5 March 2001, links updated 17 October 2003.
Other Iwo Jimas
Americans with any sense of our military history or remembrance of the Second World War know the name of that sulfurous, hot soiled, bloody pancake with a pimple pictured above -- Io Jima (Iwo Jima usually in English). No place makes war pretty, but this one had a Hellish aspect all its own. Dig a foxhole and you could hit hot soil and sulfurous fumes permeated areas. The Japanese defenders lived and died in holes dug into that. Many were sealed alive or dying to die in those hot, stinking caves.
Perhaps the most famous photograph, at least of the war in the Pacific, for Americans was when the flag went up on that crater to the left extreme of the island in the view above -- Suribachi.
Suribachi from west
The invasion beaches, to the left of this photo, on the opposite shore and extending nearly midway down the island, were under observation and fire from the cone. The more conventional view from the beaches does not show the interior of the cone. Japanese defenders were dug into the interior of the crater as well as in positions with a view of the beaches. The Iwo Jima Flag Raising account of the only Navy Corpsman, Pharmacist Mate Second Class John H. Bradley, to participate describes some of the details of these positions:
The solution to the problem of these men, whose ancient code did not include surrender even after an initial explosive charge or flame thrower jet into the cave, was to seal those left alive in by collapsing the entrance. At the time of this photo most remained there. I believe there have been efforts to recover some since reversion to Japan, but recovering all is probably impossible. Io Jima remains a place both of horror and a shrine for two nations.
A very good Arts and Entertainment (A&E) channel documentary titled Heroes of Iwo Jima aired in June 2001. It dealt with the two flag raisings, how the second was captured in the famous photo, the controversy and mostly the men involved. At the end it showed a fairly recent reunion of US Marines and Japanese defenders on the island. It was good to see recapturing green increasing on the land, including the slopes of Suribachi. It seemed to have made much progress since I last saw the place.
What many may not know is that Io Jima has two outlying islands. These are Kita-io-jima (Kita-iwo-jima) and Minami-io-jima (Minami-iwo-jima). All are part of Japan's Kazan-retto or Volcano Islands. Minami-iwo-jima rises abruptly from the deep sea. The slope below the surface is pretty much the same as what is seen below, for at least several thousand feet. The contrast with the flat Io Jima is striking. Minami-io-jima peaks at about 3,180 feet (970 m) while Suribachi is only 545 feet (166 m) in height.
This is one of the most volcanically active spots in the region, part of the Izu-Bonin-Marianas (IBM) arc noted for surface and subsurface volcanic activity. Minami-iwo-jima has several undersea sisters with one, Minami-Hiyoski, erupting periodically.
The cinder cone is deeply eroded with great gashes running down into the sea. The island is nearly inaccessible which is fortunate for the local seabirds. Both Minami-iwo-jima and Kita-iwo-jima have been nesting grounds for some unique seabirds, one being Matsudaira's storm-petrel (Oceanodroma matsudairae).
These lonely peaks are scenic in themselves, but when one of those great Western Pacific sunsets is building and one is in the area the result can be absolutely spectacular. Probably the predominant memory of the months sailing these waters is sunset time. There were happy times sunning, particularly on the bow sheave platform gratings where one could see deep down into the shadow of the ship into a region not yet ruffled by the bow wave. I enjoyed watching the small life, such as sea spiders, skitter about on the surface and the flying fish rushing toward the surface to erupt out and glide away.
Some moonlight nights, like my Moon on the Rocks photo at the Ship Index page, were spectacular. There were the dark evenings, well after the sunsets, watching the bioluminescent displays where the general star like sparkles would be suddenly lit by what appeared to be basket ball sized flash bulbs going off that would light the entire side of the ship. Occasionally the entire wake would just glow like a great light blue fluorescent tube. At those times one could read a magazine page by the light.
Still, the sunsets were almost a daily ritual. After the evening meal there was usually time for a long break through "movie time" in which sunset watching fit perfectly. On the fairly rare occasions that we were close enough to civilization to get AM or FM radio I'd sit and listen to music while waiting through the sunset in hopes of seeing the green flash. Then the movie. It was a perfect way to gather breath after a full day's work before going back to work for another few hours -- or half -- or even all the night depending on the load.
Geographic positions and brief summary:
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