwo Jima thrived on our bombardment. The airfields were kept inactive by our attacks and some installations were destroyed, but the main body of defenses not only remained physically intact, but they strengthened markedly.”
It would take Marines on the ground to secure the island.
Second, a good defense can have a deleterious impact on an amphibious operation.
Despite the heavy and sustained bombardment of the island, the Japanese had their own defensive plans, which included about 11 miles of tunnels and underground rooms for command and control and other functions.
To make matters worse for the Americans, many of the tunnels were located on the slopes of Mount Suribachi. The Japanese directed artillery, small arms and mortar fire from openings downward on U.S. troops landing on the beaches and advancing inland with great difficulty on the slippery slopes of black volcanic sand, with little to no cover.
The Japanese had learned from their suicidal charges on Guadalcanal in 1942 and 1943 that this tactic resulted in unacceptably high casualty rates. In April 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese used the same tactic of digging in as they did on Iwo Jima.
Third, the battle proved how a fanatically loyal enemy would fight to the death rather than surrender.
Despite efforts to get the Japanese to surrender, only 216 were taken prisoner, and about 18,000 were killed. The rest were presumed dead.
By the time of the Battle of Iwo Jima and after, Japanese aviators were flying kamikaze, or suicide missions, against allied naval vessels; such was their fanatical loyalty.
Other Iwo Jima Factoids:
- Navy Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said of the Battle of Iwo Jima, “Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
- There were 27 Medals of Honor presented to those who fought there.
- Nimitz also said, “If there had been any question whether there should be a Marine Corps after this war, the Battle of Iwo Jima will assure that there will always be a Marine Corps.”
- One of the most iconic images of World War II was taken by The Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. His photograph captured six Americans raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945. Marine Sgt. Bill Genaust, who was standing beside Rosenthal, captured the same moment on video. Genaust was killed March 4, 1945, by Japanese fire while clearing a tunnel.
- For decades, Genaust’s video was played at the beginning of newsreels or when TV stations came on in the morning and went off the air at night.
- The image of the flag raising was so powerful that it was featured on a U.S. postage stamp and a large statue of the flag raising is featured at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
- Medal of Honor recipient Marine Corps Pfc. Jack Lucas returned to Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1985, 40 years after the start of the invasion. He met a Japanese veteran of that battle that day. Lucas told him, “We can be friends now.” The Japanese veteran replied, “Yes, friends. No more war. Peace is good.”
- Although the battle officially ended March 26, 1945, sporadic fighting continued until the war ended on Aug. 15, 1945. Two Japanese holdouts hid in the island’s caves and tunnels until they finally surrendered in 1949.
- Many books were written, and movies were made about the Battle of Iwo Jima. Three of those films are the 1949 “Sands of Iwo Jima,” starring actors John Wayne and Forrest Tucker, and two 2006 movies directed by Clint Eastwood, “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”
- The U.S. returned Iwo Jima to Japanese control in 1968. Today, the Japan Maritime, Ground and Air Self-Defense Forces maintain a presence on the island.
- Japan is now one of America’s most important allies.
David Vergun is a writer for the Department of Defense news team.
