Iwo Jima Termpaper

The sea invasion of Iwo Jima was and still is the largest island invasion of Japan territory in all the years of the United States Marine Corps history. This invasion was also the most devastating. More than 26,000 Marines lost their lives while trying to take over this small volcanic island. On February 23,1945 seventy-two thousand Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima with all their guns blazing. Dodging and weaving the heavy fire from the Japanese's M.G.S, they had mounted in the jagged rocks. But that was the least of the Marines worries they had heavy 320mm mortars and powerful rockets. This invasion in many ways, was key objective for the United States in winning WWII in the pacific. Before hand they calculated that it was going to be a major help for their B-29 escort bombings. Also Americans were new to this war and had to advance with their island hoping strategy to bring up the spirits of their people. Winning this battle was clearly important for the U.S. in multiple ways.

Alexander describes the words of Major Graves Erskine of the united states 3rd marine division:

"Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was. What was in doubt was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate our cemetery at the end, or whether the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gunner." (207)

Americans knew what they were running theme selves into. But the reward was great so they did what was necessary. They were aiming for the airfields in Iwo Jima. With this airfield the Japanese provided a base for escort planes on their raids with the B29s. If able to occupy the island, they would be able to bring down injured or gas less

plains flying back from Japan. It served as an all-purpose base that was closer to the enemy. Closer was better because they needed to save more fuel in order to keep military support up.

The previous island token over by the U.S. was farther from Japan than Iwo Jima was. It was the Marianas, and if their plains tried to pass to get to Japan it would be a big mistake. Because Iwo Jima was in between, the native people can easily alert the soldiers waiting at the Japanese main land. That was enough for United States to consider retaining the island of Iwo Jima.

The landscape of Iwo Jima was hellish itself. From the large jagged volcanic mountains to the steam that leaked out residue of sulfur. The total area of this island is less than seven square miles. The island had many aspects that would favor the defender. The island had few beaches, which made it harder for enemies to invade and take the island over. Also it had a "lunar" like landscape with dusty ground. The ground really hurt the Marines because they could not get theme selves through it quickly. Because of their disadvantage it drove their purpose greater. Coming in as visitors gave theme a sense of underdog power. The Japanese had it made. They had all they needed in their caves. You would of thought that the Japanese would have paid an enormous amount of money to fortify the island but they really didn't have to. They had many of the Empire's most gifted mining engineers to dig tunnels throughout the volcanic mountains. It took them no time to have miles of tunnels running through the mountains. These tunnels made it easy for the Japanese to move from one position to the other. But life was not to

great in the caves because the United States Seventh Air Force bombers dropped bombs on them daily in hope to soften them up before the massive invasion. "The entire island is flat except for the promontory of Mount Suribachi, and extinct volcano, which is 556 feet high in the southern portion of the island"(Siefring 117).

The landing beaches were utter chaos, as the Japanese fired from hidden locations and the great vantage points on Mt. Suribachi, the volcano that made up the island. Because of the preparations of the Japanese it was almost impossible to be out of range of their guns, and this made for a tough 36 days for the marines.

The Commander of defense in Iwo Jima was General Kuribayashi. . The Japanese did not plan on surviving. In fact, they found that if they died during battle, it was an honor towards Japan. As Leckie noted, "Kuribayashi had told his troops, that each man had to kill at least ten Americans before he went down himself" (14). This statement was bold and Americans were not going to give in. these