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thedrifter
04-24-04, 08:52 AM
Issue Date: April 26, 2004

Living history
To connect with Iwo Jima vets, teens take trip to battlefield

By Richard Weaver
Special to the Times

IWO JIMA, Japan — Nearly 60 years have passed since thousands of Marines, some as young as 17, fought on this volcanic island during the last months of World War II. For this year’s anniversary of the bitter fight here, a group of Young Marines of similar age came back with 23 Iwo Jima veterans to mark the battle, take pictures and retrace history.
The Young Marines organization is the Marine Corps’ official youth focal group and receives funds from the Defense Department to conduct anti-drug education work.

“If there had been a recruiter there and if I was old enough, I would have signed up for the Marine Corps right there,” said Young Marine and high school student Leigh Cutter, 17, of Cody, Wyo., about her visit to Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the island.

Marines raised an American flag on the summit on Feb. 23, 1945; Joe Rosenthal’s photograph of them is one of the most famous images of the 20th century.

More than 120 U.S. civilians came to the island for the 59th Iwo Jima Commemorative Ceremony, which also was attended by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Yo****aka Shindo, the grandson of the Japanese commanding officer during the battle, Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi.

Civilians are allowed on Iwo Jima only one day a year.

“We are here to remember and pay our respects to the 22,000 young Japanese defenders who gave their lives in an attempt to hold this island for their homeland,” said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Earl Hailston during the ceremony. “We also honor the more than 26,000 Americans who were killed or wounded in the successful assault to seize this important objective.”

The Young Marines organization picked up the $36,000 tab to bring nine high school students and three staffers on the tour, which was organized by Military Historical Tours Inc. of Alexandria, Va.

“The interaction between the Young Marines and the veterans is a sign of the success of the program,” said Col. Mike Kessler, national executive director of the Young Marines organization. Next year, Kessler hopes to send 30 Young Marines to Iwo Jima and will seek donations for that purpose.

“The veterans are all cool, especially Mr. Cy,” said Anthony Matthews, 17, of Temple Hill, Md., referring to Iwo Jima veteran and journalist Cy O’Brien.

About 300 Marines, including the III Marine Expeditionary Force Band, flew from Okinawa to Iwo Jima to assist in logistical support for the event, said Marine 1st Lt. Al Eskalis, a III MEF spokesman.

The United States holds perpetual rights to conduct military exercises on Iwo Jima, and U.S. sailors used the opportunity to practice amphibious landings — Humvees were brought ashore to ferry veterans around the island.

“My favorite part was circling the island at the beginning,” said Cutter, referring to the “figure eights” the chartered Continental Airlines 737 flew above Iwo Jima to allow passengers a look prior to landing. Cutter’s grandfather was a pilot who flew over the island during the battle.

Next year’s commemorative ceremony — the 60th anniversary — may be the last U.S. civilian charter flight to Iwo Jima, due to the veterans’ advancing age, said Warren Wiedhahn, president of Military Historical Tours.

A serene island today

Aside from the annual visits by civilians and veterans, the island sees little American traffic — the United States returned control of Iwo Jima to Japan in 1972. Several hundred Japanese troops are stationed on the island, which is visited by Japan’s war college students during the course of their studies.

Over the last three decades, the Japanese government has systematically opened caves on the island in an attempt to recover the bones of Japanese soldiers.

During World War II, Kuribayashi ordered the construction of the cave network to protect Japanese forces from American attack. The U.S. invasion of Iwo Jima was necessary to remove resistance to American bombing runs on the Japanese mainland and to provide an emergency landing area for U.S. planes that encountered mechanical problems after taking off from Saipan or returning to the island.

Today, visitors are allowed inside “Hospital Cave,” where the mummified remains of Japanese soldiers were found on makeshift cots and operating tables when the cave was opened in the mid-1980s.

Japanese immigration officials search visitors’ bags before they leave Iwo Jima to ensure no one tries to take live ammunition or other sensitive items from the island, which is littered with debris from the battle.

“Through the Internet, the Iwo Jima Association has asked for the return of articles belonging to our dead that were picked up as battlefield souvenirs by American GIs,” said Kiyoshi Endo, chairman of the association, in his remarks during the ceremony. “Flags and other items are now slowly making their way back home. In this way, the spirits of the dead are coming back to the families.”

Visitors may take home official souvenirs bought at a small gift shop on the base, which carries Iwo Jima coffee mugs, postcards, beach towels featuring a cartoon drawing of the island with cartoon airplanes circling it, and ball caps.

Not everyone took something off the island. Young Marine of the Year Jason Asbill, 18, of Kenner, La., left something behind — a commemorative coin with his name on it, left in the abandoned shell of a pillbox a few dozen yards above the invasion beaches.

Richard Weaver is a freelance journalist who traveled to Iwo Jima in March. He can be reached at RichardWeaver@alumni.wlu.edu.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2826978.php


Ellie