Within days, some 70, U. Marines landed on Iwo Jima. Although they significantly outnumbered their Japanese enemies on the island by a more than three-to-one margin , many Americans were wounded or killed over the five weeks of fighting, with some estimates suggesting more than 25, casualties, including nearly 7, deaths. The Japanese, meanwhile, were also suffering major losses, and were running low on supplies—namely, weapons and food.
Just four days into the fighting, U. That image was captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the iconic photograph. Battles raged on in the northern part of Iwo Jima for four weeks, with Kuribayashi essentially setting up a garrison in the mountains in that part of the island. The American forces sustained a number of casualties, but ultimately quelled the attack.
Dozens of Americans were killed during this process. In the end, neither the U. Army nor the U. Navy Seabees, or construction battalions, did rebuild the airfields for Air Force pilots to use in case of emergency landings. Because of the brutality of the fighting, and the fact that the battle occurred fairly close to the end of World War II, Iwo Jima—and those who lost their lives trying to capture the island—retain a great deal of significance even today, decades after the fighting stopped.
In , the U. The first depicts the battle from the American perspective, while the latter shows it from the Japanese perspective. Brimelow, B. Naval History and Heritage Command. Gerow, A. Holland Smith, the commander of the invasion force, aimed to capture the island and use its three airfields as bases to carry out air attacks against the Home Islands.
From early until the days leading up to the invasion, Kuribayashi transformed the island into a massive network of bunkers, hidden guns, and 11 miles of underground tunnels. The heavy American naval and air bombardment did little but drive the Japanese further underground, making their positions impervious to enemy fire.
Their pillboxes and bunkers were all connected so that if one was knocked out it could be reoccupied again. The network of bunkers and pillboxes greatly favored the defender. Starting in mid-June , Iwo Jima came under sustained aerial bombardment and naval artillery fire. For some time, they did not come under fire. As soon as the Marines pushed inland to a line of enemy bunkers, they came under devastating machine gun and artillery fire which cut down many of the men.
By the end of the day, the Marines reached the west coast of the island, but their losses were appalling: almost 2, men killed or wounded. For the rest of February, the Americans pushed north, and by March 1 had taken two-thirds of the island, but it was not until March 26 that the island was finally secured.
The Japanese fought to the last man, killing 6, Marines and wounding nearly 20, more. The Japanese losses totaled well over 20, men killed, and only 1, prisoners were taken. Historians debate whether it was strategically worth the casualties sustained.
Iwo Jima: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal, became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and came to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war.
The day-long battle lasted from April 1 until June 22, Both engagements occurred towards the end of the Pacific War, as the United States sought to capture strategically important territories ahead of a planned invasion of Japan.
Both battles resulted in huge numbers of casualties. It was situated half-way between the Mariana Islands — where America now had airfields — and the Japanese homeland, and thus presented the next logical step on the route towards an assault on Japan. Iwo Jima was also home to an operational Japanese airbase, from which Japan launched fighters to intercept American B Superfortress bombers en route to Tokyo.
Capturing Iwo Jima would not only clear a path for bombing assaults on the Japanese homeland, it would also provide the US with an emergency landing and refuelling field and a base from which to provide fighter escorts for the B bombers. Okinawa was effectively viewed as the final push before an invasion of the mainland and thus a vital step towards ending the war.
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