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The Battle for Iwo Jima began on 19 February and was declared secured on 26 March of 1945.

Secured may have been a misnomer because at least two Japanese failed to surrender until 1951. It did accomplish its dubious assigned mission however which was to act as an emergency landing field for B-29s carrying atomic weapons into Japan. The strategic value of those two weapons was deemed as the primary reason to seize the island. It probably did save many USAAF planes and pilots and the first B-29 landed on Iwo Jima while the ground fighting was still in progress. An estimated 2,251 B-29s made emergency landings there.

It was an expensive price tag that was paid with 6,822 US Sailors and Marines killed and 19,127 wounded. Japan's losses included an estimated 18,000 killed in action and only 219 men captured.

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14y ago

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