012 - Iwo Jimas Costs Gains and Legacies

On Sunday, March 4, 1945, the brutal battle for Iwo Jima reached a critical juncture as the U.S. Marines faced mounting exhaustion after two weeks of relentless fighting. The valiant display of the American flag raised by the 28th Marines on Mount Suribachi had taken place ten days earlier, but the harsh realities of war were settling in. With the V Amphibious Corps (VAC) suffering 13,000 casualties, including 3,000 fatalities, the situation was dire. The front lines had become a chaotic tableau, with American forces still grappling against a tenacious and elusive Japanese enemy. Meanwhile, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, commanding his beleaguered 109th Division, recognized that while his forces had inflicted severe losses on the Marines, they too had borne heavy casualties. The capture of vital hills by American troops the previous day had stripped him of crucial artillery observation points, and with his brilliant chief of artillery, Colonel Chosaku Kaido, on the brink of death, Kuribayashis resolve was shaken. As he relocated his command post to a cave on the northwest coast, the distant echoes of Imperial General Headquarters’ heroics fell on deaf ears. “Send me air and naval support and I will hold the island,” he signaled with a sense of urgency. “Without them, I cannot hold.” - Summary by Joseph H. Alexander