Iwo Jima
Encyclopedia
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japan
ese Volcano Islands
chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands
and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located 650 nmi (748 mi; 1,203.8 km) south of mainland Tokyo
and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo (but is presently uninhabited). It is famous as the setting of the February–March 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima
between the United States
and the Empire of Japan
during World War II
. The island grew in recognition in the west when the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
was taken during the battle. The U.S. occupied
Iwo Jima until 1968, when it was returned to Japan.
's third surveying voyage.
The historical spelling iwautau had come to be pronounced (approximately) Iwōtō by the age of Western exploration, and the 1946 orthography reform fixed the spelling and pronunciation at Iōtō. An alternative, Iwōjima, modern Iōjima, also appeared in nautical atlases.
Tō and shima are different readings of the kanji
for , the shima is changed to
jima in this case.
Japanese naval officers who arrived to fortify the island before the U.S. invasion mistakenly called it Iwo Jima. In this way, the "Iwo Jima" reading became mainstream and was the one used by U.S. forces who arrived during World War II. Former island residents protested against this rendering, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Geographical Survey Institute debated the issue and formally announced on June 18, 2007, that the official Japanese pronunciation of the island's name would be reverted to the pre-war Iōtō. Moves to revert the pronunciation were sparked by the high profile films Flags of Our Fathers
and Letters from Iwo Jima
. The change does not affect how the name is written with kanji, "", only how it is pronounced or written in hiragana
, katakana
and rōmaji
.
owl, the summit of Mount Suribachi is the highest point on the island. Iwo Jima is unusually flat and featureless for a volcanic island. Suribachi is the only obvious volcanic feature, as it is only the resurgent dome
(raised centre) of a larger submerged volcanic caldera
.
Captain Cook's surveying crew in 1776 to 1779 landed on a beach which is now 40 metres (131 ft) above sea level due to volcanic uplifting. Such uplifting occurs on the island at a varying rate of between 100 and 800 mm (3.9 and 31.5 in) per year, with an average rate of 200 millimetres (8 in) per year.
Forty-three nautical miles (50 mi, 80 km) north of the island is and 32 nmi (36.8 mi; 59.3 km) south lies , with the three islands making up the Volcano Islands
group of the Ogasawara Islands
. Just south of Minamiiōjima are the Mariana Islands
.
Iwo Jima has a history of minor volcanic activity a few times per year (fumarole
s, discolored patches of seawater nearby), but so far no sign of a big eruption coming.
and was (as it is today) part of Tokyo . A census in June 1943 reported an island civilian population of 1018 (533 males, 485 females) in 192 households in six settlements. The island had a primary school, a Shinto
shrine, and a single police officer; it was serviced by a mail ship from Haha-jima
once a month, as well as a Nippon Yusen
ship once every couple of months. The island's economy relied upon sulfur
mining, sugarcane
farming, and fishing
; an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with poor economic prospect, Iwo Jima had to import all rice
and consumer goods from the Home Islands
.
Even before the beginning of World War II, there was a garrison of the Imperial Japanese Navy
at the southern part of Iwo Jima. It was off-limits to the island's civilian population, who already had little contact with the naval personnel, except for trade purposes.
Throughout 1944 there was a massive military buildup on Iwo Jima, in anticipation of a U.S. invasion; in July its civilian population was forcibly evacuated, and no civilians have permanently settled on the island since.
of World War II. The Marine invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was charged with the mission of capturing the airfield
s on the island which up until that time had harried U.S. bombing missions to Tokyo. Once the bases were secured, they could then be of use in the impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.
The battle was marked by some of the fiercest fighting of the War. The Imperial Japanese Army
positions on the island were heavily fortified
, with vast bunker
s, hidden artillery
, and 18 kilometres (11 mi) of tunnels. The battle was the first U.S. attack on the Japanese Home Islands
and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, over 20,000 were killed and only 1,083 taken prisoner.
One of the first objectives after landing on the beachhead was the taking of Mount Suribachi. At the second raising of a flag on the peak, Joe Rosenthal
photographed six Marines
: Ira Hayes
, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon
, Harlon Block
, Franklin Sousley
, and U.S. Navy
corpsman John Bradley raising the U.S. flag
on the fourth day of the battle (February 23). The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography
that same year, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.
Within the next month of fighting, three of the Marines raising the flag were killed: Strank, Block and Sousley. Contrary to popular belief, the famous picture of the six men raising the flag, was not the first time they raised it. The raised it about twenty minutes before hand, and then the photographer got there. The photographer had them take it down so he could get a famous picture of them putting it up "for the first time."
After the fall of Mt. Suribachi in the south, the Japanese still held a strong position throughout the island. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
still had the equivalent of eight infantry battalions, a tank regiment, two artillery and three heavy mortar battalions, plus the 5,000 gunners and naval infantry. With the landing area secure, more troops and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields and the remainder of the island. Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death. On the night of March 25, a 300-man Japanese force launched a final counterattack. The Marines suffered heavy casualties; more than 100 were killed and another 200 Americans were wounded. The island was officially declared "secured" the following day.
According to the United States Navy “the 36-day (Iwo Jima) assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead.” To put that into context, the 82-day Battle of Okinawa
lasted from early April until mid-June 1945 and U.S. (5 Army and 2 Marine Corps Divisions) casualties were over 62,000 of whom over 12,000 were killed or missing, while the Battle of the Bulge
lasted 40 days (16 Dec 44 – 25 Jan 45) with almost 90,000 U.S. casualties of; 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, and 23,000 captured or missing.
After Iwo Jima was declared secured, about three thousand Japanese soldiers were left alive in the island's warren of caves and tunnels. Those who could not bring themselves to commit suicide
hid in the caves during the day and came out at night to prowl for provisions. Some did eventually surrender and were surprised that the Americans often received them with compassion—offering them water, cigarettes, or coffee. The last of these stragglers, two of Lieutenant Toshihiko Ohno's men (Ohno's body was never found), Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki
, lasted six years, surrendering in 1951 (another source gives the date of surrender as January 6, 1949).
The U.S. military occupied
Iwo Jima until 1968, when it was returned to Japan.
It has been reported that many of the Japanese remains in Iwo Jima are missing their skulls. It is possible that the souvenir collection of body remains continued also in the immediate post-war period. (See American mutilation of Japanese war dead
)
During the memorial service a granite plaque was unveiled with the message:
It is inscribed on both sides of the plaque, with the English translation facing the beaches where U.S. forces landed and the Japanese translation facing inland, where Japanese troops defended their position.
After that, the Japan-U.S. combination memorial service of the 50th anniversary was held in front of this monument in March 1995. The 55th anniversary was held in 2000, followed by a 60th reunion in March 2005 (see U.S. National Park Service photo below).
(JMSDF) operates a naval air base on the island at North Field
. The airstrip is 2,650 meters (8,700 ft) long and 60 meters (200 ft) wide. Its orientation is 07/25. The JMSDF is in charge of support, air-traffic control, fueling, and rescue. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force
also uses the base. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
is in charge of explosive-ordnance disposal, and maintains a garrison of 400 troops on the island. Two abandoned airfields from World War II are located nearby, Central Field
to the south of the current air base, and an unfinished Japanese airfield to the north of the base, which was improved following the US invasion of the island.
The U.S. Navy's Carrier Air Wing Five
, based at the United States Naval Air Facility Atsugi
when not embarked/deployed aboard , also uses the base for field carrier landing practice (FCLP). The U.S. Navy
still has a 1639 acres (663.3 ha) disfunctioned communication facility (Iwo-Jima Communication Site) on the island, while the U.S. Coast Guard's Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter
facility was transferred to Japan in 1993 and demolished in 1994.
Civilian access to the island is restricted to those attending memorial services for U.S. and Japanese fallen soldiers, construction workers for the naval air base, and meteorological agency
officials. The Japanese troops stationed on the island register their residential addresses
in Ayase, Kanagawa
or Sayama, Saitama
for voting, tax, and social security purposes. Officially, there is no population on the island.
, according to Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr writing for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in early 2000.
This is despite a Japanese policy of not allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. Whether the site is currently used for this purpose is unknown, as great secrecy surrounds the United States’ siting of nuclear arms bases; but on December 12, 1999, U.S. Under Secretary for Defense Policy Walter Slocombe told The New York Times
, “Our position is that there have been no violations of our obligations under the security treaty and related arrangements.”
Norris, Arkin and Burr concluded however:
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Volcano Islands
Volcano Islands
The Volcano Islands is a group of three Japanese islands south of the Bonin Islands that belong to the municipality of Ogasawara...
chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands
Ogasawara Islands
The Bonin Islands, known in Japan as the are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan. Administratively, they are part of Ogasawara Municipality of Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo...
and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located 650 nmi (748 mi; 1,203.8 km) south of mainland Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo (but is presently uninhabited). It is famous as the setting of the February–March 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Empire of Japan. The U.S...
between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The island grew in recognition in the west when the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.The photograph was extremely...
was taken during the battle. The U.S. occupied
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
Iwo Jima until 1968, when it was returned to Japan.
Name
In 1779, the island was charted as Sulphur Island, the literal translation of its official name, during Captain James CookJames Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's third surveying voyage.
The historical spelling iwautau had come to be pronounced (approximately) Iwōtō by the age of Western exploration, and the 1946 orthography reform fixed the spelling and pronunciation at Iōtō. An alternative, Iwōjima, modern Iōjima, also appeared in nautical atlases.
Tō and shima are different readings of the kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
for , the shima is changed to
Rendaku
is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word...
jima in this case.
Japanese naval officers who arrived to fortify the island before the U.S. invasion mistakenly called it Iwo Jima. In this way, the "Iwo Jima" reading became mainstream and was the one used by U.S. forces who arrived during World War II. Former island residents protested against this rendering, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Geographical Survey Institute debated the issue and formally announced on June 18, 2007, that the official Japanese pronunciation of the island's name would be reverted to the pre-war Iōtō. Moves to revert the pronunciation were sparked by the high profile films Flags of Our Fathers
Flags of Our Fathers (film)
is a 2006 American war film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis. It is based on the book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who were involved...
and Letters from Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima
is a 2006 war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, which depicts the same battle from the...
. The change does not affect how the name is written with kanji, "", only how it is pronounced or written in hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
, katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
and rōmaji
Romanization of Japanese
The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
.
Geographic features
The island has an approximate area of 21 square kilometres (8 sq mi). The most prominent feature is Mount Suribachi on the southern tip, a vent that is thought to be dormant and is 161 metres (528 ft) high. Named after a Japanese grinding bSuribachi
Suribachi and surikogi are a Japanese mortar and pestle. These mortars are used in Japanese cooking to crush different ingredients such as sesame seeds....
owl, the summit of Mount Suribachi is the highest point on the island. Iwo Jima is unusually flat and featureless for a volcanic island. Suribachi is the only obvious volcanic feature, as it is only the resurgent dome
Resurgent dome
In geology, a resurgent dome is a dome formed by swelling or rising of a caldera floor due to movement in the magma chamber beneath it. Unlike a lava dome, a resurgent dome is not formed by the extrusion of highly viscous lava onto the surface, but rather by the uplift and deformation of the...
(raised centre) of a larger submerged volcanic caldera
Caldera
A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...
.
Captain Cook's surveying crew in 1776 to 1779 landed on a beach which is now 40 metres (131 ft) above sea level due to volcanic uplifting. Such uplifting occurs on the island at a varying rate of between 100 and 800 mm (3.9 and 31.5 in) per year, with an average rate of 200 millimetres (8 in) per year.
Forty-three nautical miles (50 mi, 80 km) north of the island is and 32 nmi (36.8 mi; 59.3 km) south lies , with the three islands making up the Volcano Islands
Volcano Islands
The Volcano Islands is a group of three Japanese islands south of the Bonin Islands that belong to the municipality of Ogasawara...
group of the Ogasawara Islands
Ogasawara Islands
The Bonin Islands, known in Japan as the are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan. Administratively, they are part of Ogasawara Municipality of Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo...
. Just south of Minamiiōjima are the Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
.
Iwo Jima has a history of minor volcanic activity a few times per year (fumarole
Fumarole
A fumarole is an opening in a planet's crust, often in the neighborhood of volcanoes, which emits steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, and hydrogen sulfide. The steam is created when superheated water turns to steam as its pressure drops when it emerges from...
s, discolored patches of seawater nearby), but so far no sign of a big eruption coming.
History
Before 1945
Before World War II, Iwo Jima was administered as Iōjima villageIōjima, Tokyo
was a village in the Japanese prefecture of Tokyo. Its administrative area covered the whole island of Iwo Jima, one of the Volcano Islands. It existed from 1923 when the Ogasawara islands were organized into modern municipalities to 1952 when mainland Tokyo returned to Japanese sovereignty and Iwo...
and was (as it is today) part of Tokyo . A census in June 1943 reported an island civilian population of 1018 (533 males, 485 females) in 192 households in six settlements. The island had a primary school, a Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
shrine, and a single police officer; it was serviced by a mail ship from Haha-jima
Haha-jima
is the second-largest island of the Ogasawara Islands or Bonin Islands south of the Japanese main island chain. It is about 21 km² in area.The highest points are Mt. Chibusa , approximately 462m, and Mt. Sakaigatake , 443m. The largest island of the group, Chichi-jima is approximately...
once a month, as well as a Nippon Yusen
Nippon Yusen
Japan-based or NYK Line, is one of the largest shipping companies in the world. It is a core Mitsubishi company. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo.-1870-1900:...
ship once every couple of months. The island's economy relied upon sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
mining, sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
farming, and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
; an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with poor economic prospect, Iwo Jima had to import all rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
and consumer goods from the Home Islands
Japanese Archipelago
The , which forms the country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean...
.
Even before the beginning of World War II, there was a garrison of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
at the southern part of Iwo Jima. It was off-limits to the island's civilian population, who already had little contact with the naval personnel, except for trade purposes.
Throughout 1944 there was a massive military buildup on Iwo Jima, in anticipation of a U.S. invasion; in July its civilian population was forcibly evacuated, and no civilians have permanently settled on the island since.
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The invasion of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945, and continued to March 26, 1945. The battle was a major initiative of the Pacific CampaignPacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
of World War II. The Marine invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was charged with the mission of capturing the airfield
Airbase
An airbase is a military airfield that provides basing and support of military aircraft....
s on the island which up until that time had harried U.S. bombing missions to Tokyo. Once the bases were secured, they could then be of use in the impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.
The battle was marked by some of the fiercest fighting of the War. The Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
positions on the island were heavily fortified
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
, with vast bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
s, hidden artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, and 18 kilometres (11 mi) of tunnels. The battle was the first U.S. attack on the Japanese Home Islands
Japanese Archipelago
The , which forms the country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean...
and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, over 20,000 were killed and only 1,083 taken prisoner.
One of the first objectives after landing on the beachhead was the taking of Mount Suribachi. At the second raising of a flag on the peak, Joe Rosenthal
Joe Rosenthal
Joseph John Rosenthal was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima. His picture became one of the best-known photographs of the war.-Early life:Joseph Rosenthal was born on...
photographed six Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
: Ira Hayes
Ira Hayes
Ira Hamilton Hayes was a Pima Native American and an American Marine who was one of the six men immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona, and enlisted in the Marine...
, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon
Rene Gagnon
Rene Arthur Gagnon was one of the U.S. Marines immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.-Early life:...
, Harlon Block
Harlon Block
Harlon Henry Block was a United States Marine during World War II. Born in Texas, Block joined the Marine Corps in November 1943 and subsequently saw action during the Battle of Bougainville and the Battle of Iwo Jima where he was killed in action...
, Franklin Sousley
Franklin Sousley
Franklin Runyon Sousley was one of the six men in the famous photograph of United States Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II.-Childhood:...
, and U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
corpsman John Bradley raising the U.S. flag
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.The photograph was extremely...
on the fourth day of the battle (February 23). The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography
Pulitzer Prize for Photography
The Pulitzer Prize for Photography was one of the Pulitzer Prizes. It was awarded from 1942 until 1967. In 1968, it was split into two separate prizes: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography .* 1942: Milton Brooks of Detroit News, for his photo...
that same year, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.
Within the next month of fighting, three of the Marines raising the flag were killed: Strank, Block and Sousley. Contrary to popular belief, the famous picture of the six men raising the flag, was not the first time they raised it. The raised it about twenty minutes before hand, and then the photographer got there. The photographer had them take it down so he could get a famous picture of them putting it up "for the first time."
After the fall of Mt. Suribachi in the south, the Japanese still held a strong position throughout the island. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
Tadamichi Kuribayashi
General was a haiku poet, diplomat, and General of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. He is best known for being overall commander of the Japanese garrison during the Battle of Iwo Jima....
still had the equivalent of eight infantry battalions, a tank regiment, two artillery and three heavy mortar battalions, plus the 5,000 gunners and naval infantry. With the landing area secure, more troops and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields and the remainder of the island. Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death. On the night of March 25, a 300-man Japanese force launched a final counterattack. The Marines suffered heavy casualties; more than 100 were killed and another 200 Americans were wounded. The island was officially declared "secured" the following day.
According to the United States Navy “the 36-day (Iwo Jima) assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead.” To put that into context, the 82-day Battle of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
lasted from early April until mid-June 1945 and U.S. (5 Army and 2 Marine Corps Divisions) casualties were over 62,000 of whom over 12,000 were killed or missing, while the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
lasted 40 days (16 Dec 44 – 25 Jan 45) with almost 90,000 U.S. casualties of; 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, and 23,000 captured or missing.
After Iwo Jima was declared secured, about three thousand Japanese soldiers were left alive in the island's warren of caves and tunnels. Those who could not bring themselves to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
hid in the caves during the day and came out at night to prowl for provisions. Some did eventually surrender and were surprised that the Americans often received them with compassion—offering them water, cigarettes, or coffee. The last of these stragglers, two of Lieutenant Toshihiko Ohno's men (Ohno's body was never found), Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki
Japanese holdout
Japanese holdouts or stragglers were Japanese soldiers in the Pacific Theatre who, after the August 1945 surrender of Japan that marked the end of World War II, either adamantly doubted the veracity of the formal surrender due to strong dogmatic or militaristic principles, or were not aware of it...
, lasted six years, surrendering in 1951 (another source gives the date of surrender as January 6, 1949).
The U.S. military occupied
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
Iwo Jima until 1968, when it was returned to Japan.
It has been reported that many of the Japanese remains in Iwo Jima are missing their skulls. It is possible that the souvenir collection of body remains continued also in the immediate post-war period. (See American mutilation of Japanese war dead
American mutilation of Japanese war dead
During World War II, some United States military personnel mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as “war souvenirs” and “war trophies”...
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Reunion of Honor
On February 19, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the day that U.S. forces began the assault on the island, veterans from both forces gathered for the Reunion of Honor just a few meters away from the spot where U.S. Marines had landed on the island.During the memorial service a granite plaque was unveiled with the message:
On the 40th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, American and Japanese veterans met again on these same sands, this time in peace and friendship. We commemorate our comrades, living and dead, who fought here with bravery and honor, and we pray together that our sacrifices on Iwo Jima will always be remembered and never be repeated.
It is inscribed on both sides of the plaque, with the English translation facing the beaches where U.S. forces landed and the Japanese translation facing inland, where Japanese troops defended their position.
After that, the Japan-U.S. combination memorial service of the 50th anniversary was held in front of this monument in March 1995. The 55th anniversary was held in 2000, followed by a 60th reunion in March 2005 (see U.S. National Park Service photo below).
Japanese military base
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense ForceJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force
The , or JMSDF, is the naval branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. It was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War II....
(JMSDF) operates a naval air base on the island at North Field
North Field (Iwo Jima)
North Field or Iwo Jima Air Base is a World War II airfield on Iwo Jima in the Bonin Islands, located in the Central Pacific. The Bonin Islands are part of Japan...
. The airstrip is 2,650 meters (8,700 ft) long and 60 meters (200 ft) wide. Its orientation is 07/25. The JMSDF is in charge of support, air-traffic control, fueling, and rescue. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force
Japan Air Self-Defense Force
The , or JASDF, is the aviation branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace and other aerospace operations. The JASDF carries out combat air patrols around Japan, while also maintaining an extensive network of ground and air early warning radar systems...
also uses the base. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
The , or JGSDF, is the army of Japan. The largest of the three services of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, the Ground Self-Defense Force operates under the command of the chief of the ground staff, based in the city of Ichigaya, Tokyo. The present chief of ground staff is General Yoshifumi Hibako...
is in charge of explosive-ordnance disposal, and maintains a garrison of 400 troops on the island. Two abandoned airfields from World War II are located nearby, Central Field
Central Field (Iwo Jima)
Central Field was a World War II airfield on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, located in the Central Pacific. The Volcano Islands are part of Japan. The airfield was located on the southern corner of Iwo Jima located on the Motoyama plateau, to the north of Mount Suribachi.It was abandoned after...
to the south of the current air base, and an unfinished Japanese airfield to the north of the base, which was improved following the US invasion of the island.
The U.S. Navy's Carrier Air Wing Five
Carrier Air Wing Five
Carrier Air Wing Five , is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington .-Mission:...
, based at the United States Naval Air Facility Atsugi
Naval Air Facility Atsugi
is a naval air base located in the cities of Yamato and Ayase in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is the largest United States Navy air base in the Pacific Ocean and houses the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing 5, which deploys with the aircraft carrier...
when not embarked/deployed aboard , also uses the base for field carrier landing practice (FCLP). The U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
still has a 1639 acres (663.3 ha) disfunctioned communication facility (Iwo-Jima Communication Site) on the island, while the U.S. Coast Guard's Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter
Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter
Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter was a LORAN-C transmitter at Iwo Jima, Japan of Grid 9970 at . Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter had a transmission power of 4000 kilowatts, which is more than the most powerful broadcasting stations....
facility was transferred to Japan in 1993 and demolished in 1994.
Civilian access to the island is restricted to those attending memorial services for U.S. and Japanese fallen soldiers, construction workers for the naval air base, and meteorological agency
Japan Meteorological Agency
The or JMA, is the Japanese government's weather service. Charged with gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, it is a semi-autonomous part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport...
officials. The Japanese troops stationed on the island register their residential addresses
Juminhyo
A is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each citizen to report his or her current address to the local authorities who compile the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.The jūminhyō is different...
in Ayase, Kanagawa
Ayase, Kanagawa
is a city in central Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is on the east bank of the Sagami River and is bordered by Yamato, Fujisawa and Ebina cities. It should not be confused with a neighborhood of the same name in Adachi, Tokyo. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 82,738 and a...
or Sayama, Saitama
Sayama, Saitama
, formerly known as Irumagawa, is a city located in Saitama, Japan. Sayama translates as "sitting on a mountain”. The city was founded on July 1, 1954....
for voting, tax, and social security purposes. Officially, there is no population on the island.
U.S. nuclear arms base
Iwo Jima appears to be one of a number of Japanese islands which has been used by the United States to host nuclear armsNuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
, according to Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr writing for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in early 2000.
This is despite a Japanese policy of not allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. Whether the site is currently used for this purpose is unknown, as great secrecy surrounds the United States’ siting of nuclear arms bases; but on December 12, 1999, U.S. Under Secretary for Defense Policy Walter Slocombe told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, “Our position is that there have been no violations of our obligations under the security treaty and related arrangements.”
Norris, Arkin and Burr concluded however:
There were nuclear weapons on Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima (Iwo To), an enormous and varied nuclear arsenal on Okinawa, nuclear bombs (without their fission cores) stored on the mainland at MisawaMisawa Air Baseright|thumb|A US Navy C-2 at Misawa is a United States military facility located northeast of the railway station in Misawa, west of the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Towada, northwest of Hachinohe, and north of Tokyo, in Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region in the northern part of the...
and Itazuki airbases (and possibly at AtsugiNaval Air Facility Atsugiis a naval air base located in the cities of Yamato and Ayase in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is the largest United States Navy air base in the Pacific Ocean and houses the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing 5, which deploys with the aircraft carrier...
, IwakuniMarine Corps Air Station IwakuniMarine Corps Air Station Iwakuni or MCAS Iwakuni is a United States Marine Corps air station located in the Nishiki river delta, southeast of the Iwakuni Station in the city of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi in Japan.-Tenant commands:...
, JohnsonIruma Air Baseis a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base located in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, north of western Tokyo, Japan.Iruma Air Base is currently home to the Air Defense Command Headquarters Flight Group...
, and Komaki airbases as well), and nuclear-armed U.S. Navy ships stationed in SaseboUnited States Fleet Activities SaseboU.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a United States Navy naval base, in Sasebo, Japan, on the island of Kyūshū. It provides facilities for the logistic support of forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the United States Pacific Fleet and designated tenant activities.- History :Sasebo...
and YokosukaUnited States Fleet Activities YokosukaU.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, or Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka is a United States Navy base, in Yokosuka, Japan. Its mission is to maintain and operate base facilities for the logistic, recreational, administrative support and service of the U.S. Naval Forces Japan, U.S. 7th Fleet and...
. […] Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their plutoniumPlutoniumPlutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
and/ or uraniumUraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
cores, and that the nuclear-armed ships were a legal inch away from Japanese soil. All in all, this elaborate stratagem maintained the technicality that the United States had no nuclear weapons “in Japan.”
See also
- Battle of Iwo JimaBattle of Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Empire of Japan. The U.S...
- Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitterIwo Jima LORAN-C transmitterIwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter was a LORAN-C transmitter at Iwo Jima, Japan of Grid 9970 at . Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter had a transmission power of 4000 kilowatts, which is more than the most powerful broadcasting stations....
- List of volcanoes in Japan
- Raising the flag on Iwo JimaRaising the Flag on Iwo JimaRaising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.The photograph was extremely...
- USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7)USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7)USS Iwo Jima is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship.Fabrication work for Iwo Jima began at Ingalls shipyard on 3 September 1996, and the ship's keel was laid on 12 December 1997. She was launched on 4 February 2000. USS Iwo Jima was christened by her sponsor, Mrs. Zandra Krulak, wife of General...