by Zachary Grant, 19 February 2025
This year we are honoring the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima. It just so happens this week’s Wednesday War Story falls on Feb 19, the first day of the battle. There’s no way I can share all that I learned while researching one of the most famous amphibious assaults by the United States Marine Corps. I greatly recommend reading Closing in: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima by Colonel Joseph H. Alexander, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret), to get a more in depth historical narrative of this battle. I’ll link to it in the reference section below.
Where is Iwo Jima?
Iwo Jima, which translated from Japanese means Sulphur Island, is located south of the Bonin Islands in the Pacific. It is about 750 miles south of Tokyo. Iwo Jima is about 10 square miles, with Mount Suribachi at the southern end of the island. At 556 feet tall, Suribachi had a commanding view of both the eastern and western landing beaches on the southern part of the island. The northern part of the island was ideal for the defender. Full of rough terrain and lots of caves, the Japanese made every effort to create an impenetrable fortress from this hunk of volcanic rock in the Pacific Ocean.
click images to enlarge
Why attack Iwo Jima and just not pass it by like so many other islands?
As the US conducted their Pacific island hopping campaign towards Japan during the end of World War II, there was one island the US needed to capture. This was Iwo Jima, also known as “Japan’s unsinkable aircraft carrier” (Wheal et al., 1990 p. 239). The US wanted this island for multiple reasons. Japanese radar on the island could pick up B-29 bombing raids two hours in advance of the bombers arriving on target, giving the Japanese plenty of time to react. The US also wanted it for its three air bases. Controlling the air bases would remove the threat of Japanese fighters and bombers attacking US forces, and it would also provide a place for B-29s to make emergency landings if they were damaged during a bombing raid (Alexander, 1994).
Who were the forces and commanders involved?
For the Japanese, Lt. General Kuribayashi commanded the 109th Division, a force of approximately 22,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors. Lt. Gen. Kuribayashi knew the past methods of defending along an island’s water-edge and Banzai attacks was not the best course of action to defend Iwo Jima. Instead, he opted for creating hardened defensive positions to thwart the attacking Marines (Alexander, 1994). General Kuribayashi issued his, “‘Courageous Battle Vows’ prominently posted above the firing apertures, admonishing the Japanese troops to maintain their positions and exact 10 American lives for every Japanese death” (Alexander, 1994, p. 5).
The Marine V Amphibious Corps, composed of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions, was commanded by Maj. General Harry Schmidt. The 3rd Marine Division was held in reserve; however, many elements of the 3rd Division were sent to Iwo Jima to support the attack. (Alexander, 1994; Frank, 1978). The Marine force was composed of veterans of past amphibious assaults as well as Marines who were new to this type of warfare. Other US forces were also present, such as the 47th Fighter Squadron flying P-51 Mustangs (Alexander, 1994).
The Battle
The Marines planned to capture Iwo Jima in four days. US Intelligence thought only approximately 11,000 Japanese soldiers were defending the island, when actually twice that many were present. In order to soften up the Japanese defenses, the Marines had requested 10 days of bombardment from the US Navy before the amphibious assault. The Navy only provided three days worth of preparatory shelling. The Navy told the Marines they didn’t have enough time nor ammunition to provide 10 days worth of preparatory bombardment (Alexander, 1994; Frank, 1978). The Marines decided the best landing beaches were on the east side of the island and the initial landings, which happened at 9 am, on February 19, were met with little resistance, thanks in part, to the overwhelming naval bombardment.
The 5th Division was tasked with taking Mount Suribachi, while the 4th Division was given the mission to capture the Motoyama No. 1 airfield. As the Marines set out from the landing beaches to their objectives, the Japanese attacked from their hidden locations with such force that the Marines were pinned down for most of the day and suffered approximately 2,500 wounded (Wheal et al., 1990). As a result of the Japanese counter attack, the Marines were unable to get to their first day objectives.
On Feb 23, Mount Suribachi was captured by the 28th regiment of the 5th Marine Division. A small American flag was raised to show the Marines had captured it; however a larger flag soon replaced the smaller one. This moment was immortalized by the photograph of Associated Press photographer Joseph Rosenthal.1
On Feb 24 an attack was launched by the Marines to capture the second air strip, Motoyama No. 2, and by Feb 28 it had been captured. Two key hills in the Japanese defense, Hill 362-A on the west side of Iwo Jima and Hill 382 on the east, held up the attacking 4th and 5th Divisions until they were captured on March 1st. After that, the Marines had to face Hills 362-B and C, which, after bitter fighting, were captured on March 3rd.
General Kuribayashi had given strict orders to not conduct Banzai attacks during the defense of Iwo Jima. On the whole, this order was followed; however, on March 8, one of Gen. Kuribayshi’s officers, Colonel Chosaku Kaido, led a Banzai attack of 800 Japanese soldiers against the 4th Marine Division. The Marines were able to cope with this attack and eliminated the attacking Japanese by the next day (Alexander, 1994).
By March 10th, the last two remaining Japanese fortified positions, Hill 382, also known as the Amphitheater and a second hill nicknamed Turkey Knob were captured. Fighting was so fierce in these areas, Marines gave it the nickname of the Meat Grinder (Frank, 1978).
By March 16th, the Marines had captured almost all of Iwo Jima. Although the island was in US control, there were still many small groups of Japanese who continued to fight. On March 25th the majority of the fighting was over and it was reported General Kuribayashi killed himself sometime that same evening (Alexander, 1994). In the end over 24,000 Americans, mainly Marines and Navy Corpsmen, were injured. 6,140 of those Americans died. 27 Congressional Medal of Honors were awarded after the battle, nearly half of them posthumously. The Japanese defending force was almost completely eliminated. Approximately 21,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors were killed while defending Iwo Jima (Alexander, 1994).
Every article I read while researching this battle concluded with the same quote from Admiral Nimitz. I see no reason to deviate from their examples. The Battle of Iwo Jima is one of most famous in the history of the United States Marine Corps, which Admiral Nimitz recognized when he said, “Among the Americns who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue” (Alexander, 1994).
Here are some other sources to learn more about the battle
- World War Two – Week 286 – Pre bombardment of Iwo Jima begins. YouTube channel hosted by Indy Neidell that gave a week by week description of World War Two.
- World War Two – Week 287 – Week 287 – Iwo Jima! – The first six and a half minutes are about Iwo Jima. You can continue to watch each week to get more details as the battle progresses.
- Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic – there is an online version of this book at the Internet Archive and there is a webpage version of the book at ibiblio.
- 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima – from the U.S. Naval Institute.
Interested in gaming the battle? Try one of these games:
Most of the games about Iwo Jima are solo games with the player taking the role of the United States Marine Corps. Here are 13 games listed at BoardgameGeek about Iwo Jima. I’ll highlight a few of them below.
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Iwo Jima: Valor of Arms, 19 Feb. – 25 March 1945 (1983) – A solo game that was part of Strategy & Tactics #92, published in 1983. |
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The Battle for Iwo Jima (2005)- This is a Japanese wargame published in the Game Journal. It was translated into English, given new artwork and published by Multi-Man Publishing in their Operations Special Magazine as Iwo Jima: Rage Against the Marines (2008). This version is a two player game. |
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The Sands of Iwo Jima (2007) – A two player game that can be purchased as print on demand, or a print and play game. |
References
- Alexander, J. H. (1994). Closing in: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima. History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps.
- Frank, B. M. (1978). Iwo Jima. In The Simon and Schuster encyclopedia of World War II. Simon and Schuster.
- Wheal, E-A., Pope, S., & Taylor, J. (1990). A dictionary of the Second World War. P. Bedricks Books.
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