Above: Source and text: "Iwo Jima, 19 February 1945. Assault on the beachhead. Marine-laden assault craft head to the beach at Iwo Jima during the initial landings on D-day. Note Mount Suribachi looming in the left background. From the Photograph Collection at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections." Click to expand.

Above: Iwo Jima, February 1945. Down Fifty: At a forward observation post, Marine spotters have located the exact fix on an enemy position as one of the group calls instructions to be relayed to artillery and mortar units requesting a concentration of fire on the Japanese strong point. From the Photograph Collection at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections. Click to expand.

Marines Driving Inland, Iwo Jima, 1945. Going inland. Determination written on their countenances, Marines start the drive to the interior of Iwo Jima. Running at a crouch, they dart across the tableland in the shadow of Mount Suribachi, taking advantage of the scant protection offered by small rises in the volcanic sand. From the Thayer Soule Collection (COLL/2266) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division. OFFICIAL USMC PHOTOGRAPH.

Standing at just 556 feet in height, Mount Suibachi came to symbolize America's fighting spirit and a subsequent homeland bond drive that would rally the country once tired of war. But Victory on "Sulphur Island" would not come without a steep price. The fight for Iwo Jima had cost the Marine Corps more lives than Japanese combatants, a first for the War in the Pacific.

The Japanese garrison of some 21,000 combined Army and navy troops were ordered not to attack at the beaches, but to wait until the marines were further inland, fighting against fortifications of thick-walled pillboxes, caves dug into slopes facing the shore, chambers and tunnels, many employing enfilade fire and defense-in-depth. Lessons learned earlier in the war for the Japanese. More than 1800 Japanese defenders had been assigned to Mount Suribachi alone. (Toland, 1970. p. 644)

Above: Iwo Jima, 19 February 1945. A Marine machine gunner fires at Japanese positions in support of a Leatherneck advance on Iwo Jima. From the Photograph Collection at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections. Click to expand.

Iwo Jima was to be taken by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, supported by the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet. Numbers of marines killed on the island were noted as 4,554 by historian John Toland in his 1970 work The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945. 

In Ian W. Toll's 2020 third volume of his Pacific War trilogy Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945, he writes that "The marines and naval personnel on the island had sustained 24,053 casualties, representing approximately one of every three men who had landed." (Toll, 2020. p. 516) Toll continues that 6,140 had died. Most importantly, we writes,, except for a few hundred Japanese who surrendered, the entire island garrison of 22,000 were killed, giving a hard-fought victory to the marines on Iwo Jima. (Ibid) 

Above: "Moments after the second flag raising, February 1945. From the Louis R. Lowery Collection (COLL/2575) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division. On 23 February 1945, Staff Sergeant Louis R. "Lou" Lowery accompanied a 40-man combat patrol from 2d Battalion, 28th Marines to the top of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Lowery, a combat photographer, was sent along to capture an image of the raising of the American flag over the hotly-contested island of Iwo Jima. Though Lowery's photograph would be largely eclipsed by Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the second flag raising, Lowery used his camera to great effect in documenting the Marines on Iwo Jima." Source: Archives Branch, USMC History Division. (Note: This is an incredible photograph in that it shows both U.S. flags involved simultaneously in the "Flag Raisings" atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. - Ed.)

Above: Atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, February 1945. Looking down on Green Beach. From the Louis R. Lowery Collection (COLL/2575) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division. Click to expand.

Looking back at the battle, Joe Rosenthal's famous "Flag Raising" photograph on 23 February 1945 became the most iconic image of World War II. The Marine Corps lost one their most notable figures with the death of Medal of Honor winner (for heroism on Guadalcanal) John Basilone on the first day of the invasion (19 February 1945). Basilone won the Navy Cross on that day for extraordinary heroism. His story is highlighted in HBO's miniseries "The Pacific" of 2010.

Recommended further reading
Ian W. Toll's Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 from 2020 is an excellent work that gives the reader context of Iwo Jima in the War with Japan. Buy on Amazon

Professors Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio have also brought an exemplary work to the literature with their Impacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945. This title was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Buy on Amazon

Multimedia: Video, Web, Photo, and Discussion
Video: To the Shores of Iwo Jima Ducumentary  |  Web: History Channel: Battle of Iwo Jima   Naval History and Heritage Command: Battle of Iwo Jima  |  USMC Archives Photo Albums: 1)  Iwo Jima - Lou Lowery Collection  2)  Iwo Jima Operations  3)  Iwo Jima - Soule Collection  |  USMC Archives Photo Album: John Basilone  |  Comment and discussion