Photos From the Battle of Iwo Jima to Mark Its 70th Anniversary

[jetdauwgg]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...-II-180954384/

Seventy years ago, U.S. Marines secured Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, beginning a long and bloody fight for control of the World War II Japanese outpost. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's image of soldiers planting an American flag atop Mount Suribachi has lived on as a symbol of the battle, winning the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for photography and inspiring the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.


The United States eventually secured the 8-square-mile island, located approximately 760 miles south of Tokyo, but not without sacrifice. American troops would fight for a month more after taking Mount Suribachi and the first of two Japanese airfields. Capturing Iwo Jima was of strategic importance to B-29 air raids on mainland Japan. It also demonstrated to the Americans that the Japanese army would defend their lands at all costs, something which influenced United States’ decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki later that year.

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[irpat54]

great post, and awesome pictures..

[ErikHeiker]

One of my most unforgettable missions as a C-130 loadmaster with the Alaska Air National Guard was to Iwo Jima in 2006. Our crew got to go to the top of Mt Suribachi and see the memorial erected by the SeaBees. We also saw the memorial that the Japanese erected in honor of their soldiers. As the only former Marine on the crew, the occasion was much more moving for me.