The Battle of Iwo Jima: The True Story Behind America's Most Iconic Photograph

The Battle of Iwo Jima: The True Story Behind America's Most Iconic Photograph

On the morning of February 23, 1945, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal climbed to the summit of Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, arriving just in time to see six Marines struggling to raise a large American flag on a length of pipe. He raised his Speed Graphic camera, aimed, and pressed the shutter. The exposure took less than a fraction of a second. The photograph he captured in that moment became the most reproduced image in the history of photography — the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, the model for countless statues and monuments, and one of the defining symbols of American military valor.

But the photograph is just the beginning of the story. The Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February 19 to March 26, 1945, was one of the most ferocious battles of the Pacific War — a 36-day struggle for a tiny volcanic island that cost nearly 7,000 American lives and virtually the entire Japanese garrison of 22,000 men. Understanding what happened on that island — and why it mattered — is essential to understanding the final phase of World War II and the extraordinary men who fought it.

Why Iwo Jima: The Strategic Importance of a Volcanic Rock

Iwo Jima is a small island — about eight square miles — of volcanic rock, sulfurous vents, and black sand beaches roughly 700 miles south of Tokyo. In purely aesthetic terms, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. But in strategic terms, in the winter of 1944-45, it was invaluable.

American B-29 Superfortress bombers flying from the Mariana Islands were conducting devastating raids on Japanese cities, but the 1,500-mile round trip to Japan meant they flew most of the way without fighter escort. Japanese fighters based on Iwo Jima were intercepting the bombers and causing significant losses. More importantly, B-29s that were damaged over Japan and couldn't make it back to the Marianas had nowhere to land — they went down in the Pacific.

Capturing Iwo Jima would eliminate the Japanese radar warning system that gave Tokyo 90 minutes of advance notice of incoming B-29 raids. It would remove the fighter base that was attacking the bombers. And it would provide an emergency landing field roughly halfway between the Marianas and Japan. American military planners estimated that capturing Iwo Jima could eventually save more American lives than the battle would cost. Given what followed, they were right: after the island was captured, over 2,400 B-29s and 27,000 crewmen used the emergency landing facilities on Iwo Jima. Many would have died without it.

The Japanese Defenses: An Underground Fortress

Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander on Iwo Jima, knew he could not defeat the American invasion force in conventional combat. The Americans had overwhelming naval and air superiority. A beach defense of the kind used at other Pacific island battles would simply be destroyed by preliminary bombardment.

Kuribayashi's solution was radical: he ordered his men underground. Over a period of months before the invasion, Japanese engineers and soldiers dug 11 miles of tunnels connecting hundreds of defensive positions — pillboxes, artillery emplacements, mortar positions, and machine gun nests — into the volcanic rock of the island. The tunnels were deep enough to be invulnerable to naval bombardment. The defensive positions were mutually supporting, so that attacking one would expose the attackers to fire from several others.

Kuribayashi forbade the traditional Japanese practice of suicidal banzai charges. His men would fight from their fortifications, extract maximum casualties from the Americans, and delay as long as possible. He knew the island would eventually fall. His goal was to make the Americans pay such a price that they might reconsider the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands.

D-Day at Iwo Jima: February 19, 1945

The invasion force was enormous: 70,000 Marines from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, supported by hundreds of ships and thousands of aircraft. The preliminary naval bombardment, which had preceded every Pacific island assault, lasted three days. Kuribayashi's men stayed in their tunnels and waited.

When the first waves of Marines landed on the black volcanic sand beaches at 9 a.m. on February 19, the first few minutes were almost eerily quiet. The Japanese let the landing craft come in, let the Marines unload, let the beaches fill with men and equipment. Then, when the beaches were packed, they opened fire from every direction simultaneously.

The black volcanic sand that gave the beaches their dramatic appearance was also a nightmare for the Marines. It was too soft to dig foxholes in quickly — the sand collapsed as fast as it was removed. Men were caught in the open with virtually no cover. Artillery, mortar fire, and machine guns cut them down in large numbers. In the first day of fighting, the Marines suffered 2,400 casualties.

Taking Mount Suribachi

Mount Suribachi — a 556-foot volcanic cone at the southern tip of the island — dominated the entire beachhead. Japanese observers on its summit could direct fire onto every inch of the beach. Taking it was an immediate priority.

The assault on Suribachi took four days. Marines fought through an interconnected system of caves and pillboxes, using flamethrowers to clear positions that could not be taken by rifle fire. Each cave that was cleared might be connected by tunnel to others from which Japanese soldiers would emerge after the Americans had passed. The fighting was intimate, brutal, and utterly relentless.

On February 23, Marines reached the summit and raised a small flag. It was spotted from the beach below and cheered by the thousands of men who could see it. A larger flag was sent up, and the raising of that second flag — the one that Rosenthal photographed — became the image that the world would remember.

Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, watching from a ship offshore as the flag went up, told Marine General Holland Smith: "Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."

The Long Struggle: 36 Days of Hell

Taking Suribachi was only the beginning. The northern two-thirds of the island, where Kuribayashi's main defensive network was located, took another month to secure. The fighting there was even more difficult than the assault on Suribachi — a grinding, yard-by-yard struggle through terrain that seemed designed to maximize American casualties.

Every ridge and hill had a name: Hill 382, Turkey Knob, the Amphitheater, Bloody Gorge. Each became a separate battle, each extracted its toll. Marines learned that taking a position did not mean holding it — Japanese soldiers would emerge from tunnels behind them and occupy it again.

Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of Pacific forces, paid tribute to the men who fought there with words that have become some of the most famous in Marine Corps history: "Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

The Cost and the Legacy

The battle officially ended on March 26, 1945. American casualties: 6,821 killed, 19,217 wounded — the only Pacific battle in which American casualties exceeded Japanese. Of the approximately 22,000 Japanese defenders, only 216 were taken prisoner. The rest died in the fighting or in final suicidal charges. Kuribayashi died in the battle's final days, the manner of his death never conclusively determined.

Of the six men who raised the flag in Rosenthal's photograph, three were killed in the subsequent fighting on Iwo Jima. One of the three survivors, Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona, struggled with the fame the photograph brought him for the rest of his life, feeling guilty that he was celebrated while his comrades who had fought beside him were buried on the island.

Iwo Jima was the last major battle before the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands — an invasion that was rendered unnecessary by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The suffering on Iwo Jima, terrible as it was, may have forestalled even greater suffering on both sides.

Honor the Men of Iwo Jima

The men who fought on Iwo Jima deserve to be remembered with the respect their sacrifice earned. At Canvas of America, our military history canvas art collection honors the courage of America's greatest warriors. From Iwo Jima to Normandy, from Antietam to Midway, bring their stories home.