Pre-1945 The island was first visited by a Westerner in October 1543, by Spanish sailor
Bernardo de la Torre on board the
carrack San Juan de Letrán when trying to return from
Sarangani to
New Spain. In the late 16th century, the island was discovered by the Japanese. Before World War II Iwo Jima was administered as
Iōjima village and was (and is today) part of Tokyo. A census in June 1943 reported an island civilian population of 1,018 (533 males, 485 females) in 192 households in six settlements. The island had a primary school, a
Shinto shrine, and one police officer; it was serviced by a mail ship from
Haha-jima once a month, and by
Nippon Yusen ship once every two months. The island's economy relied upon
sulfur mining,
sugarcane farming, and
fishing; an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with poor economic prospects, Iwo Jima had to import all
rice and consumer goods from the
Home Islands. Even before the beginning of World War II, there was a garrison of the
Imperial Japanese Navy at the southern part of Iwo Jima. It was off-limits to the island's civilian population, who already had little contact with the naval personnel, except for trading. Throughout 1944, Japan conducted a massive military buildup on Iwo Jima in anticipation of a U.S. invasion. In July 1944, the island's civilian population was forcibly evacuated, and no civilians have permanently settled on the island since. War-displaced islanders who are now in their 80s and older longed to return to the island, which they considered "a special place associated with memories both happy and sad". Their repeated requests to return to the island have not been realized given the reason that the area has a dynamic volcanic activity. Former islanders and their family members, however, are occasionally granted permission to visit the graves of their ancestors. Islanders and their descendants are trying to write down their memories, interview other former islanders, and create "a digital archive of photos to preserve memories of life on the now-forbidden island to pass them down to posterity" for younger generations who may not appreciate that Iwo Jima was once a place many had called home.
Battle of Iwo Jima The American invasion of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945, and continued to March 26, 1945. The battle was a major initiative of the
Pacific Campaign of World War II. The Marine invasion, known as "Operation Detachment", was charged with the mission of capturing the
airfields on the island for use by P-51 fighters in relation to the range of the fighters escorting the bombers, and the emergency landings of damaged heavy bombers that were not able to reach their main bases in the Marianas (Guam, Saipan and Tinian). Prior to the seizure, Japanese fighters had harried U.S. bombing missions to Japan. The battle was marked by some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The
Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily
fortified, with vast
bunkers, hidden
artillery, and 18 kilometers (11 mi) of tunnels. The battle was the first U.S. attack on the Japanese
Home Islands and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, over 19,000 were killed and only 1,083 taken
prisoner. One of the first objectives after landing on the beachhead was the taking of Mount Suribachi. At the second raising of a flag on the peak,
Joe Rosenthal photographed six
Marines raising the United States flag on the fourth day of the battle (February 23). The photograph was extremely popular, and won the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography that same year. It is regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war. After the fall of Mount Suribachi in the south, the Japanese still held a strong position throughout the island. General
Tadamichi Kuribayashi still had the equivalent of eight infantry battalions, a tank regiment, two artillery, and three heavy mortar battalions, plus the 5,000 gunners and naval infantry. With the landing area secure, more troops and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields and the remainder of the island. Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death. On the night of March 25, a 300-man Japanese force launched a final counterattack led by Kuribayashi. The island was officially declared "secured" the following morning. According to the U.S. Navy, "The 36-day (Iwo Jima) assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead." Comparatively, the 82-day
Battle of Okinawa lasted from early April until mid-June 1945 and U.S. (five Army, two Marine Corps Divisions and Navy personnel on ships) casualties were over 62,000 of whom over 12,000 were killed or missing, while the
Battle of the Bulge lasted 40 days (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) with almost 90,000 U.S. casualties comprising 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 captured or missing. After Iwo Jima was declared secured, about 3,000 Japanese soldiers were left alive in the island's warren of caves and tunnels. Those who could not bring themselves to commit
suicide hid in the caves during the day and came out at night to prowl for provisions. Some did eventually surrender and were surprised that the Americans often received them with compassion – offering them water, cigarettes, or coffee. The last of these stragglers, two of Lieutenant Toshihiko Ohno's men (Ohno's body was never found),
Kōfuku Yamakage and Rikio Matsudo, lasted three and a half years, surrendering on January 6, 1949. In memory of the battle, three ships of the U.S. Navy have been named : • , a planned which began construction in early 1945, but cancelled in August 1945 with the end of the war. It was eventually scrapped in 1949. • , the lead ship of the s, served from 1961 to 1993, and scrapped in 1995. • , a , commissioned in 2001 and in active service .
U.S. Naval Base Iwo Jima The U.S. military occupied Iwo Jima until June 26, 1968, when it was returned to Japan. The
United States Navy built and operated a naval base on the island.
U.S. nuclear arms base Between 1956 and 1959, it is claimed that US Military forces stored at least one nuclear weapon at Iwo Jima, with some nuclear components being stored on the island until 1966. This made Iwo Jima one of several islands hosting nuclear weapons during the
US Military Occupation of Japan. The claim was initially made by authors at the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, parsing heavily redacted declassified documents. On December 12, 1999, U.S. Under Secretary for Defense Policy Walter Slocombe told
The New York Times, "Our position is that there have been no violations of our obligations under the security treaty and related arrangements." Norris, Arkin and Burr, authors at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, however concluded: There were nuclear weapons on
Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima (Iwo To)
... Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their
plutonium and/ or
uranium cores... This elaborate stratagem maintained the technicality that the United States had no nuclear weapons "in Japan." The airstrip is 2,650 meters (8,700 ft) long and 60 meters (200 ft) wide. The JMSDF is in charge of support,
air traffic control, fueling, and rescue. The airstrip is rarely used for emergency landings by commercial airplanes flying transpacific routes (between
Northeast Asia and
Saipan,
Guam). The
IATA airport code of IWO and the
ICAO airport code of RJAW are assigned to the airfield. The JMSDF Air Wing 21 Detachment Iōtō provides support for emergency medical air transportation from the
Bonin Islands (
Chichijima and
Hahajima) to
Honshu. The base is occasionally used as a relay point for the medical transport. The
Japan Air Self-Defense Force also uses the base. The
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is in charge of
explosive ordnance disposal, and maintains a garrison of 400 troops on the island. also uses the base for field carrier landing practice (FCLP). To justify the U.S. Navy's use of the airfield, the U.S. Navy still nominally has a 1,639-acre (663-ha) disused communication facility (Iwo-Jima Communication Site,
FAC3181) on the island under the
U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement. The
U.S. Coast Guard's
Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter facility was transferred to Japan in 1993 and demolished in 1994. Civilian access to the island is restricted to those visiting graves of former residents and attending memorial services for U.S. and Japanese fallen soldiers, construction workers and cafeteria staff for the naval air base, and
meteorological,
geological and
environmental agency officials. The Japanese troops stationed on the island register their
residential addresses in
Ayase, Kanagawa or
Sayama, Saitama for voting, tax, and social security purposes. Officially, there is no population on the island. While large areas of the
Bonin Islands are designated as a national park (
Ogasawara National Park) as well as inscribed on the
UNESCO World Heritage List, Iwo Jima is included neither in the National Park nor the World Heritage natural site because of the military installations.
Reunion of Honor The first large scale reunion on the island was held in 1970 on the 25th anniversary of the battle. The event was sponsored by the Fifth Marine Division Association and included both American and Japanese veterans of the battle. Other notable attendees included then Brigadier General
William K. Jones commander of the
3rd Marine Division,
NBC’s senior correspondent in Asia
John Rich, and
Yoshitaka Shindō grandson of General
Tadamichi Kuribayashi. The widows of General Kuribayashi and Colonel
Takeichi Nishi also attended events with American veterans held in
Tokyo. On February 19, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the day that U.S. forces began the assault on the island, veterans from both forces gathered for the Reunion of Honor just a few meters/yards away from the spot where U.S. Marines had landed on the island. During the memorial service a granite plaque was unveiled with the message: On the 40th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, American and Japanese veterans met again on these same sands, this time in peace and friendship. We commemorate our comrades, living and dead, who fought here with bravery and honor, and we pray together that our sacrifices on Iwo Jima will always be remembered and never be repeated. It is inscribed on both sides of the plaque, with the English translation facing the beaches where U.S. forces landed and the Japanese translation facing inland, where Japanese troops defended their position. After that, the Japan–U.S. combination memorial service of the 50th anniversary was held in front of this monument in March 1995. The 55th anniversary was held in 2000, followed by a 60th reunion in March 2005 (see U.S. National Park Service photo below), and a 70th anniversary ceremony on March 21, 2015. A memorial service held on the island in 2007 got particular attention because it coincided with the release of the movie
Letters from Iwo Jima. The joint U.S.–Japanese ceremony was attended by Yoshitaka Shindo, a Japanese lawmaker who is the grandson of the Japanese commander during the battle, Lt. Gen.
Tadamichi Kuribayashi, and Yasunori Nishi, the son of Colonel Baron
Takeichi Nishi, the Olympic gold medalist equestrian who died commanding a tank unit on the island. Active Marines have also visited the island on occasion for Professional Military Education (PME). File:First Iwo Jima Flag Raising.jpg|
Raising of the first U.S. flag at Iwo Jima File:Still from Iwo Jima flag raising.jpg|
Raising of the second U.S. flag at Iwo Jima File:60th Anniversary reunion at Iwo Jima.jpg|60th Reunion 2005 File:Reunion_of_Honor_memorial_on_Iwo_Jima.jpg|Reunion of Honor Memorial ==See also==