Iwo Jima Research Papers

Off of an island of Japan, many landing crafts wash ashore dropping the doors as seventy thousand United States Marines storm the beaches while being shot at by eighteen thousand Japanese soldiers. This is the battle of Iwo Jima which occurred on Feb 19, 1945 and ended on Mar 26, 1945.
The island of Iwo Jima is like a paradise island with clear water and golden-white beaches, pretty trees of different kinds and of course a tall mountain called Mount Suribachi. Back in 1945, the trees were blown to ashes and the beaches were red along with the water as the soldiers tried to take cover. As myself, I have always liked history of war and the strategies along with weapons that were used during the time. I told myself to research a battle that I

This was the start of the long invasion of Iwo Jima. The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the Japanese army and the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The battle, known to the USMC as "Operation Detachment", started on February 19, 1945 and lasted until March 26, 1945 when the last Japanese soldiers were captured or killed. Japan knew that the importance of defending Iwo Jima as its loss would facilitate American air raids against Japanese Home Islands. However Imperial Japanese Navy had already lost almost all of its power and could not prevent U.S. from landing. Also depleting air strength meant the remaining warplanes had to be hoarded to defend Japanese Home Islands. With no available means to defend Iwo Jima, Japan decided to rely on the established defensive equipment in the area and check U.S. by delaying tactics to gain time for defense of the mainland. Japanese Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned the task of defending Iwo Jima. Knowing he couldn’t win the battle, he aimed at inflicting heavy casualties on American forces to force them to reconsider invasion of Mainland Japan. His strategy was radically different from Japan’s usual strategy of beach defense to face the landings directly. He used Defense in Depth military strategy which seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of the attacker, buying time and causing additional casualties. A complex and elaborate defense was prepared. Among other things, an extensive system of tunnels was built to connect the prepared positions so that positions which had been cleared could be re-occupied. Numerous snipers and camouflaged machine gun positions were also set up. The Marines were able to cut off Mount Suribachi from the rest of the island by the morning of 23 February. A group of Marines were sent to capture the summit. They were given an American flag to fly to signal its capture. They met with little Japanese resistance and hoisted the U.S. flag over Mount Suribachi: the first