Remember the Heroes

By Abby M. Frierson, 9th Grade

            Iwo Jima: merely a tiny, unsightly island in the Pacific-would sorrowfully and historically become the deathbed for thousands of American Marines and Japanese soldiers in World War II.  From the ugly landscape to the unbelievable but asserted military value, from the cunning of the Japanese to the offensive strategy of the Marines, the fight on Iwo Jima sprung from the morals of two groups of people:  godless and godly.

Although Iwo Jima was a miniscule speck in the enormous Pacific, it became a name spoken frequently with horror as the battle progressed.  Reddened and soaked by the blood of Americans and Japanese, Iwo Jima, also known as Sulfur Island, became a turning point, was the deathbed of thousands, and hosted a horrendously bloody battle that changed the fate of the war and the world.

Iwo Jima is known as “Sulfur Island”. Why? Spawned from the lava of Mount Suribachi-the site of the historic “Flagraising” photo-the island spreads 5 miles into the Pacific Ocean. Blackly covered and suffocated in ash and sulfur, Iwo’s natural vegetation is sparse, and in the words of a Japanese soldier, it is “A place where no sparrow sings.”1  Throughout the tiny, occupied island sizable boulders, soft sand, and sulfur beds litter the ground. As the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the tiny Sulfur Island and Mount Suribachi, before unknown, became the unsightly, sandy gravesite for thousands of American and Japanese soldiers.

Although Iwo Jima is an ugly, minuscule speck in the Pacific, its assets were monumental. How and wherewith? For the Japanese, Iwo was an airstrip from which suicide bombers could launch to attack enemy ships. For the Americans, it held offensive and sanctuary value, where pilots could make emergency landings. For the world, Iwo Jima would become a place watched and heard of anxiously, prayerfully, and frequently, while the battle raged on between American Marines and Japanese soldiers. Courageously the Marines were sent out to capture this miniscule island from the clutches of their enemies; the crafty, cunning, and vicious Japanese. Seizing Iwo Jima was crucially important, and weeks of training were necessary before the valiant Marines could sally forth most to their death; to the tiny speck called Sulfer Island.

As the Marines determinedly prepared for battle, the Japanese were not idle. Prepared for an attack, they stationed hidden blockhouses, tunnels, and embedded mines across the black island. Famously known for their deadly “no surrender” mindset, the Japanese were ready to kill until they themselves were shot down. The intricate tunnel system weaved throughout the island and allowed them to care for their wounded in underground makeshift hospitals and move unseen from cave to cave. These caves proved deadly. Among the dead were Marines, who had stumbled unsuspectingly, weakly, and trustingly into an occupied cave. After the first day of fighting, as evening fell dark and heavy on the exhausted soldiers, the Japanese struck again, stalking like wolves through the blackness in deadly night attacks; showing the fierce, frightening determination of the Marines’ enemies.

While the Marines were training for the expected amphibious attack on Iwo Jima, brave fighter planes and battleships unleashed a barrage of bombs on the tiny island, which merely absorbed the onslaught into the thick sand. In February of 1945, the Marines exhibited the power and strength of their preparation in a heroic amphibious landing on the beaches of Sulfer Island. Savagely met by the hidden snipers and bombers, tenaciously the Marines fought through a hailstorm of bullets, courageously meeting death at the hands of their unseen enemy. Planting the Stars and Stripes on the crest of Mount Suribachi did not end the fighting, which lasted a whole month. Finally, the struggle ended. The cost of victory for the Americans was staggering: 26,000 casualties: one-third of the total deaths of World War II. About 21,000 Japanese were killed on Iwo Jima, where the honor and training of the Marines was tested and proved to be the best in the world.

After the historic, monumental, crucial fighting on Iwo Jima, life continued. Although many did not return from the tiny speck called Sulfur Island, those who did taught us to remember the dead heroes. Carved outside the resting place of thousands of these heroes is this epitaph:

When you go home

Tell them for us and say

For your tomorrow

We gave our today!

Honorably and courageously, the heroes of Iwo Jima live on. The tiny, ugly island, which had incredible military importance and was pulled between the cunning of the Japanese and the brave attack of the Americans, will always be remembered most importantly for the Marines, who fought untiringly to raise Old Glory on Mount Suribachi. Remember the heroes.

1. James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers (Bantam Books, 2000).

2. Ibid..