Many recognize the Joe Rosenthal photo that captured the moment when five Marines and one Navy Corpsman raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima.
Few remember the bloody battle by land and by sea nor the number of lives lost before and after that February day when the flag was raised during a battle that raged until March 25, 1945, and helped lead to the end of World War II. With the current unrest in the Middle East, it is important to remember this past history.
On February 19, 1945, Marines began landing on Iwo Jima. The Pacific island was part of the fortifications held by the Japanese as they protected their homeland but was an important location that American B-29 bombers could use to refuel as they flew to and from Japan in the strategy to defeat the enemy and bring the war to an end. However, the task to take the island was not an easy one. As one Marine later commented, the Japanese weren’t just on Iwo Jima … they were in Iwo Jima.
Accounts of the battle tell of fierce gun fights and hand-to-hand combat as the Japanese, entrenched in practically every square inch of the island, fought to the death to protect Japan and their honor. They had fortified the island in a way that made its capture one of the bloodiest battles of World War II with tunnels that went two stories deep and spider holes and outlets everywhere, hidden by the thick jungle cover. A Marine would be talking to his buddy and two seconds later he would be blown to bits. The terrain was easy for the Japanese to navigate and a challenge for the Americans … jungle, ravines, ridges, rocks, and deep black sand.
Soldiers and Marines who survived, now in their 80s, still remember all that and more. They saw their friends, young men who were teenagers or young twenty-somethings, killed in front of them.
My father, now deceased, was a 20-year-old seaman manning the big 16″ guns on the USS Wisconsin, affectionately known as the Gray Lady. It was part of the 5th Fleet of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater that supported landing operations for those fighting on Iwo Jima. The Wisconsin used adverse weather conditions to achieve complete surprise in the days leading up to Iwo Jima. Preparing for the battle, it attacked the Japanese capital as a strategic cover for the invasion of Iwo Jima and disrupted its air force and destroyed industrial plants. It remained a forceful part of the battle through March and earned a Battle Star, its third, for the operations. An old water-damaged framed print of the USS Wisconsin that belonged to my dad, complete with stars and combat record, hangs in my living room as a reminder of my own military hero.
Gary Roy with the Iwo Jima Survivors Association recalled, “Iwo Jima is remembered as the bloodiest battle in Marine history. One third of all Marines killed in WWII, were killed on Iwo Jima. The total number of American who died there is 6,821 and there were over 19,000 casualties.”
Today a memorial wreath was laid at the National Iwo Jima Memorial in Connecticut. The survivors still gather but their numbers are dwindling so thank a World War II veteran today, before it’s too late. They helped save the world 66 years ago and for that they should not be forgotten.
