This paper explores various online and offline sources to complete a picture of the Battle of Iwo Jima, and further explores alternatives to the battle that actually took place in February and March, 1945. The significance of the island was overestimated, and the victory, while iconic, was also hollow. The intelligence gaps that were faulty on the Allied side was a lack of reliable Human Intelligence sources, and failure to properly assess the training and philosophies of the enemy commander. Had the Allies not decided to use overwhelming force, a Japanese victory was likely. THE TRAGEDY OF OPERATION DETACHMENT 3 The Tragedy of Operation Detachment: A Viewpoint on the High Price of Victory in the Battle of Iwo Jima If the intelligence …show more content…
The Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was a progressive military officer who had studied during exchange programs in the United States and Canada, which gave him wonderful insight into the tactics and resolve of the American fighting men. He knew that the United States would attack using overwhelming force. He knew there would be no re-supply or reinforcement from the Japanese homeland. He knew that the typical Japanese beach defense would not be effective, as it had not been effective since early on in the war. He decided to create a different defense; he connected 11 miles of tunnels to the various bunkers and pillboxes, so that a pillbox or bunker that had been cleared out by flamethrower or grenade could easily be reoccupied and manned, without anybody exposing themselves to enemy fire. He hid artillery and mortar positions in caves in Mount Suribachi, where they could fire for effect, then close steel blast doors to protect the artillery from a counter-strike. He meant to sell every Japanese life for a price dearer than the Allies had ever paid before. (Wright, …show more content…
Marines hit the beaches (see Appendix B), they were all allowed to dismount before they were hit with artillery and mortar shells, not to mention grenades and small-arms fire. The Japanese had buried numerous anti-personnel mines all over the island, and the heavy deposits of magnetite on the island made it impossible to use standard metal detectors to sweep for the mines. (Amphibious Operations: Capture of Iwo Jima) “I watched from the deck of my transport ship as the flag went up on (Mount) Suribachi. Then it came down. Then another one went up, this time with a photographer there.” (Gehrlach, 2011) The flag was raised twice on day 5 of the battle. (Appendix C) After Mount Suribachi was “cleared”, they still had the rest of the island to subdue. The battle that was anticipated to last only a week wound up lasting thirty-six days. The island was declared secure at 0900 hours on 26 March, 1945. Of the estimated 21,000 Japanese defenders, between 17,845 and 18,375 died either from fighting or by ritual suicide. On the American side, there were 6,800 dead and an additional 19,200 wounded, with American casualties outnumbering those of the enemy for the first and only time in the Pacific Theater during World War II. (Battle for Iwo Jima, 1945. Navy Department
While the Imperial Navy’s Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who was also known as the “chief architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, stated that he believed it was impossible for Japan to win such a war but Japan had to gain the upper hand at the very beginning so that the United States just might be enticed to the negotiating table” (Timms). Hotta revealed her own interpretation by reviewing relevant published primary sources and the reasons why Japan decided to attack the Pearl Harbor. In addition, everyone talked about going to war such as the “Japan’s top brass referring to the prime minister, the foreign minister, the army and navy ministers, and the chiefs of the army and navy general staff”
For instance, getting there would be a struggle because they had to travel overseas to get there. In addition, in 1945 Japan was approximately 1,984,000 km squared (OI/nationalww2museum.org). Traveling this far across Japan could lead to the loss of many soldiers. Therefore, the bombs were immense necessities to save American
One day, the men could not find any guards around until they reappeared and told them to man their stations. Ken Marvin asked one of the guards, Bad Eye, what was going on in which he responded, “The war is over” (Hillenbrand 310). A new POW who had information about the war also informed Louis teh war was over by dropping his water pan when Louis asked if it was true. The U.S. and Japanese met on the USS Missouri in the Tokyo Bay where Japanese representatives along with Douglas MacArthur signed the Treaty of San Francisco to declare Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945. Louis and all the other POWs at Execution Island were released on September 5, 1945.
After the bombing, the United State troops approached the island. At their first sight, the troops thought that they had wiped out all of the Japanese troops. This is because the Japanese had dug a tremendous amount of underground tunnels and hideouts (Chen). This is why the United States had a very limited amount of success with the bombing. The Japanese Imperial Navy was instructed to stay in their positions until all of the beaches around Iwo Jima were full.
After the deadliest battle in the Pacific occurred, Ushijima, the General of the Japanese troops, ordered an attack in may 3, but it was repulsed by the US soldiers. Later, he was forced to order a retreat from the Shuri line. At this point resistance continued, however, as the battle advanced, many losses in battles followed and Ushijima committed suicide with many of his men, because he preferred to die than surrender. On July 2 the US declared the territory safe.
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.
Sledge lived and witnessed horrifying experiences at the beach of Pelilieu that were told in his story With the Old Breed. Although, to us, the beach is a calm getaway, Pelilieu is the furthest thing from calm. The story really shows the loss of hope from Sledge and the overall struggle against the Japanese troops. When Sledge first describes the battle, he gives off a hell type vibe filled with fatalities for every second he fought through in the Pacific with the other marines. Bombs were going off everywhere causing bodies to fly everywhere.
Even with this information at their disposal, Japan held steady with the refusal to surrender. A strong desire to keep fighting burning brighter than ever. Former President Harry Truman wrote in his The Truman Memoirs that “It was their conclusion that no technical demonstration they might propose, such as over a deserted island, would be likely to bring the war to an end. It had to be used against an enemy target”. Truman had been advised by the committee involved with the bombs that not only did they have a limited supply, but that they did not believe a demonstration would be effective and that the firepower needed to be brought to Japan in full force.
Japan, by June 1945, had been completely defeated militarily with almost nothing left of its once mighty Imperial Navy and Airforce, while American aircrafts and bombers “rained down” on Japanese cities. General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme
Name: Course Instructor: Class: Date: Critical Book Review: Prompt and Utter Destruction Introduction Within weeks, word on the US dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki began to spread that the main reason behind the bombs was to save the lives of Americans (Bernard). It was put that hundreds of thousands of American military causalities were saved through the bombings.
As the Japanese began to adopt more kamikaze fighting styles, towards the end of the war, the allies came to understand the lethality of their further conflicts with the Japanese. The fear of massive casualties caused by the US experience on Okinawa was fully in the considerations of the decision makers. There was an estimated 31,000 three day casualty total (11). Taking this into consideration, it was
There wasn 't much of a battle considering the fact that it was very unexpected and Franklin D. Roosevelt had just spoke to the Japanese and they seemed to be on good terms. The event only lasted around two hours and in that short amount of time 20 American naval vessels were destroyed, 8 battleships, and 200 airplanes. There were around 2,000 American casualties while 1,000 others were only wounded. The day after this attack the president of the United States declared war on
To fully understand the importance of D-Day one must understand the battle from all aspects. As all of America knows D-Day, or “Operation Overlord”, was executed on June 6th, 1944. However, this was not the initial set date. Originally, the set date was for May
The Battle of Midway was and is the most overlooked battle during WWII. This paper is going to explain how the nine principles of war were used during the victory at the Battle of Midway based on the experiences of the American Navy. The Battle of Midway happened only 6 short months after the bombing of Peal Harbor had taken place, however this was not considered at the time a counterstrike against the Japanese. This would take place at a much later date, August 6, 1945, to be exact. The bombing of Pearl Harbor would be avenged by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Letters from Iwo Jima” is considered a historically accurate representation of the conflict in Iwo Jima. However, it misrepresents some facts that could affect our understanding on The Battle of Iwo Jima. Firstly, one aspect of The Battle of Iwo Jima that the film accurately depicted was Kuribayashi’s strategy. The Japanese defence of Jima would have been defence-in-depth, a military tactic that included