thedrifter
02-17-08, 07:03 AM
Feb 17, 2008
HISTORY LESSONS: The Marines at Iwo Jima
By Bruce G. Kauffmann
The “Sands of Iwo Jima,” starring John Wayne, may have been a good movie — it was nominated for several Academy Awards — but it was historically inaccurate in one sense. When the U.S. Marines — the real “John Waynes” — stormed this tiny, well-defended Japanese island this week (Feb. 19) in 1945, it wasn’t sand that they had to traverse, but volcanic ash. Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima’s dominant geological formation, was a dormant volcano, meaning the landing beaches were covered with volcanic ash in which the Marines would sink to their ankles with every step. That made progress slow indeed.
Which was bad enough, but there were 21,000 battle-hardened Japanese soldiers hidden in Mount Suribachi’s many caves, underground tunnels, bunkers and volcanic ridges, from which they could, and did, unleash a constant stream of machine gun fire, mortars and artillery — to murderous effect. In addition, land mines littered the beaches as the Marines struggled to reach the base of Suribachi, and because the volcanic ash was so loose and formless, and in some cases still warm from Suribachi’s last eruption, it was impossible to dig foxholes.
In short, this month-long battle was a nightmare, especially if you were a Marine. On an island that was just over four miles long and two miles wide, nearly 7,000 Marines died, with 19,000 wounded. Approximately one-third of all Marines killed in the Pacific theater during World War II were killed at Iwo Jima, and one-quarter of the Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in the entire war were awarded for valor at Iwo Jima — many of them posthumously. In
addition, Iwo Jima was the first battle in the Pacific in which American casualties exceeded Japanese casualties.
And for what? It is true that Iwo Jima’s capture meant the U.S. now controlled an island that previously had been used by the Japanese to launch air attacks on U.S. bombers heading for the Japanese mainland. In addition, it meant that Japan could no longer use the island’s radar stations to warn the mainland of impending U.S. raids. But given the staggering costs in men and materiel, the decision to attack Iwo Jima subsequently became very controversial, especially since, as one officer put it, Iwo Jima was “a small, Godforsaken island, useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base.”
On the other hand, it got military planners to thinking: “If this is the cost of taking a ‘small, Godforsaken’ outer island in the middle of nowhere, what in Heaven’s name will the cost be when we have to attack Japan itself?” Unsurprisingly, in the months to come the option of dropping an atomic bomb on Japan began to make much more sense.
Ellie
HISTORY LESSONS: The Marines at Iwo Jima
By Bruce G. Kauffmann
The “Sands of Iwo Jima,” starring John Wayne, may have been a good movie — it was nominated for several Academy Awards — but it was historically inaccurate in one sense. When the U.S. Marines — the real “John Waynes” — stormed this tiny, well-defended Japanese island this week (Feb. 19) in 1945, it wasn’t sand that they had to traverse, but volcanic ash. Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima’s dominant geological formation, was a dormant volcano, meaning the landing beaches were covered with volcanic ash in which the Marines would sink to their ankles with every step. That made progress slow indeed.
Which was bad enough, but there were 21,000 battle-hardened Japanese soldiers hidden in Mount Suribachi’s many caves, underground tunnels, bunkers and volcanic ridges, from which they could, and did, unleash a constant stream of machine gun fire, mortars and artillery — to murderous effect. In addition, land mines littered the beaches as the Marines struggled to reach the base of Suribachi, and because the volcanic ash was so loose and formless, and in some cases still warm from Suribachi’s last eruption, it was impossible to dig foxholes.
In short, this month-long battle was a nightmare, especially if you were a Marine. On an island that was just over four miles long and two miles wide, nearly 7,000 Marines died, with 19,000 wounded. Approximately one-third of all Marines killed in the Pacific theater during World War II were killed at Iwo Jima, and one-quarter of the Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in the entire war were awarded for valor at Iwo Jima — many of them posthumously. In
addition, Iwo Jima was the first battle in the Pacific in which American casualties exceeded Japanese casualties.
And for what? It is true that Iwo Jima’s capture meant the U.S. now controlled an island that previously had been used by the Japanese to launch air attacks on U.S. bombers heading for the Japanese mainland. In addition, it meant that Japan could no longer use the island’s radar stations to warn the mainland of impending U.S. raids. But given the staggering costs in men and materiel, the decision to attack Iwo Jima subsequently became very controversial, especially since, as one officer put it, Iwo Jima was “a small, Godforsaken island, useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base.”
On the other hand, it got military planners to thinking: “If this is the cost of taking a ‘small, Godforsaken’ outer island in the middle of nowhere, what in Heaven’s name will the cost be when we have to attack Japan itself?” Unsurprisingly, in the months to come the option of dropping an atomic bomb on Japan began to make much more sense.
Ellie