The Battle of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945. It went on for at least five weeks.
Unlike Okinawa several weeks later, Iwo Jima sat by itself in the middle of the ocean, out of range of any reasonable use of Japanese naval or air power to help defend it. That didn't stop the Japanese units on the island from putting up a fearsome defense.
My uncle was there. He never spoke of it.
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Most of the dead at Iwo Jima can be blamed on MacArthur. Iwo was the natural follow through from Saipan, and Iwo Jima was essentially defenceless. Instead of doing that, we went to the Philippines, giving the Japanese 9 months to construct all the bunkers we know and love.
MacArthur had a singular talent when it came to getting Marines killed.
One of my grand uncles was on the McArthurs’ staff at the time of the surrender. Being Anglo-Chinese, as all my maternal relations, and speaking Japanese fluently, he was later an undercover operative in Japan. His brothers envied him because he could stay up past the curfew imposed on American servicemen but not Japanese citizens.
"getting Marines killed"...almost seven thousand of them in this case, plus more than triple that number wounded.
War is when young men get the bill for old men's folly.
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