Iwo Jima

Photograph of Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima (141.290E 24.754N) is the largest of the Volcano Islands, located about 650 miles south of Tokyo. It is shaped like a pork chop, with Mount Suribachi (550 feet) at the southern tip and a high plateau to the north. The total land area is about eight square miles. The beaches are volcanic ash with no really decent landings and the island has no fresh water supply except rainfall. Sugar and pineapple were cultivated here prior to the war, and sulfur was extracted from volcanic deposits. Geologically, the island is a resurgent dome in a submerged caldera, which is capable of erupting again. The population was 1100 prior to the war, but all civilians were evacuated before the American invasion.

The island was raided on 15 and 16 June 1944 by Task Group 58.1 (Clark), during the Marianas campaign, in order to interdict Japanese aircraft reinforcements. Famed Japanese ace Sakai Saburo was present and described one raid in his autobiography. The American raid was detected sixty miles out, allowing eighty Japanese fighters to scramble against a fighter sweep of just fifty-one Hellcats. The Americans nevertheless inflicted thirty kills against a loss of six Hellcats, a reflection of the poor quality of the Japanese trainee pilots being committed to combat at this point in the war. Sakai himself, leading a group of inexperienced pilots in spite of being half blind from injuries suffered at Guadalcanal, managed to survive but claimed no kills.

Another raid was carried out on 24 June 1944 by Clark on his own intiative. Clark had been ordered to retire to Eniwetok for refueling, but correctly guessed that Japanese aircraft intended for the Marianas were present at Iwo Jima and, with Mitscher's approval, he struck Iwo Jima along the way. There were 122 aircraft at Iwo and Chichi Jima, and a Japanese patrol plane detected Clark's force. As a result, the American fighter sweep of 51 Hellcats was met by everything that 27 Air Flotilla (Matsunaga) could put in the air. The Americans shot down 24 Japanese fighters and 5 Judys at the cost of 6 Hellcats. The surviving Americans returned to their carriers just in time to annihilate a Japanese raid by about 20 torpedo bombers. A second Japanese raid failed to find the American ships and lost 7 Jills and 10 Zekes to the American combat air patrol.

Clark struck Iwo again on 4 July 1944, and the Japanese responded by recalling Hachiman Air Group to Japan.

Battle of Iwo Jima

The American invasion of the Marianas in June 1944 brought Superfortresses within reach of Japan itself. However, the direct route to Tokyo passed very close to Iwo Jima, whose radar provided early warning and whose fighters posed a threat to the giant bombers. However, in American hands, the island could base fighters capable of escorting the Superfortresses to Japan. Thus, on 16 February 1945, American warships began systematically bombarding the island, and two Marine divisions began landings on the 19th. These were stoutly resisted by Japanese troops holed up in some of the most elaborate fortifications of the war. The soil of Iwo Jima was mostly volcanic cinder, which could be mixed with cement to form excellent concrete, and some of the bunkers were six stories deep. The soil also contained sufficient magnetite that it foiled ordinary mine detectors, and the Japanese sowed minefields freely around their fortifications. The preliminary bombardments destroyed only a fraction of the bunkers, and the remainder had to be destroyed in close-quarter combat. Marine tank units proved vital in sustaining the advance.

Marine units seized the heights of Mount Suribachi on 23 February and raised a small flag, visible throughout the combat area and from ships offshore. This was greeted by numerous ship's whistles and temporarily boosted the morale of the ground troops. A larger flag was raised some time later; photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped a quick photograph that became perhaps the most iconic photograph of the war. However, the seizure of this high ground did not end the battle, which went on until the final Japanese suicide attack on 26 March. Over 6000 Marines and 20,000 Japanese died in the battle.

Iwo Jima was the first experiment by the Japanese in shūgettsu ("bleeding strategy"), which acknowledged no hope of repelling the invaders and sought instead to inflict such casualties on the casualty-averse Americans that they would hesitate to invade the home islands.

References

Drea (2009)

Gilbert (2001)
Morison (1953)
Spector (1985)

Venzon (2003)

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