Feb. 19, 1945, 75,000 Americans began their 36 day assault against Japanese forces on a impregnable flyspeck in the Pacific Ocean. On this tiny strip of volcanic ash, in one of the most terrible of all battles since the Civl War, 25,852 Americans became casualities, 6,821 were killed in action. Of the Japanese (21,000 of them) only a 1000 were taken prisoner--the rest died in hand to hand fighting, by incineration or hara-kiri. During the 5 years of the war, 353 Congressional Medals of Honer were awarded--27 of these went to the men of Iwo Jima.
Erin bought me a book about this battle, written in 1985. This is part of what is written on the dust flap.
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