The Pros And Cons Of Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima was known for one of the most bloody battles in not just the Marine but American history too. The battle began on February 19, 1945 as part of the campaign of the Pacific theatre, and lasted for thirty-six days. Around twenty six-thousand Marines were wounded, which caused Union losses during the battle at Gettysburg. Near the beginning of summer of 1944, American B-29 bombers were ruining the islands. “Iwo Jima proved itself an indispensable asset to the Pacific command.” “Thousands of fighters took off from its runways, and this ‘stepping stone’ served as a staging ground for countless Allied advances.”

The Japanese had it made. They had all they needed in their caves. You would of thought that the Japanese would have paid a bunch of money to fortify the island but they really did not. The 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. Another helpful aspect to the Japanese was the sand on the beaches. The sand wasn't like in paradise. It was black and loose making running across the beachhead very difficult. The only flaw to the island that did not help the Japanese was the surf. The surf was too rough to plant anti boat mines. "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)

Japanese Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto, had planned to execute a surprise attack on Midway. The idea was that when the United States went for a counter-attack, the Japanese fleet would be waiting to destroy any aircraft carriers that were not destroyed in the bombing of Pearl

Conditions were perfect, sunshine with a little cloud cover the Americans were expecting strong opposition as soon as they touched down on the beaches but there was little opposition to meet them. Weather considerations were minimum, heavy rain was the only key factor in the battle which made the ground muddy and troop movement and resupply at times could become difficult. Okinawa is 60 miles long and 18 miles wide. The terrain in northern Okinawa is extremely mountainous with elevations of 1,000 feet or more usually with steep cliffs associated with them. With such uneven terrain troop movement in the north was very difficult. With poor road conditions vehicle movement was not much better. The southern part of Okinawa where the main part of the fighting took place had a number of different terrain obstacles. Rolling hills, with the majority of this half under cultivation and contained three fourths of the population of the island. The terrain gave the Japanese Army a slight advantage with natural caves and burial tombs that they turned into underground positions. There are more roads in the south due to the increased population but still not suitable for military vehicles.

The war in Europe was finished and America was still fighting Japan in the Pacific. The American people’s will to continue the war effort was falling and the government had to think of a way to end the war. They needed to take some of the Pacific to be able to get close enough to Japan to finish the war. They started by taking islands but ran into heavy Japanese resistance; soldier’s that were almost all willing to die for their emperor. That included fake surrendering, making and then hiding in elaborate cave systems, and killing other Japanese who were trying to surrender. This weighed heavily on the soldiers and made fighting incredibly hard. Even when they had an island there were Japanese who had hidden and still tried to kill the

Slowly but surely the American soldiers made progress and secured some of the airfields because by the beginning of March, two thirds of the island was captured by American soldiers because they had a strong Marine base and were able to push the Japanese back.

3) Japanese strategy was for each Soldier to kill 10 Americans before they themselves are killed (The Battle – Japan’s Iwo Jima Strategy, n.d.). On top of that, Iwo Jima would have to be reinforced significantly if it were going to be held for any length of time, and preparations were made to send sizable numbers of men and quantities of materiel to that island.

In the book Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley, it follows the lives of the six flag-raisers. The book shows their early lives, military training, fierce fighting between armed forces and their lives afterward. The flag raisers motivated young men to have great courage in the face of danger. Iwo Jima was a very important battle between the United States Armed Forces and the Japanese Empire. It was one of the worst battles of World War II. The U.S fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima. The battle of Iwo Jima led to discoveries of true heroes and lessons learned.

Both islands had over 20,000 troops stationed on them along with a significant amount of anti aircraft guns. It is said that the Flyboys flew the original “Mission Impossibles” when they flew bomb raid over Chichi Jima while avoiding the hundreds of anti aircraft shells being shot at them. As these islands weren't really part of any nation the common thought was that “If you had the might, you had the right” in terms of controlling the

The battle of Iwo Jima started off as an amphibious invasion by the Americans; a strong desire for claiming the island to create a base on the land flourishing with the ever-growing American spirit. Three U.S. marine divisions executed a carefully well thought plan during February of 1945. The Japanese were not very well prepared, having roughly 23,000 people defending Iwo Jima, a fifth of how many Americans there were. However, they did have strong beliefs and would refuse to surrender, giving their all to the battle until they died.

Brown led the Army’s 7th Division of three regiments of infantry, four battalions of artillery, the 13th Combat Engineer Battalion, and the attachment of the 50th Combat Engineer Battalion.1 Nearly a year before the battle took place, June 3rd, 1942, the Japanese seized Attu with only natives living there. The Japanese reestablished a base on Attu on October 29, 1942 under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Hiroshi Yanekawa.1 The Japanese set up strong defensive positions with antiaircraft and numerous caches of arms, ammunition and food spread across different locations on the island. U.S. forces did not have such advantage and had a difficult time with logistics due to the unforgiving elements. The islands beaches consisted of muskeg which created very difficult circumstances for U.S. vehicles that the engineers were crucial in resolving. Although the harsh climate and terrain caused many problems for both sides, it was more impactful against the Japanese due to the long period of acclimation they endured.2

Island hopping was a significant strategy used by the Japanese to cause destruction to the Allied troops during the War in the Pacific. This military strategy permitted a country’s air force and troops to travel farther distances by making shorter journeys between islands that they controlled. This was important in the Second World War, especially for Japan, because it allowed them to resupply, strategize, condense their resources of water, food, and raw materials, and take over land before attacking another country. Initially this strategy was created by the Japaneses to allow them to travel to the Guadalcanal, a Solomon Island, to weaken the Allies and their defences by cutting off supply routes to Australia from America. However, the tropical geography of this island posed great threats and difficulties for The United States of America to land on these

Iwo Jima: Important to US because if we captured the airstrips then Bombers could reach mainland Japan, 21,000 Japanese defenders (PBS 1). Took over a month

By March 16 the island was declared secure and the fighting had ceased. Out of 22,000 soldiers 212 were taken prisoner by the us. That whole misson was key to winning the war because the jappenese would have taken us out with their air base but luckily we destroyed

The total strength of the Japanese army was an estimated five million men mid july in 1945, and it was seen in every major battle preceding this that in order to win the U.S. would not only have to match that number but double it in order to win. Not only would those ten million plus men most likely die, but while the fighting that would take place on Japan’s mainland commenced there would have been massive civilian casualties, and major destruction of the island itself. Given the fact that the battle was estimated to last until the latter part of 1946, so six months, and was to consist of an intensified sea and air blockade, then massive amounts of air bombing, and that was to be followed by the invasion of the island, the damage that the fighting could have done to the civilian population of