Today is anniversary of Iwo Jima invasion
On this date in 1945, US Marines landed on a volcanic rock of only eight square miles, Iwo Jima. It was the first home island of Japan to be invaded, being in Japanese law actually part of Tokyo. The island's dominating terrain was the volcano, Mt. Suribachi, where Marines clawed their way to the top and raised a flag.



As most history buffs know, this famous photo by UPI photographer Joe Rosenthal is a shot of the second flag raised on Suribachi. The first flag stayed aloft only a short time. It was replaced with this much larger flag because the first flag was too small to be seen well across the island and because the Marine regimental commander wanted to protect it for the regimental archives; he said at the time that if he didn't retrieve the first flag, it would wind up in the secretary of the Navy's office.

The Marines landed in mid-morning of Feb. 19 local time (the 18th in the US). For an hour the Japanese held their fire, then pounded the beach with all manner of arms from machine guns to mortars to light and heavy artillery. The volcanic soil was too loose to dig foxholes; the sides would collapse after only a few inches of depth. In a short time, the beach was a scene of carnage. Casualties were heavy.



There was no cover from Japanese fire which rained down on the landing force from Suribachi and the rest of the island. Death was literally in the air.

"Easy Company started with 310 men. We suffered 75% casualties. Only 50 men boarded the ship after the battle. Seven officers went into the battle with me. Only one--me--walked off Iwo." Captain Dave Severance, Commander of Easy Company, whose Marines a corpsman raised the flag.

Constantly under heavy fire, the Marines moved inland by dint of pure courage.



The objective in assaulting the island was to seize its airfield. Many long-range B-29 bombers battle damaged over Japan and their crews were being lost in the sea on the return trip. Iwo was to be an emergency landing strip and a fighter base for escorts. By the war's end the strip had saved the lives of 30,000 airmen, more men than the 6,891 Americans killed and 18,070 wounded taking the island. The first bomber to use the airfield landed on March 4 while the battle still raged. So primitive was the airfield at the time that the B-29 had to be refueled by using Marines' helmets as buckets. There was no power refueling rig on the island yet.

The Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, was probably the most respected officer in the Japanese army. He had been educated in Canada and had toured the United States extensively. He was one of a tiny number of military officers ever granted an audience with Emperor Hirohito.

Kuribayashi's tactical plan was a dramatic departure from previous Japanese practice. He forbade desperate banzai charges (the only banzai charge on Iwo, March 26, took place after Kuribayashi's death). The general also renounced giving open combat. By D-Day, he had masterminded the construction of 1,500 rooms into the volcanic rock. These were connected with many miles of tunnels. There was even a completely-equipped, underground hospital. The Japanese would fight from underground.

Artillery pieces on Suribachi were mounted on light rails behind steel doors recessed will into the mountain. After firing, the guns were wheeled back into their caves, practically impervious to American return fire.

Kuribayashi also assigned his soldiers a quota. He actually forbade them to die before they had killed either 10 Marines or one tank. He and all his troops knew they would not survive the battle, but they aimed to make American victory as costly as possible. In this they succeeded all too well.

The fighting was bitter to the end. By March 11, organized resistance ended, but fanatical Japanese soldiers fought in small teams on their own until they died. Of 22,000 Japanese on Iwo Jima, only 212 survived the battle.

Kuribayashi radioed an apology to the emperor about that time for failing to defend the island successfully, then took his own life in a cave overlooking the sea. His body was never recovered. The nighttime banzai charge of March 26 killed a number of Army Air Corps pilots in their cots, but otherwise was crushed by the Marines with their superior firepower. It marked the effective end of the fighting.

by Donald Sensing, 2/18/2005 07:39:00 PM. Permalink |