Blood on the sands of Iwo Jima

By December of 1944 the war in Europe and the Pacific had bankrupted the United States Treasury. The American public had become tired of blackouts, casualty lists and those telegrams from the Secretary of War offering his condolences to the next of kin of a fallen member of the United States Armed Forces. Just how jaded the American population had become was being reflected by their lack of enthusiasm to invest in government war bonds. The financial woes of the United States Government was one of the worst kept secrets of the war and the knowledge hardened the resolve of the Japanese Government to fight on to the last man in the hope that the money troubles of the Americans would force them to the peace table.

The war in the Pacific was fought just as bloodily on the sea as it was on the land. The two major Japanese defeats of the Pacific War were sea based battles: the first took place in the Coral Sea where the United States stopped the Japanese Invasion of Australia; and the second on the sea around the Midway Islands where the Japanese carrier forces were decimated.

With the threat of Japanese Naval opposition largely eliminated, the United States was able to begin its plan of island hopping towards the Japanese homeland. The intention being to secure airbases close enough for its Air Force to reach Japan and hopefully bomb the Japanese into submission.

On the morning 19th of February 1945, an armada of 800 ships carrying 110,00 Marines was anchored off the first island in the Japanese homeland chain. The island was a small piece of volcanic rock covered in black sand. Its name was Iwo Jima which translates into English as Sulphur Island. On shore 21, 000 Japanese soldiers waited in tunnels and bunkers for the American invasion to begin.

The first waves of Marines hit the beaches at just before 9am on the morning of the 19th. On the 23rd of February the islands high point Mt Subiachi was taken and a flag was planted on the mountain top to mark the occasion. In fact two flags were planted on that day: the first was grabbed by a visiting member of the United states Government; the second, a much larger battle flag became the subject of one of the most famous pictures of World War II.

Public reaction to the photograph of the Marine raising of the second flag was so great that President Roosevelt ordered that the flag raisers be returned to the United States and used as the front men to raise money on a war bond tour. Three of the six flag raisers were killed on Iwo. The surviving three were returned to the United States were they raised 7 Billion dollars in war bonds.

The battle for the Sands of Iwo Jima lasted 36 days. The battle claimed the lives of 20,000 Japanese and 7,000 Marines.

Even with the horrendous bombing campaign of the Japanese mainland that followed, the Japanese Government refused to surrender. More than 100,00 Japanese civilians were killed in one night as a result of one fire bombing raid on the city of Tokyo.

Battlefield planners estimated that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would cost between 400,000 and 800,000 lives and blow out the duration of the war by years. Then there was also the problem of where the money was going to come from for such a prolonged campaign. There was also the probability that the Russians would want to enter the war against Japan with the intent of gobbling up vast chinks of Japanese held territory in Asia.

On the 12th of April 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt passed away and the terrible burden of how to finish the war in the Pacific fell to Harry Truman. Truman told waiting reporters after he was sworn in as President:

"Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

Truman knew nothing about the Manhattan Project Team that had been working feverishly in the desert at Los Alamos to build the first atomic bomb prior to his ascension to the Presidency.

The Japanese were given one final chance to surrender via  the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration stated:

"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction....The might that now converges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which, when applied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily laid waste to the lands, the industry and the method of life of the whole German people. The full application of our military power, backed by our resolve, will mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland..."

The Japanese Government failed to respond and in August of 1945 Truman authorized the use of nuclear weapons against the Japanese populace. On August 6th 1945 the first nuclear bombing took place against the city of Hiroshima. Still the Japanese Government refused to surrender. On August 9th another nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This brought the Japanese Dictatorship to its knees. On the 15th of August 1945, Emperor Hirohito broadcast  his intention to surrender to the Japanese people:

"... Despite the best that has been done by everyone — the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of Our servants of the State, and the devoted service of Our one hundred million people — the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.

 

Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.

Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of Our subjects, or to atone Ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers.

 

The hardships and sufferings to which Our nation is to be subjected hereafter will be certainly great. We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all of you, Our subjects. However, it is according to the dictates of time and fate that We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is unsufferable."

On the 2nd of September the formal instrument of surrender was signed on board the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The ceremony took 23 minutes. At its end, General MacArthur took to the microphone and asked the global audience to "..... pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always." MacArthur paused briefly then proclaimed that the "... proceedings ...[were] now closed ” and brought the bloodiest, most pivotal chapter in the history of the world to its conclusion.

 

 

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