Battle of Iwo Jima begins
On this day · 19 February 1945
On a black volcanic island 650 miles from Tokyo, U.S. Marines waded into one of the Pacific War's deadliest fights.
At about 9:00 a.m. on February 19, 1945, roughly 70,000 U.S. Marines began landing on the southeastern beaches of Iwo Jima, a speck of volcanic rock about 650 miles from Tokyo prized for its airfields. After weeks of naval and air bombardment, the Marines expected a softened defense. Instead they sank ankle-deep in loose volcanic ash and met some 21,000 Japanese troops dug into a hidden warren of bunkers and tunnels.
General Kuribayashi had ordered his men to fight from concealment rather than charge, and to take ten Americans for every defender. The result was five weeks of grinding, point-blank combat.
It was the only Pacific battle in which American casualties exceeded the enemy’s.
On February 23, a patrol reached the summit of Mount Suribachi; the second, larger flag raised there was captured by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal in an image that became the war’s defining picture. By the time the island was declared secure on March 26, nearly 7,000 Marines were dead.
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