The Battle for Iwo Jima February 19th – March 26th, 1945

Strategic Location The US wanted to capture Iwo Jima because of its location. It lies halfway between Tokyo and the US controlled Marianas, and would serve as a safe place for crippled bombers to land after bombing runs on Japan. The Japanese knew they could not stop the Americans but they would buy time with their blood for the homeland to prepare to fight the last battle. The Japanese STILL hoped that they would cause the American morale to break if they killed many American Marines and GI.’s.

The Island This is a photo of the island. It is about 7 or 8 square miles total. Mount Suribachi is seen in front.

Here is a map of Iwo Jima. Mount Suribachi is on the southern tip. Airfields #1 and #2, located centrally on the island, are the “prize”.

“Sulfur Island” Iwo Jima, in Japanese, means “sulfur island”. It is made of volcanic ash and sulfur deposits from the Pacific. Before WWII, civilians lived there and there were mining facilities, as well. When the war started, the civilians were moved, and the Japanese built airfields for bombers. There was an extensive series of tunnels and caves in the island that were fortified with concrete. Japanese engineers also built quarters for soldiers in the tunnels.

“Hell without the fire”! Iwo Jima’s beaches were not made of sand, but made of very soft ash. This would making walking difficult and running impossible. This would also make it very hard for landing craft to beach and tanks to roll out of them. One observer remarked, “It was like hell without the fire.”

Japanese Preparing for the Attack The Japanese sent Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi to the island to command. He strengthened the garrison there to 22,000 men. The island was fortified by anti-aircraft guns, big naval guns, machine guns, mortars, and rockets. After that, the beach was rung with bunkers, blockhouses, and pillboxes.

Japanese Tactics Japanese used “defense in depth”. No suicide counter attacks. The Japanese built more than 800 pillboxes and more than 16 miles of tunnels on an island that was only 8 square miles in size. A lesson from Normandy: attack the invaders once they have congested the beaches. This will cause greater chaos and improve the likelihood of increased casualties.

Shelling the island American Battleships Texas and New York, along with Army and Navy Bombers continuously bombard for 74 days before the scheduled invasion to prepare the way. This did, surprisingly, almost nothing to the bunkers, but it knocked out a great deal of the beach defenses and large artillery.

The Battle Kuribayashi’s plan was to wait for the American forces to land, and then rake the beaches with fire. 30,000 US Marines landed on the island initially with a grand total of 70,000 on the island later. When the Americans landed under the command of General Schmidt, they had considerable more difficulty from the ash and steep terraces than they did from the Japanese, but as soon as the majority of them were on the beach, the Japanese open fired on them.

The Battle for Iwo Jima Airfield #3 Airfield #2 Airfield #1 Mount Suribachi 4th Mar Division 3rd Mar Division 5th Mar Division

The Battle continued… The Americans suffered heavy losses as they made their way up, but by nightfall, they isolated Mount Suribachi. It took them three days to take the mountain over, because they were fighting uphill, and the Japanese’ caves were heavily fortified. The Japanese believed Mount Suribachi was impregnable to an American assault. The capturing of Mount Suribachi in three days by the Americans destroyed Japanese morale.

The Battle for Iwo Jima Airfield #3 Airfield #2 Airfield #1 Mount Suribachi 4th 5th 3rd

The Capture of Suribachi

The Flag Raisers 5 Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman Rene Gagnon Mike Strank Ira Hayes Rene Gagnon Harlon Block John Bradley(N) Frank Slousley

The Flag Raisers KIA Mike Strank Frank Slousley Harlon Block Survivors Rene Gagnon Ira Hayes John Bradley

The Northern Plateau The capture of Suribachi lifted the spirits of Marines, but the island was not even close to being taken. The Marines still had the northern plateau which would be extremely difficult to take, especially with even more caves and concealed positions.

The Northern Plateau continued Kuribayashi had learned from other Japanese defeats that suicide charges were often more costly on his own than on the Americans. He resisted the temptation of it and instead had his men remain in their positions and shoot. This proved far more effective in slowing the advance of Americans.

Flushing out the caves As in other Pacific island battles; flamethrowers, flame tanks, and TNT were the most effective weapons in the against the Japanese Bunkers and Pillboxes.. The TNT was used to blow the tunnels wide open. Flame tanks and flamethrowers were positioned at the entrances of the tunnels. When they shot, the fire would go deep into the caves and burned up the oxygen, burn up Japanese soldiers as well as flush them out.

Victory This bloody struggle continued for weeks as the Marines continued to clear the area. When the end was near, the Japanese had only two small pockets of defense at the extreme northern part of the island. The remaining Japanese did resort to a series of suicide attacks. Fighting ended on March 23, 1945. VICTORY!

High Price Paid America 6,821 killed - (30%) of the Marines that landed on Iwo Jima. 19,300+ were wounded 1/3 of all USMC killed in WW II killed on Iwo 27 Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded. 2,400 disabled B-29 bombers landed on the island: saving 30,000 American Airmen Japan Almost all of the Japanese were killed, including General Kuribayashi (approx. 21,000 killed or suicide). Only 1083 (268 were soldiers and the rest foreign laborers) were captured.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly The Good The seizing of Iwo enabled the direct attack on Japan. Ironically, the number of airmen lives saved by having airfields on Iwo nearly matched the number of Marine casualties First time in history that the Marines suffered greater casualties than the island defenders. Fears of what lies ahead with the Japanese at Okinawa or Mainland Japan. Excellent coordination between US Marine and Navy of air/naval guns

The Good, Bad, and Ugly The Bad Underestimation of Japanese strength; Bad military intelligence predicting Japanese would defend the beaches Underestimation of number of US casualties; 26121 casualties. Poor analysis of the terrain Most effective Marine offensive fires provided by field artillery – KING OF BATTLE! HOOAH!

The Good, Bad, and Ugly The Ugly 3-day US Naval bombardment inadequate – did nothing to the Japanese defenses. Poorly trained Marine replacement troops after previous campaigns. Iwo Jima could get as hot as 115 degrees and had no sources of ground water. Water availability was always an issue on Iwo Jima for the Marines.

Japanese Holdouts Japan suffered a heavy loss; about 22,000 Japanese troops were entrenched on the island died fighting or by ritual suicide. Only 268 were captured during the course of battle. After Iwo Jima, it was estimated there were no more than 300 Japanese left alive in the island's warren of caves and tunnels.  The Japanese bushido code of honor, coupled with effective propaganda which portrayed American G.I.s as ruthless animals, prevented surrender for many Japanese soldiers. Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki, lasted four (4) years without being caught and finally surrendered on 6 January 1949

“Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue”