In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success. —Isoroku Yamamoto, Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy
[On Iwo Jima] Uncommon valour was a common virtue—Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces, and inscription on Marine Corps War Memorial.
750 miles from Tokyo and with three airstrips Iwo Jima was a target for the US whose strategic bombing campaign was an important part of their plan to force Japanese surrender. Iwo Jima would supposedly give the Allies a clear line of attack against the Japanese mainland. What is more Iwo Jima would be the first time Allied troops would land on ‘Japanese’ soil, dealing a great blow to the morale of the invincible Empire of Japan. But how important was Iwo Jima to the eventual Japanese surrender?
In 1931 the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria in northern China. The resulting annexation of this territory in the form of the puppet state Manchukuo was the beginning of the aggressive expansion of the Empire of Japan and in the years that followed Japan continued its expansion in Asia, taking territory in Mongolia and China. In 1940 Japan entered the Second World War as an Axis power and continued to expand as Britain and her Australian and Asian neighbours failed to stem the Japanese military machine.
On December 7th 1941 the Japanese brought America into the war after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. Though Japan’s imperial march continued, America’s entry into the war heralded the eventually Japanese defeat. The end of the Pacific War would, however, only come at a massive cost in life for all nations involved. Though American’s only counted for a small fraction of the military casualties in the Pacific, and an even smaller fraction of the overall casualties, as the largest non-Asian force in the theatre and with Hollywood’s cameras the US laid claim to the West’s memory of the Pacific War.
One of the lynchpins of America’s popular memory of the Second World War is the US Marine Corps. For the West the image of Marines fighting the tenacious Japanese on beaches, in the jungle, and through cave systems as they hop from island to island epitomized the Pacific War. Central to this legend of the Marine Corps is the battle of Iwo Jima and the raising of the Stars and Stripes on its highest point as the battle raged on bellow.
On the 19th of February 1945 the first troop transporters landed on the beaches of Iwo Jima; disgorging waves of US marines from their bellies onto the sands of Sulphur Island. With the pinnacle of Mount Suribachi looming in the distance the Japanese troops waited until the beaches were filled with Marines and their equipment before opening fire. The result was brutal and immediate and would set the tone for the battle that followed as both sides spent large amounts of blood for every piece of the volcanic island.
The battle itself was intended to be short campaign to purge the island of any remaining Japanese forces following the 9 month bombing campaign by the US navy and army air force. Though no part of the island was given amnesty from the US guns the Japanese had withdrawn into an established defensive network of tunnels and bunkers deep in the island. As such when the Marines landed the promise of a week long campaign vanished as they encountered fierce and determined resistance well fortified across the island.
The outcome of the battle was, however, predetermined. With no proper route of supply or reinforcement the 22,000 strong Japanese garrison was doomed in the face of the constantly swelling US force. What was not predetermined was how long this would take nor how high a toll it would exact. Determined to die to the man in defence of Imperial Japan the massive majority of the roughly 20,000 strong Japanese force gave their lives on Iwo Jima. In the process they killed or wounded about 24,000 Americans; this made Iwo Jima the only theatre where American casualties outnumbered the Japanese.
Yet for all the munitions and lives spent on the volcanic sands of Iwo Jima the island never really became a vital necessity in the Allied campaign in the Pacific War. Neither the Army nor the Navy were able to use it as a base and its importance to the Air Force is questionable. Yet it holds a prominent place in popular memory and has been immortalised in movies, books, documentaries, and television. Most importantly it has become the spiritual forge on which the modern US Marine Corps is formed.
After 23 Marines were awarded the medal of honour for their heroism on Iwo Jima and four Marines and a navy corpsman were captured in the iconic raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi this small island became a core component of the Marine’s mythology and by extension the mythology of the United States and the Second World War. So the invasion of Iwo Jima was justified because of its boost to morale, the war bonds and stamps it sold, and the purpose it gave to the American’s as they rallied to the raising flag.
In the overall picture, however, Iwo Jima wasn’t that great a success. For over a month the US was tied up trying to root out 20,000 Japanese infantry. They lost one ship and more than 24,000 men doing so and the island turned out not to be of major strategic importance. Though it was seen as native Japanese land the loss of this small volcanic island doesn’t seem to have been too much of a blow to the Empire of the Rising Sun. In many ways Iwo Jima could be seen as America’s Rorke’s Drift.
What really happened on the island? Did it make any real difference in the Pacific War? Why is it so important to the Marines and the US? And how does the rest of the world, especially Japan, see the battle? Is our impression of the self-sacrificing Japanese accurate or a hangover from the racial caricaturing of the Second World War? How much of what we know about Iwo Jima is real and how much of the story has been woven around the truth?
Listen back as Patrick talks with a panel of experts about the battle of Iwo Jima and tries to uncover the story of this island and its importance in the Second World War and since.
