The most ferocious battle in the Pacific theatre in WW II was fought on the volcanic island of Iwo Jima, the first of the Japanese “Home Islands” to be invaded by U.S. Marines in the campaign leading to the planned invasion of Japan.  SCSU graduate student Jeff Williams gave a detailed history of the battle Tuesday at the Sherburne History Center as part of the Winter Lecture Series currently underway there.

 

Williams is currently working on a master’s degree in history at SCSU, as well as an MBA at another university and is also involved in writing and preparing other projects related to his interests in the Civil War and WW II.  He is also a military veteran, having served in the U.S. Air Force in Kuwait and Iraq.

 

Iwo Jima was strategically important to the Allied war effort because of its proximity to the Japanese mainland, Williams said.  Before the campaign to take Okinawa, Iwo Jima would provide a base for damaged B-29 bombers to land when returning from missions over Japan and it would provide fuel for the P-51 escort fighters that guarded them on the missions.

 

An armada of 800 ships carried elements of the Marine Amphibious Corps., the Third, Fourth and Fifth Marine Divisions, Williams said, an estimated 40,000 men.  The island was bombed for 72 days prior to the invasion, and heavy naval gunfire was directed at the beaches immediately before the landing.

 

The 20,000 Japanese defenders were commanded by the Harvard-educated General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who had overseen construction of a series of interconnecting tunnels that joined underground bunkers and cave systems that remained impervious to U.S. bombs and naval gunfire, Williams said.

 

The American forces faced fanatical opposition from the Japanese, most of who were determined to fight to the death to defend what they saw as home soil. An estimated 22,060 Japanese soldiers did just that, Williams said, with only 216 prisoners taken at the end of the fighting.

 

Of the more than 40,000 American combatants, 6,821 were killed and a further 19,217 were wounded in the battle.  A number of landing craft and small escort ships were also lost, along with the escort aircraft carrier U.S.S. Bismarck Sea, which was sunk by four kamikaze aircraft.

 

A total of 27 men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest American military decoration, 13 of which were awarded posthumously.  Among the decorated dead were Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, who had won the CMH on Guadalcanal, and received a posthumous Navy Cross on Iwo Jima.  New York Giants tight end Jack Lummus also received a posthumous CMH for his actions on Iwo Jima.

 

Williams also related the story of Lt. Howard “Smiley” Johnson, a Marine Corps. Lieutenant who had grown up in an orphanage in Georgia and won a football scholarship to the University of Georgia.  After college, Johnson was signed by the Green Bay Packers, where he was expected to take the place of the aging Russian-born star Charles “Buckets” Goldenberg.

 

After the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, Johnson volunteered for the military, thinking he would join the U.S. Army Air Force.  His wife was convinced he would die flying, however, so he joined the Marines instead. 

 

Johnson was killed by a mortar round on Iwo Jima as he conferred with his platoon sergeants in a foxhole, Williams said.  He was highly thought of by his men, many of whom said that his example continued to inspire their actions right through to the end of the war. 

 

There were local connections as well, such as Richfield resident Charles Lindberg, who was in the famous Joe Rosenthal photograph of the second flag-raising on top of Mt. Suribachi. 

 

Navy medic Wallace Jackson, now a resident of Monticello was in the audience at the SHC Tuesday.  He was attached to the Marines throughout his WW II service, including the Iwo Jima campaign.  A native of Sparta, WI, Jackson was also a high-school classmate of future NASA astronaut Deke Slayton.

 

Williams showed a number of artifacts during his presentation including a pair of Japanese binoculars taken as a battle trophy, a small glass jar filled with the black volcanic sand from the island and a week’s worth of the Red Wing Republican Eagle newspaper that described the battle of Iwo Jima.

 

The next presenter in the SHC lecture series will be Renae Elert, who will speak about the French Revolution at 2 p.m. on Tue., Feb. 2.