Smith Family Blog: December 2016

Liberty 600 circling the island to land. Mt. Suribachi and Invasion Beach in the background.

The island from around 10,000 feet - looking southwest. Some say it resembles a pork chop.

Mt. Suribachi and Invasion Beach. The island is still very geo-thermally active. It stinks of sulfur and steam rises from the crater and many openings around the island.

A depiction of the island on our Ready Room white board. It was originally meant to depict turn points for the landing pattern, but has since evolved into a sort of guide to the island. It's been there for years.

One of many shrines on the Island. Mt. Suribachi in the background.

An example of the topography. It is a very overgrown jungle island with rocky outcroppings and significant elevation changes. It appears flat from the air, but it is not at all. The airfield is 380 feet above sea level.

Entering one of the many underground tunnel complexes in the island. The core of the Japanese defense tactic was to permit invasion landing, but inflict maximum damage on the enemy (us) by surviving in small pockets underground for as long as possible and striking when able. The Japanese had no hope of winning the war at this point - their strategy was to make the war as ugly as possible by inflicting maximum damage on the enemy in hopes of gaining some concessions in the surrender. More often than not, Marines collapsed the entrances to these caves and sealed the defenders in to their fate. There are still un-excavated caves throughout the island.

The caves are VERY hot due to geothermal activity. There is normally no light - only what you bring. I elected to go with long pants and a hat for exploration. You don't want to know what was on the roof of the tunnels when a light was shone upward...you would probably not sleep well tonight.

Throughout the tunnels there are deposits of "junk" - remnants left behind by the defenders. There is extremely little activity on the island and most visitors are military with a keen regard for preservation and honor. As such, many of these artifacts have sat untouched for 70 years.

Remnants of Japanese "Tabi" slippers. Many Japanese soldiers wore these. This example was no-doubt worn by a defender and left behind in any number of unimaginable scenarios.

It's as steep as it looks.

Ran into this little guy on the way out. They say the small ones are the bad ones.

One of many "junk" piles throughout the island. This one features an expended artillery shell and the barrel of an anti-aircraft gun. As items are found, people simply pile them up or place them in a position where they can be viewed. Many small piles or collections are found throughout the island.

A field gun and the destroyed propeller of a B-29 in the background.

An anti-aircraft gun emplacement.

Artillery fire from the mountain and throughout the island would kill and wound thousands of Marines on that beach the first day of landing.

Standing approximately where the original flag was raised. Marine Corps memorial in the foreground, Invasion Beach in the background.

The Marine Corps Memorial - erected shortly after the war by CBs (maybe even before it was over...don't recall). The bronze flag in the center replaced the actual flag pole that was taken down after return of the island to the Japanese in 1968. Although removal of the flag that had flown since it was raised in 1945 was controversial, it was considered bad form to continue to fly our flag above conquered territory once it was returned to the Japanese. Some likened such an action to the Japanese flying their flag over Pearl Harbor.

Many visitors leave behind rank insignias, dogtags, etc.

An overgrown memorial to John Bradley. The Marine Corps is still investigating that famous photo. "Doc" Bradley was recently determined to not be in the photo....the story goes on.

That small square marks the position of the famous flag raising.

One of the Japanese memorials at the top of the mountain. A different stone represents each of the Japanese home counties of the defenders. The island is Japanese again, and they have erected many of their own memorials. The pot at the base is for incense and someone has placed the rusted remnant of a rifle barrel upon it. Their is also a small bottle of Sake - a very traditional offering to spirits, gods, whatever.

Found this leaning against a bunker - looks like a grenade to me.

This gun was nicknamed "overeager." It was fired at a scout boat that came in close to the island, giving away its position. It was subsequently destroyed by some of the hundreds of gunships surrounding the island at the time. It never had a chance.

Another gun

Invasion beach and Suribachi. I'm wearing a bike helmet and a GoPro - looks dumber than I thought. That tall grass is all over the island and usually taller than me. The island is visited so infrequently that many of the paths leading to historic sights are completely overgrown by this grass and have to be re-blazed every time.

A Japanese bunker pummeled by naval gunfire.

Looks like an unexploded 30 inch shell in the foreground; turret of a Japanese tank in the background.

Closer view of the turret.

Remnant of a flamethrower and a rifle barrel.

More rifle barrels and an artillery shell.

A Japanese AAA gun with a bullet riddled bunker in the background.

A Sherman tank was disabled in this spot 70 years ago and has remained here since.

Artifacts on top of the tank. You can see a .30 cal. bullet, its brass casing long rotted away.

The cockpit of a crashed cargo plane. This likely occurred sometime well after the war, but still pretty cool.

Another view of the crashed plane. The grass we traversed to get to this plane was taller than me and full of spiders.

On the western side of the island there are numerous wrecked ships. They were scuttled to create a breakwater for a port, but the idea was abandoned as the war neared its end. Originally these wrecks were underwater, but geologic lifting has brought them above the water. The water here is too hot to touch; we learned that the hard way. The sulfur smell is almost unbearable.

Another of the ships - spooky hulks half buried in the sand.

Another ship.

A steaming pit near the shipwreck beach. It feels like the island is about to explode at any moment. There is another similar pit nearby called the "million dollar pit." It is apparently where the CBs dumped all of the captured Japanese equipment as they moved onto the island. I couldn't find it.

The inside of a bunker the Japanese fashioned from the fuselage of a downed aircraft. It is unknown if it is a Japanese or US aircraft.

Black sand of invasion beach.

Another junk pile. These bent props are common. The island's airfields were used as a divert location for aircraft striking Japan and surrounding islands. This was in fact the primary purpose of taking the island. Additionally, US bombers based here could carry less fuel and more bombs than bombers based at Tinian or Guam. A diverting B-29 used Iwo before the battle to take it was over. Thousands of lives were saved because Iwo was available as an emergency divert.

This is a natural sauna the Japanese have built into the cliff-side directly beneath the runway. Geothermal heat keeps it VERY hot.

A Japanese radio.

This is a photo of General Kuribayashi and a Sake offering found inside his command cave. The book Letters from Iwo Jima tells his story. He was a brilliant tactician who fought very effectively on Iwo Jima. The movie of the same title is rather true to the book and generally historically accurate insofar as I can tell. The Japanese lived in horrendous conditions awaiting our invasion, and every one of the 20,000 defenders was 100% confident they would die on this island. There was no hope of survival for a Japanese soldier in 1945. General Kuribayashi's body was never found.

It's hard to appreciate in this photo, but that spider is about the size of my fist.

Entering General Kuribayash's command center. There were lights strung in this cave, but we couldn't get them on - just our flashlights deep below the island.