The United States strategy in the Pacific was known as

“island hopping;” that is, key islands were captured, and air

bases built. Each captured island became a steppingstone that

brought us ever closer to Japan. The territory controlled by

Japan covered vast distances in the Pacific. Americans

would not try to capture every Japanese-held island in the

Pacific, only islands of strategic value.

Iwo Jima was a tiny, volcanic island, only eight square

miles in size. It lacked a source of fresh water and smelled

like “rotten eggs” from high levels of sulfur on the island.

“Iwo Jima” is Japanese for sulfur island. But, it is only 660

miles southeast of Tokyo. It was an essential air base for

bombing missions over Japan and as such it was heavily

defended. Furthermore, the two airfields on Iwo Jima were

being used as a base for Japanese fighter planes to attack

American planes.

On February 19, 1945, the 4

th

and 5

th

Marine Divisions

landed on Iwo Jima. Before their arrival, U.S. forces had

bombarded the island with shells and bombs for more than

70 days. The Japanese were well entrenched. Months before the arrival of U.S. forces, the Japanese

commander on Iwo Jima, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had ordered his engineers to expand the island’s

caves and build an intricate system of connecting caves and tunnels that hid Japanese gun positions all over the

island.

The Japanese soldiers, burrowed into hiding places, were invisible to the American marines landing on the

island on February 19. At first the marines met almost no resistance. It was not until they had made their way

well inside the nest of hidden enemy that the Japanese opened fire from caves and disguised pillboxes. The

barrage of deadly fire cut marines in half. Surviving marines scrambled to take cover but found it impossible

to dig into the island’s volcanic ash. Along with bullets, survivors were assaulted by the sickening smell of

sulfur and decaying bodies. To break the impasse, flamethrowers were brought in to burn out the unseen

enemy.

From the heights of Mount Suribachi, hidden Japanese guns raked machine gun and artillery fire on the

marines. The ancient volcano, the highest point on the island, was eventually captured by the leathernecks on

February 23. Associated Press photographer, Joe Rosenthal, snapped his famous picture of five marines and

one navy corpsman raising the American flag at the top of Mount Suribachi. However, the marines still had to

capture the island’s two airfields. Before the island was taken, three of the flag-raisers would die. Admiral

Nimitz declared a victory on March 14, but the last pocket of enemy resistance was not cleared from the island

until twelve days later.

The bloody battle for this small volcanic island was very costly. More than 6,000 Americans were killed

and another 18,000 wounded. Of the 20,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island, only 1,083 survivors

surrendered. By the middle of March 1945, Americ