Insider Details About Iwo Jima Are Shedding The Brutal Battle In A Whole New Light

These military skirmishes included the June 1942 Battle of Midway, six months on from the shock Pearl Harbor assault. The U.S. was able to score a major victory, and gain a considerable measure of revenge. It sank all four of the Japanese carriers — Soryu, Hiryu, Akagi, and Kaga — which had been involved in that unprovoked attack.

Indeed, like the numerous battles that had come before it, the Battle of Iwo Jima proved a major but not decisive victory. Japanese naval and air forces had taken a considerable beating, but the empire’s men were determined to stop the U.S. and Allied forces from reaching their mainland.

That island was Iwo Jima. One of the Japanese Volcano Islands lying south of the Bonin Islands that together make up the Ogasawara Archipelago, Iwo Jima is situated halfway between the mainland of Japan and the Mariana Islands. Its favorable location saw it eyed up as a potentially significant capture for the American — and by extension the Allied — cause.

Not only that, control over Iwo Jima would enable the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) to set up a strategic military base, from which those aircraft could attack the Japanese mainland, and make emergency landings when necessary. Taking it could turn the tide of the war still further in favor of America and the Allies.

All the same, the Japanese weren’t unprepared for an attempted attack. They fortified Iwo Jima with a sophisticated and sizable network of tunnels, bunkers, and artillery positions just in case of an American invasion.

But the U.S. did not know about the sophisticated network of tunnels and bunkers, nor the concealed artillery positions. In fact, Iwo Jima’s tunnels spanned 11 miles around the tiny island and connected some 1,500 rooms, bunkers, artillery placements, ammo dumps, and pillboxes.

The fortification of Iwo Jima was carried out under the watchful eye of Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. At his behest, from May 1944 accomplished Japanese engineers toiled to carve out that astonishing labyrinth of underground bunkers, pillboxes, barracks, artillery emplacements, and command posts. As a result, all of the island’s defensive positions were linked, heavily fortified, and well camouflaged.

Kuribayashi came from Samurai lineage, and he was an experienced and decorated veteran: it’s fair to say that letting down the Emperor of Japan in battle was not a prospect he could countenance. Kuribayashi was determined to serve his country and empire with all he had.

Being the canny field commander that he was, Kuribayashi recognized these mistakes. Taking on the might of the U.S. military in that manner whilst trying to stop an invasion inland was almost impossible and likely doomed to failure. So, Kuribayashi used his brain and dreamed up a more intelligent strategy.

It’s worth remembering that Kuribayashi was willfully ditching a long-standing and proud Japanese doctrine when it came to defense, and in particular that for taking on amphibious assaults. And he encountered plenty of opposition from subordinate commanders. But he knew his nation would be at a considerable disadvantage in terms of the hardware and sheer numbers of the United States.

It was decided that preparatory attacks would soften up the island for the later assault, and a three-day, relentless bombardment of Iwo Jima was undertaken. Major General Harry Schmidt and his counterpart Lieutant General Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith — two of the military leaders put in direct charge of the Iwo Jima campaign — had actually asked for ten days of heavy shelling, but after much butting of heads between the Marines and the Navy, their request was rejected.

Iwo Jima was pounded from the air and sea. Army B-24 Liberators dropped copious amounts of bombs on the island, in an assault that actually began in December 1943. Meanwhile, under the command of Rear Admiral William Blandy, the big guns onboard the Arkansas, Idaho, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, and Texas Navy ships blasted the island for three days from February 16.

But the U.S. forces and their leaders were — if not unanimously — now largely convinced that after the bombing campaign, they would take Iwo Jima with relative ease. As such, Operation Detachment was given the green light.

Smith, meanwhile, assumed command of the landing forces, whilst the direct field command of the three divisions — the so-called V Amphibious Corps — was assigned to Schmidt. The battle for control of Iwo Jima — and its two strategically located airfields — was on.

The U.S. commanders hadn’t done their homework well enough, and the difficult landscape of Iwo Jima proved troublesome right away. For instance, the black beaches that the U.S. Marines landed on were not “easy,” as had been predicted, but proved extremely tough to clamber across. Their soft, black volcanic ash and steep dunes did not allow soldiers to get a decent footing, and vehicles also found it hard to gain traction.

It’s likely that the Americans had been heartened by the lack of resistance to their initial landing. Perhaps the bombing campaign on the island had rendered the Japanese defenses almost inconsequential after all?

The Japanese defenses were so meticulously set up that the artillery could fire upon the beached U.S. Marines from all possible angles. The Americans were stunned and pinned down in a terrifying onslaught of bullets and mortar shells, on ground where it was hard to get a good foothold.

The Japanese also unleashed another of their now-infamous defense strategies: kamikaze pilots. Effectively suicide-bomb attacks from the skies, the pilots were tasked with destroying as many U.S. Navy vessels as they could, even though their actions inevitably spelled their own fiery deaths.

The Japanese forces that Kuribayashi had assembled were not only capable fighters but, almost to a man, were willing to battle to the death for their country and Emperor. There would be no straightforward mass surrender to the invading American marines here.

But Kuribayashi resolved to inflict as many casualties on the invading enemy as was humanly possible and keep them bogged down on Iwo Jima for two main reasons. Firstly, it would give his homeland a bit more time to plan for an expected mainland invasion. Secondly, it might destroy U.S. morale, and perhaps make America think twice about such an attack.

Kuribayashi had placed the majority of his forces on the northern part of Iwo Jima, hiding inside the underground bunkers and manning the gun positions that were joined together by their miles of tunnels. The commander’s tactical nous, coupled with those smartly built defensive positions, meant that the Japanese were able to exact a deadly toll on the U.S. Marines.

This was, of course, one of the stated missions of Operation Detachment. Despite suffering significant casualties, the U.S. Marines had partly achieved one of the main goals. But if the Americans felt that things would get easier from there on in, they were soon disabused of the notion.

Sadly, about a tenth of the U.S. forces would be killed in action. What’s more, there were around 18,000 U.S. Marines who were injured on top of almost 7,000 deaths. These shocking statistics serve to illustrate just how deadly the battle for Iwo Jima had been.

As well as having many of their soldiers killed, several days into the battle the Japanese began to run out of supplies of food and ammunition. Of course, they were only able to dig in, while the U.S. could summon more men and supplies by sea.

And the Japanese defenders of Iwo Jima were adept at using the intricate tunnel system they had built to their advantage. In fact, the U.S. Marines were often left shocked that bunker positions they believed they had completely cleared with flamethrowers or grenades, were quickly reoccupied with more Japanese troops.

All that is before mentioning the superior firepower and better supply chains enjoyed by the U.S. forces. So unsurprisingly, the Marines began to have more success in rooting out the Japanese from their tunnel networks and pillboxes in close-quarter battles.

As a result of this calculation, every battalion was provided with one, and a single soldier designated as its operator. Subsequently, many of the Japanese troops that were hiding in pillboxes, tunnels, and bunkers succumbed to a fiery and painful death.

When they made it to the top in the early afternoon of that day, six U.S. Marines raised an American flag at the summit, and they were photographed as they did it. But little did they know at that moment that the flag-raising would become an iconic image for the American military; it would come to symbolize the whole spirit of the country.

The six soldiers in the photograph were Sergeant Michael Strank, Private First Class Franklin Sousley, and Corporals Harlon Block, Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz, and Harold Keller. Several of them were only identified correctly many decades later.

The picture quickly attracted awe and acclaim, and it was subsequently reprinted in thousands of publications. Rosenthal was later rewarded with the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for the image, which seemed to capture the American spirit and that of the Marines perfectly.

Three of the soldiers featured in Rosenthal’s photograph — Strank, Block, and Sousley — were killed in the ensuing battle for Iwo Jima. But their sacrifice and heroism lives on through one of the most important images in American and military history.

The skirmishes against the Japanese were bloody, and several of them were subsequently given unofficial names by the Marines themselves. For instance, there was “The Meat Grinder” — a battle in which almost 850 American servicemen died in taking control of a Japanese fortress — and “Bloody Gorge,” the last stand by Japanese soldiers on the island.

This means that the ferocious 36-day fight against the Japanese produced more Medal of Honor recipients than any other battle in American history. A famous quote from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz summed up the heroism of the campaign. He remarked, “Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

The next day, Iwo Jima was declared captured by the U.S. It had been hard and bloody work, but they had won out eventually. Numerous Marines did spend several weeks traversing the island’s jungles to find the last few holdouts of the Japanese — of which there were several — but in effect, the U.S. had finally assumed control over this most strategically important of islands.

The casualty rate at Iwo Jima arguably helped bring a faster end to the six-year global conflict that was World War II. Like the wider the American public, the military commanders and planners of the Allies had been alarmed by the high loss of life. They calculated that it would be much worse if they invaded Japan’s mainland; this proved a key factor in adopting the eventual tactic of dropping atomic bombs on Japan to force its surrender instead.

After a 1945 documentary entitled To the Shores of Iwo Jima that was made by the U.S. Marine corps, the first major film about the battle came out just four years on from the campaign. Sands of Iwo Jima starred John Wayne as iron-willed Marine Sergeant John Stryker, who pushed his men into learning the survival skills needed for the battle.

But perhaps the most famous and acclaimed of the movies featuring Iwo Jima are the two that were directed by Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood. We are, of course, talking about Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. Released within months of each other, Eastwood intended the two movies as companion pieces. Essentially, they are two sides of the same coin, telling the story of the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima from the point of view of either side.

But he also had a tender side, as evidenced by the tone of the heartfelt letters to his family referenced in the title. Flags of Our Fathers, meanwhile, views things through an American prism, namely the six marines who planted the flag on Mount Suribachi. Both films garnered much critical acclaim, and they are now widely regarded as definitive.

There have been numerous commemorations of the Battle of Iwo Jima in the numerous decades since, including a major event in 1985 to commemorate its 40th anniversary. Besides the plaques and monuments marking the struggle, the Japanese now have their own naval air base on the island, which the U.S. Navy has also been known to use. The two once-warring countries are now on friendly terms, and happily any future hostilities between them at present seem highly unlikely.