Main battle phase: [ 3 ] 6, dead 19, wounded 2 captured 2, fatigued tanks destroyed [ 4 ] 28, total. Second Sino-Japanese War. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment , had the goal of capturing the island with its two airfields: South Field and Central Field. The Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified , with a dense network of bunkers , hidden artillery positions, and 18 km 11 mi of tunnels.
Navy and Marine Corps aviators throughout the battle. Unique among Pacific War Marine battles, total American casualties exceeded those of the Japanese, with a ratio of three American casualties for every two Japanese. Pratt stating that the island was useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base. The lessons learned on Iwo Jima served as guidelines for American forces in the Battle of Okinawa two months later, as well as for the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland.
Joe Rosenthal 's Associated Press photograph of the raising of the U. Marines became a famous image of the battle and the American war effort in the Pacific. After the American capture of the Marshall Islands and the air attacks against the Japanese fortress island of Truk Atoll in the Carolines in January , Japanese military leaders reevaluated their strategic position. All indications pointed to an American drive toward the Mariana Islands and the Carolines.
In March , the Japanese 31st Army , commanded by General Hideyoshi Obata , was activated to garrison this inner line. Note that an army-sized unit in Imperial Japanese military doctrine was about the size of an American, British Army , or Canadian Army corps. The Japanese Army had many armies , but the U.
Army had only ten at its peak, with the 4th Army, the 6th Army, the 8th Army, and the 10th Army being in the Pacific Theater. The 10th Army only saw action at the end of the Pacific war, landing on Okinawa in the spring of Iwo Jima served as an early warning station that radioed reports of incoming bombers back to the Home Islands, allowing Japanese air defenses to prepare for the arrival of American bombers.
