http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31647414 Surviving Iwo Jima On 19 February 1945 the US launched a land invasion of the heavily defended Japanese island of Iwo Jima. It was the start of one of the hardest-fought battles of the World War Two. John Laurellio was among the US marines who spearheaded the assault 70 years ago. "I was in the first wave that landed. And I'm here to tell you - there was action. There's just chaos on the beach when you first get there." Laurellio was a 21-year-old corporal in the 5th US marine division when his regiment became one of the first American units to land on Iwo Jima. "It was death from the sky," says Laurellio. "You were here one minute, and the next you were talking to the angels. And people right in front of you would just disappear. They got hit with a direct shell and just vaporised." The Japanese were well prepared to defend the island. "To our left was a 550ft (168m) volcano," Laurellio recalls. "To our right was sheer cliffs of rock. And from both of those points they were firing machine guns. The sky was just full of tracers, and for every tracer you could see there was a black shell in between. "They were dropping these artillery shells down and they were showering their shrapnel on us." The marines were also facing snipers and mortars as they attempted to get off the beach, and they were soon taking heavy casualties. "There was a little bit of flat sand where we actually came off the ramp of the (landing) craft, and almost immediately there was this first terrace that went up and levelled off at about 18ft (5.5m), and then there was another terrace like that. "You had to get up both of those before you got on to the flat land. And all that entitled you to is to get shot at more than you did on the other part of the beach." Iwo Jima was of vital importance to both the Americans and the Japanese. Japanese fighter planes used the island as an airbase, and it was a staging post for attacks on US forces in the Pacific. But with three airfields, the US could also use the captured island to launch attacks on the main islands of Japan. Tens of thousands of US marines faced more than 20,000 well prepared Japanese soldiers dug into the island's inhospitable volcanic rock. "They were in 50-gallon oil drums sunken into the ground with a camouflaged lid," explains Laurellio. "You honestly couldn't see them, they were masters of camouflage, and they had smokeless powder, so when they fired at you, you saw nothing. All you could hear was the thing whistling by you if they missed you. "As soon as you put your head up it got shot off. And you didn't know where the shot came from." John Laurellio's unit gradually wrested control of the airstrips, while another marine unit overran Japanese positions on Mount Suribachi, which commanded the southern end of the island. The photograph of a group of US servicemen crowded around the American flag on the mountain top was to become the iconic image of this battle, and of the whole war in the Pacific. But even after taking Mount Suribachi the Americans still had a long way to go to fully conquer the island. One of the soldiers who raised the stars and stripes later joined Laurellio's unit. "He was standing there and all of a sudden a piece of shrapnel came down from the sky, and ripped him wide open," Laurellio recalls. "He was alive long enough to say, 'They've killed me.' And sure enough he was right." It would take until late March for the American forces to secure control of the island. The five-week battle for Iwo Jima would inflict heavy casualties on both sides. Almost 7,000 US personnel lost their lives, and the fighting left many more injured. Most of the Japanese troops on the island were killed. "Somebody said the Japanese were not 'on' Iwo Jima, they were 'in' Iwo Jima," says Laurellio. "Some of their living quarters and storage areas were four storeys below the surface. That's what made it tough." After 37 days on the front line Lauriello's unit was withdrawn from the island to rest - and to prepare for battles yet to come. "All I can say is it was not a pleasant experience. It was fine to survive. It's something you wouldn't sell for a million bucks but you'd never do it again." John Laurellio spoke to Witness on the BBC World Service. Listen again on iPlayer or get the Witness podcast.
Nationality aside, Joe Rosenthal's photo of the second flag raising on Iwo Jima is a grand composition. Swap out the uniforms and the flag and it could be soldiers from any country. It has so much emotion to it, even though to the boys who were there, it was just another duty to perform.
good day dbf.super moderators yesterday.03:23pm.re:iwo jima 70 years on.a very moving post.the japs were fighting to the end,they would not surender.its a tough enemy who knows no fear,the us troops were all hero's.to those who did not return may they rest in peace,regards bernard85
What a terrible place. My cousin Bucky was there with the Marines. He was only 16 or so (lots of kids lied their way into the USMC) and was badly wounded in the throat. He still has trouble talking, but I suspect that he was just grateful to get out of there alive. Lots of men didn't. As we remember the Marines there, we should also pay our respects to the 147th Infantry Regiment (Ohio National Guard), who came in as the Marines were leaving to finish that dirty and dangerous task the military calls "mopping up." Between March 26th 1945 (the official 'end' of the battle) and the end of the war the 147th conducted some 6,000 combat actions, killing 1602 Japanese and capturing 867 prisoners. Total American battle casualties (Marines, Navy, Army) were 6,821 dead and 19,217 wounded for a total of 26,038, which was about twice what the entire 8th Army lost at the Second Battle of El Alamein. In addition, US forces suffered 2,648 combat fatigue cases.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32029227 Video in link By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC News, Iwo Jima Iwo Jima is a name I have known from childhood. Perhaps it was from a Saturday night watching John Wayne in The Black Sands of Iwo Jima. That came long before Clint Eastwood made the tiny island famous again with Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. To me as a child in England it was a strange exotic name for a place I never imagined I would see. So you can perhaps imagine my excitement as our plane banks sharply to the left and the unmistakable volcanic cone of Mount Suribachi appears in my window. As the plane touches down the flight attendant's voice comes over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Iwo Jima, before leaving the aircraft please make sure you have not forgotten any of your carry on items." It sounds so normal. It is anything but. Japan officially reinstated Iwo Jima's original name, Iwo To, in 2007 Iwo Jima, a military base, is open to outsiders for only one day each year, and then only to US veterans, their families, and a very few journalists travelling with them. Seventy years on from the terrible battle that was fought here, 26 veterans have come back. The youngest is in his late eighties. Most are in their early nineties. For most this is the first time they have seen the island since 1945. The excitement and emotion is palpable. Standing on the runway we stare at the hulking mass of Mount Suribachi four miles (7km) away on the southern tip of the island. In 1945 it was a Japanese fortress, a warren of tunnels, bunkers and gun emplacements. More than 500 young Marines died on the first day of battle, many of them from fire coming from Suribachi. It took four days for the Marines to fight their way to the top where they planted a US flag. The photo of them doing so has become perhaps the most famous war photograph ever taken. Japanese troops opened fire from Mount Suribachi as the US forces landed on what became known as Invasion Beach Today the elderly veterans are whisked up the mountain by minibus. I am left to walk. An hour later as I reach the top one of the old men is playing The Halls of Montezuma on a harmonica. Behind him two more are once again raising the Stars and Stripes over the mountain. Standing nearby is Hershel "Woody" Williams. Hanging around his neck is the Congressional Medal of Honor, America's highest award for bravery. On the day they raised the flag here, Woody was far below assaulting Japanese bunkers with a flamethrower. It was perhaps the most dangerous job in the Marine Corps. "I am thinking of those who didn't make it home," he tells me. "I am thinking of the heroes who died here. I lost three of my closest friends here. I am not a hero, they are." The flag-raising photograph was an image that became known around the world Through the smoke and chaos of the battle on the plain below, Woody looked up and saw the Stars and Stripes flying over the mountain. A cheer rippled through the US lines. The ships offshore blew their horns. "It was the flag that made the difference," he says. "It was was the first time we had taken Japanese territory. This was the first time in all the fighting that we got part of their country. That said to us, and to those back in America, we are winning this thing. Up until that point there were a lot of us who didn't think we were." All but one of the veterans on Mount Suribachi today is American. The exception is a small Japanese gentleman in suit and tie standing slightly apart. For 88-year-old Tsuruji Akikusa there is nothing to celebrate. Looking down from the mountain he too is filled with memories, awful ones. As he turns to me, tears well up in his eyes. Tsuruji Akikusa, here with Woody Williams, was one of only 1,000 Japanese soldiers to survive Iwo Jima, from a force of 20,000 "It is very hard," he says. "In my mind images of what happened then have suddenly come flooding back. I feel very, very sad." In 1945, Mr Akikusa was an 18-year-old radio operator in the Japanese navy. On the morning of 19 February he looked out from his bunker and saw the vast American invasion force. I was overwhelmed," he says. "How could they have so many ships? There were more than the entire Japanese navy. It was then I realised we were going to lose the war." The US sent a 100,000-strong force to the island in February 1945 In the opening naval barrage Mr Akikusa was badly injured. Three fingers were blown off his right hand. As the battle raged on for week after week, conditions in the tunnels beneath Iwo Jima grew worse and worse. They had run out of ammunition and were slowly starving. Mr Akikusa even ate the maggots feeding on his suppurating wounds. But surrender was unthinkable. Thousands of Japanese troops spent weeks entrenched in tunnels underneath the island With their own casualties mounting, the Americans resorted to more and more extreme measures. "They pumped water into our cave," Mr Akikusa says. "We were all filthy. The cave stank of excrement and dead bodies. So some jumped in to the water to wash. Then the water exploded. Gasoline had been mixed with the water. The cave became a sea of flame. "People were burning; their skin was hanging and bleeding. It was like hell." It wasn't until the end of April that Mr Akikusa was dragged from the tunnels, starving and semi-conscious, by a US Marine. At the end of the battle 20,000 Japanese troops were dead. Only 1,000 survived. For years after returning home Mr Akikusa suffered in silence, not telling anyone what had happened to him. Even today, Iwo Jima is a story Japan struggles to deal with. Iwo Jima is only open to outsiders one day a year There is no such anguish for the Americans. Instead there is much excitement that Mr Akikusa is here. Every US veteran wants to shake his hand and have a photo taken together. Whether this is a poignant moment of reconciliation, or memento-gathering, I am not sure. Even after 70 years there is still a gulf in understanding. But, whether victor or vanquished, the old men here on Iwo Jima do share one thing, that is abhorrence of war.
