_The fighting continues and continues. For weary flamethrower operators
Pvt Richard Klatt, left, and PFC Wilfred Voegeli the campaign is just
one cave after another._]
President Roosevelt, long a master of public opinion, managed to keep
the lid on the outcry by emphasizing the sacrifice of the troops as
epitomized by the Joe Rosenthal photograph of the second Suribachi
flag-raising. The photograph was already widely renowned. FDR made it
the official logo of the Seventh War Bond Drive and demanded the six
flag-raisers be reassigned home to enhance popular morale. Regrettably,
three of the six men had already been killed in subsequent fighting in
the drive north on Iwo Jima.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff looked appraisingly at Iwo Jima’s losses. No
one questioned the objective; Iwo Jima was an island that categorically
had to be seized if the strategic bombing campaign was ever going
to be effective. The island could therefore not be bypassed or
“leap-frogged.” There is considerable evidence that the Joint Chiefs
considered the use of poison gas during the Iwo Jima planning phase.
Neither Japan nor the United States had signed the international
moratorium, there were no civilians on the island, the Americans had
stockpiles of mustard gas shells in the Pacific theater. But President
Roosevelt scotched these considerations quickly. America, he declared,
would never make first use of poison gas. In any case, the use of
poison gas on an area as relatively small as Iwo Jima, whose prevailing
winds would quickly dissipate the gas fumes, became moot. This left the
landing force with no option but a frontal amphibious assault against
the most heavily fortified island America ever faced in the war.
[Illustration: _Uncommon valor in a peaceful setting: this 4th
Division Marine threatens the enemy even in death. His bayonet fixed
and pointing in the direction of the enemy, he was killed by a sniper
before he even got off the beach on D-day._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 109624
]
On the other hand, seizure of Iwo Jima provided significant strategic
benefits. Symbolically, the Marines raised the flag over Mount
Suribachi on the same day that General MacArthur entered Manila. The
parallel capture of the Philippines and Iwo Jima, followed immediately
by the invasion of Okinawa, accelerated the pace of the war, bringing
it at long last to Japan’s doorstep. The three campaigns convincingly
demonstrated to the Japanese high command that the Americans now had
the capability--and the will--to overwhelm even the most stoutly
defended islands. Kyushu and Honshu would be next.
Iwo Jima in American hands produced immediate and highly visible
benefits to the strategic bombing campaign. Marines fighting on the
island were reminded of this mission time and again as crippled B-29
Superforts flew in from Honshu. The capture of Iwo Jima served to
increase the operating range, payload, and survival rate of the big
bombers. The monthly tonnage of high explosives dropped on Imperial
Japan by B-29s based in the Marianas increased eleven-fold in March
alone. As early as 7 April a force of 80 P-51 Mustangs of VII Fighter
Command took off from Iwo Jima to escort B-29s striking the Nakajima
aircraft engine plant in Tokyo. But the Army Air Force valued Iwo Jima
most of all as an emergency landing field. By war’s end, a total of
2,251 B-29s made forced landings on the island. This figure represented
24,761 flight crewmen, many of whom would have perished at sea without
the availability of Iwo Jima as a safe haven. Said one B-29 pilot,
“whenever I land on this island I thank God for the men who fought for
it.”
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi proved to be one of the most competent
field commanders the Marines ever faced. He displayed a masterful grasp
of the principles of simplicity and economy of force, made maximum use
of Iwo’s forbidding terrain, employed his artillery and mortars with
great skill, and exercised command with an iron will virtually to the
end. He was also a realist. Without hope of even temporary naval or
air superiority he knew he was doomed from the start. In five weeks
of unremitting pressure, the Americans breached every strongpoint,
exterminated his forces, and seized the island.
[Illustration: