The Japanese had constructed the airfield near the center of island laid out as an "X" of two intersecting
runways one and the other . Located south and west of the midpoint between
Tokyo and
Saipan, the island of Iwo Jima was needed by the
United States Army Air Forces as an emergency landing site for its
B-29 Superfortress strategic bombing campaign against the
Empire of Japan. The purpose of the assault was to take the island for the three Japanese airfields so that the U.S. Navy
Seabees could turn them in to United States facilities. Prior to the assault
NCB 133 was assigned to get the southern
Motoyama #1 airfield operational and NCB 31 was assigned the central Motoyama #2. On D-plus 5 that was changed because of the casualties the 133rd had taken and the 31st CB was assigned to Motoyama #1. On D-plus 6 the assignments were changed again. The 62nd CB attached to the reserve in
V Amphibious Corps was given Motoyama #1, the 31st CB was given Motoyama #2 and the 133rd was given the barely started Motoyama #3. However, the Seabees and elements of the 2nd Separate Engineer Battalion worked together until the Marine ground forces had taken possession of their respective airfield construction assignments. Reconstruction and expansion work was held up by the protracted land battle, on 16 March the airfield, named Central Field, became operational, with the east-northeast to west-southwest runway graded to and the east–west runway to . A second runway parallel to the east-northeast to west-southwest runway was also built; both were built to accommodate B-29s. By 7 July 1945, the first B-29 runway had been paved to and placed in operation. During the day, 102 B-29s, returning from a raid on Japan, landed on the field. Several sub-grade failures occurred in the construction because of ground water and soft spots in the sub-grade. In some places the paving sealed off steam which had been generated below the surface and when the steam condensed, the sub-grade became saturated. By 12 July, the B-29 runway had been completed and paved for a length of by . The parallel runway was eventually lengthened to , both with a width of . For normal operations, this field could accommodate 120
P-51 Mustangs, 30
B-24 Liberators and 20 B-29s. Central Field was headquarters for
VII Fighter Command of the
Twentieth Air Force from March 1 – December 1, 1945, along with the intelligence-gathering
41st Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron from August though mid-September 1945. Operational fighter squadrons which performed B-29 escort missions from Central Field were: •
506th Fighter Group, April 24 – December 3, 1945 •
414th Fighter Group, July 7 – December 23, 1945 •
21st Fighter Group, March 26 - July 16, 1945 It then became a navigation and weather station of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (Nihon Kaijo Jieitai), and is still used by the U.S. military as an aircraft refueling depot and as a U.S. Navy special pilot training facility. At any given time about 350 JSDF personnel are posted to Iwo Jima and though the airfield is strictly for military use, commercial flights carrying veterans are frequent visitors. Of the three WWII airfields, Central Field is the only one that remains in use today. ==See also==