Iwo Jima

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For other uses, see Iwo Jima (disambiguation).

Location map of Iwo Jima

Landsat photo of Iwo Jima, ca. 2000

Iwo Jima (listen (help·info); Japanese: 硫黄島 Iōtō, or Iōjima, meaning "sulfur island") is a volcanic island of Japan, part of the Volcano Islands (the southern part of the Ogasawara Islands), approximately 1200 kilometres (650 nm) south of Tokyo. It is famous as the site of the Battle of Iwo Jima in February and March 1945 between the United States and Japan during World War II, where the famous flag raising occurred at the top of the mountain. The U.S. occupied Iwo Jima until 1968, when it was returned to Japan. Iwo Jima has been featured in the book Flags of Our Fathers, and two movies, the one based on the book, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima.

The island has an approximate area of 21 square kilometres (8 mi²) at N 24°47'27"87"' and E 141°19'16"14"'.The most prominent feature is Mount Suribachi (摺鉢山, Suribachiyama^?)^[1] on the southern tip, a vent that is thought to be dormant and is 166 metres (546 ft) in height. Iwo Jima is unusually flat and featureless for a volcanic island. Suribachi is the only obvious volcanic feature, as it is only the raised center of a larger submerged volcanic caldera.

Iwo Jima is a part of the Tokyo Prefecture. Major industries have included sulfur mining and sugar refining^{[citation needed]}, but the island has no civilian inhabitants and access requires special permission. In general, ex-islanders, the bereaved, and the survivors of the war-dead may go to Iwo Jima only when memorial services are held for the war dead.

1 Reunion of honor
2 Naval air base
3 U.S. nuclear arms base
4 See also
5 External links and references

[edit] Reunion of honor

On February 19, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the day that U.S. forces began the assault on the island, veterans from both forces gathered for the Reunion of Honor[1] just a few meters away from the spot where U.S. Marines had landed on the island. During the memorial service a granite plaque was unveiled with the following message:

On the 40th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, American and Japanese veterans met again on these same sands, this time in peace and friendship. We commemorate our comrades, living and dead, who fought here with bravery & honor, and we pray together that our sacrifices on Iwo Jima will always be remembered and never be repeated.

The message is inscribed on both sides of the plaque, with the English translation facing the beaches where U.S. forces landed and the Japanese translation facing inland, where Japanese troops defended their position. After that, the Japan-U.S. combination memorial service of the 50th anniversary was held in front of this monument in March 1995. The 55th anniversary was held in 2000, followed by a 60th reunion in March 2005 (see U.S. National Park Service photo below).

60th Reunion 2005

Reunion of Honor Memorial

[edit] Naval air base

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) operates a naval air base on Iwo Jima. The airstrip is 2,650 meters (8,700 ft) long and 60 meters (200 ft) wide. Its orientation is 07/25. The four-letter ICAO code is RJAW and the three-letter IATA code is IWO. The JMSDF is in charge of support, air-traffic control, fueling, and rescue. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force also utilizes the base. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is in charge of explosive-ordnance disposal. The United States Navy also utilizes the base for operations such as nighttime carrier landing practice.

[edit] U.S. nuclear arms base

Iwo Jima appears to be one of a number of Japanese islands which has been used by the United States to host nuclear arms, according to Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr writing for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in early 2000. [2] [3] This is despite Japanese policy of not allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. Whether the site is currently used for this purpose is unknown, as great secrecy surrounds the United States' siting of nuclear arms bases.

There were nuclear weapons on Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima, an enormous and varied nuclear arsenal on Okinawa, nuclear bombs (sans their fissile cores) stored on the mainland at Misawa and Itazuki airbases (and possibly at Atsugi, Iwakuni, Johnson, and Komaki airbases as well), and nuclear-armed U.S. Navy ships stationed in Sasebo and Yokosuka.^{[citation needed]}

It is true that Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their plutonium and/ or uranium cores, and that the nuclear-armed ships were a legal inch away from Japanese soil. All in all, this elaborate stratagem maintained the technicality that the United States had no nuclear weapons "in Japan."^{[citation needed]}

Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima	Suribachi seen from the northern end of the invasion beach	Volcano crater on Mount Suribachi	Invasion beach seen from the top of Mount Suribachi