In the winter of 1945 the peak of the war for the pacific reached its height. After several military campaigns the U.S marines had to face one of the most stubborn and cruel enemies the U.S have ever fought, Japan. In the distance loomed one of the bloodiest battles that man has ever fought a battle of courage, fear, anguish but above all the sense of patriotism and unity that the American people and soldiers felt when the battle was over and the faint glimmer of peace finally ignited.
In the pacific Iwo Jima is quite an insignificant little six mile wide island covered in volcanic ash and hardly any vegetation with mount Suribachi a dormant volcano towering over the rest of the island. Its military vantage in 1944: none. It was originally a deserted island where ample smuggling took place for many centuries, but in 1917 the Japanese decide to set up on Iwo Jima a radio station, 5 soldiers, and 1 weatherman besides that no other major improvement took place until starting of WWII when Japan was being threatened by the U.S strategy of “island hopping”, strategy of attacking each separate island and trying to demolish it before the Japanese knew what was happening. It was a U.S type blitzkrieg using the same lightning speed the only difference was it attacked each little island in the pacific which was slow and quite gruesome. With the American invasion of the Marshalls in early February 1945, following the crippling strikes against the Truk Islands that same month, the Japanese imperial high command voted to take serious steps to reinforce Iwo because of the threat of the fall of the Marianas and Carolines Islands. In February of that same year the buildup began. Antiaircraft guns, rifles, cannons, men, tanks, etc. Japanese soldiers started arriving from other island bases, from the homeland and many who came were old veterans who had much experience compared to the U.S marines. When Saipan fell to the Americans many of the retreating soldiers were sent to Iwo where there they organized the 109th division which was practically the whole corp. besides the special troops and common workers. The Japanese high command appointed lieutenant general Tadamichi Kuribayashi a veteran of conflict and expert in the art of camouflage and guerilla tactics to lead the force. Now the Japanese only had to worry themselves about making the island impregnable. Constantly transports were coming in and on land the troops were building an intricate system of tunnels, pillboxes, anti tank positions and sea and land mines. Going on during all this were American bombers constantly pounding the island until the island looked like the surface of the moon. The Japanese comfortable in there tunnels only had to wait and wait…

When in early 1944 the Americans strategists realized the importance of Iwo Jima and moral support it had for the Japanese they immediately began to plan and gather information photographs and hydrographic features. When the U.S captured Saipan they found several files of Japanese activity on Iwo and studied them carefully planning accordingly with the new information. Sadly though most of these files were outdated and the memos of supplies and men were far too old. Several parties were sent out to get information but there was only one major finding. The submarine Spearfish was able to give a layout of each coastal gun position, a major development but much unknown information led to the death of many marines. It was decided that the 4th and 5th marine divisions would be used with the 3 division for reinforcements in all 25,000 men would be involved in this battle with every type of gun, and piece of equipment and supplies that the U.S could piece together in 6 months.
As the marines left for Iwo, boarding ships of every type and getting supplies on board a mass group of bombers took off and a big fleet of destroyers went ahead to clear mines and try to take out coastal gun positions they pounded Iwo for three hours and gave Iwo the biggest amount of TNT ever dropped on a single island in the history of man.
In the early hours of dawn of the invasion day transports took their positions while the constant fire of the destroyers kept pounding at the island. The attack signal came and ten minutes later 482 Amtrak’s took ashore the 4th and 5th divisions while LSTs brought in the equipment. As the ramps were lowered and the marines jumped ashore there was very little heavy arms fire and barely any obstacles. As the marines ran up the shore their pace dropped because of the sandy volcanic ash which at places covered them to their wastes. As more marines came ashore and equipment this became a serious problem and caused a lot of disorganization, because of this many marines would lack supplies when they were pushing inward. As marines kept coming in they pushed deeper into the rugged ash where out of nowhere suddenly and by complete surprise the island erupted. The full force of the Japanese was being shown and it greatly slowed the marine’s progress to a crawl. With mortars flying around, machine gun nests suddenly appearing out of a peaceful looking hill, and even pillboxes where the Americans had thought they were deserted the full might of Kuribayashis camouflage expertise was being used. Through invasion day Americans hardly showed any progress and invasion day+20 still showed not much sign of progress except one of the major air fields had been captured and all the coastal guns, machine gun nests, pillboxes, and caves had been taken. In the next couple day’s Americans showed huge acts of heroism taking Mt. Suribachi, raising the flag and making it through to the end. In the end Kuribayashi fought to the last man and got trapped and killed in one of his own tunnels. The marines took a total of 40 days to capture Iwo and it has become one of the most remembered battles in American history.
As we look back and see the casualties of America 40,000 dead wounded or missing in action, and 30,000 Japanese we can see that two sides fought for what they thought was right and to save their countries and the world from each other.
After Iwo Jima the war in the pacific was nearing its end, the Japanese had no navy, no highly trained soldiers and now only controlled the Chinese mainland besides their homelands and Okinawa. Certainly the tide was turning. In the next few months Americans fought to free the world of Japan and succeeded practically all because of one six mile wide island.
I thought that this battle was impedingly coming because a battle was needed at that time to boost American moral, and show the Japanese a show of strength. After meeting with one veteran of Iwo I can now see the importance of remembering these battles and honoring the many soldiers who died and fought there.