Battle at Iwo Jima

The Americans were about ready to take the next step in this war, and to do this they decided that they needed to take over a base near the Japanese coast. After many hours of studying and figuring out what exactly what would work best, they decided to come in on the island of Iwo Jima would be very efficient in achieving their initial goal. After a great amount of preparation, the United States felt very confident in their plan to take over and make their way into Japan. In February of 1945, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island. In defense against the American troops were 23,000 Japanese army and naval troops. Their ground and territory came into handy while in this battle. They fought from all sorts of places including: network caves, tunnels, dugouts, and underground installations. While Japan had a great advantage over the U.S. because of being on their own terrain, the marines were still able to wipe out the rest of the Japanese forces. It took about a month, with many deaths on both sides in hand, but the U.S. gained another victory and the American flag was raised in victory.

On the 70^th anniversary of this heroic event, CBS news wrote a beautiful article on it that included interviews with some of the survivors themselves. It explains that the picture of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima may be one of the most historic and famous moments to ever be captured. In this article, the survivors go on to give their insights of how that picture may seem miserable-nothing could compare to the actual hell that they were put through during their time serving. That picture was known to cost the Americans around 7,000 lives.  “They lost 750 in one-hour stretch, every inch of that beach and everything around it had been pinned down and zeroed in by the Japanese guns,” stated Frank Matthews (Iwo Jima survivor). Seventy years later, Matthews is serving as a guide at the Marine Corps Museum where the flag displayed in this picture is on display.

Another famous picture from this event was taken with soldiers inside a crater left by a Japanese shell. One of the survivors from this very picture, Lawrence Snowden shared his experience with CBS news. “When we landed there were three colors—black and gray from all the exploding ordinance, the third color was red – blood.” This statement by Snowden put an image in everyone’s eyes of what this epic battle really entailed. He goes on to tell that when the flag was raised on the 4^th day of battle, it was not yet seen as a symbol of victory as it has grown to be now. “None of us doing the fighting thought that was the end by a long shot, we knew we were just getting started.” At age 93, Lawrence Snowden is a “font of knowledge for anyone interested in the battle.”

I thought that this interview by CBS was very well put together, and makes the battle of Iwo Jima more realistic in people’s lives who did not experience it. When learning about a historic event, it is always better to hear it from a direct source. Lawrence and Snowden were very brave men, and did a great job sharing their experiences in Iwo Jima.