70 years ago today
Members of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division reached the summit of Mount Suribachi 70 years ago today. They marked their arrival with the first, less dramatic photo above taken by SSgt. Louis R. Lowery, USMC. Later that day, they raised the more iconic photo below, taken by Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer.
The second photo went on win a Pulitzer prize that year and became the model for the Marine Corps Memorial near Arlington Cemetery which was unveiled in 1954. Thanks to reader Ohio for not allowing us to let the event pass without notice.
Category: Marine Corps
Never forgotten.
5,900 US dead, 17,400 US wounded.
Remember their sacrifice.
There were about 22,000 Japanese dead and about 1,000 prisoners – 2 of whom did not surrender until 1951.
Was that island worth that much blood?
Short answer is NO! They could have went around it. Moons ago I was on an old C-97 from Guan to Japan and we flew over the place. The pilot banked so I could get a photo and I got a good look. In my mind it was not worth one American life.
Depends. From where I sit, if you come at it with 20/20 hindsight (i.e., knowing we were going to get nukes and bring the war to an end any way), then it certainly wasn’t.
If however, you don’t know that you’re going to get this morale/fanaticism crushing deus ex machina weapon (because it’s super duper mega top secret) and you’re still thinking in terms of a land invasion being necessary to remove Imperial Japan as a threat to the US once and for all, then perhaps. The strategic significance of the island was that it allowed B-29’s to fly unmolested from the Marianas to Japan, gave the damaged ones a place to land, and, most importantly, placed Japan within range of land based air cover from P-51s. Those things would have been enormously important in pounding the home islands in a strategic bombing campaign in preparation for a land assault.
TL;DR: if you know what we know today, almost certainly, but based off the information the planners had access to, it probably made a certain amount of military sense, although it’s still arguable.
I had a patient that survived Iwo. When I asked him about the Islands worth he didn’t hesitate and said, “…when you’d see those B-29 boys with engines smoking, landing gear shot out, landing on the Island instead of crashing into the sea, we knew then it was worth it.”
I went back and re-read my comment and I was disgusted with myself. That was not the statement I meant to make and I apologize for being offensive. I will try again.
A hell of a price was paid for that island. It would be easy to fly over it and not think about the valor it took to land on those shores and fight your way through and the families whose sons and husbands and fathers didn’t come home. 5,900 Marines died for that rock in order to bring the war to an end. If the Bomb had not ended the war in the pacific, there would have been an invasion of the Japanese home islands. The estimate was a million casualties – one of them probably would have been my father. The price for Iwo was very high but it was worth it.
It happened and academics and drunks can debate forever whether the cost was too great. The immortal raising of the flag (yes, it was a premature symbol of victory, I know) and the ultimate near annihilation of the Japanese at Iwo were immeasurable accomplishments which remain testaments to the American fighting man, generally, and the US Marine, specifically.
It was only a “premature symbol of victory” to the usual suspects.
What it signaled at the time to the men who were there was that the top of that mnt had been reached. That the mnt was on the way to being reduced and eliminated as an island encompassing observation point for enemy artillery, and the enemy artillery that was operating from fortified caves all up and down that mnt were soon to be silenced.
It was a big deal. No one there with any clue thought it meant victory was achieved over the enemy on that island.
Oorah.
Give em hell marines.
My great uncle was in Technical Air Intelligence and was on the 2nd plane to land on IIRC Motoyama #1 on Iwo, while the fighting was going on. The first was a shot up B-29 that NEEDED to set down or splash. The airfield had been liberated literally hours before and was still under fire. Lest anyone criticize its worth, I’d suggest you ask the aircrews that needed to land there.
BRAVO ZULU Devil Dogs! MAny thanks and may we be worthy.
The second flag (the large one) is displayed at the Marine Corps National Museum.
I got to attend a mess night back in the 80s where Joe Rosenthal was the guest of honor and I had the privilege to meet him. I was mightily impressed even back then but age and hindsight makes me wish I had made more of an effort to engage him in conversation.
He gave a very humble speech and I remember looking at this old man with the coke bottle thick glasses and thinking about the Iwo Jima battle (I was a Marine back then and Iwo Jima is storied in the Corps)and wondering how we would measure. Very humbling indeed.
OT: It appears the VA secretary got caught in his own stolen valor http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/02/surprise-obama-va-secretary-lied-about-serving-in-special-forces-issues-apology/