Operation Detachment was planned and executed in accordance with the necessities of the time. Iwo Jima posed a major threat to the 20th Air Force’s campaign against the Japanese mainland and its occupation was imperative as subsequent statistics proved. A total of 2,251 B29 Superfortress bombers made forced landings on the island during and after the battle. This represented 24,761 crewmen who would otherwise have had to ditch in the 1,300-mile (2,092km) expanse of ocean between Japan and the Marianas with a minimal chance of survival. In an interview with the author, Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Superfortress “Enola Gay,” which dropped the Hiroshima bomb said:
On March 4, 1945, when the first B29 in distress landed on Iwo Jima, until the end of the war, more than 2,200 aircraft made emergency landings on Iwo. Many wounded crewmen on board would not have made the return trip to their home bases. Had it not been for the heroic valor of the Marines in securing the island and the Navy Seabees who built the runways, more than 22,000 pilots and air crew would have perished in crash landings at sea.
The capture of the Philippine Islands and the invasion of Okinawa in April accelerated the pace of the war. The 20th Air Force fire-raising raids and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended it, and the island of Iwo Jima, secured at a terrible cost in Marine lives, played a major role in these events.
A US Marine diligently sweeps the sand between the graves at the 5th Division cemetery on Iwo Jima. In the background, other Marines stare solemnly at the graves of fallen friends. (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Since the end of the war many revisionists have condemned the dropping of the atomic bombs as acts of terrorism against helpless civilians; few have considered the alternative. Operation Downfall, the invasion of the Japanese mainland by the Marine Corps and the US Army, was already planned and filled the government, Army, and USMC with foreboding. Knowing the ethos of fanatical commitment to Emperor and country that was prevalent at that time, and drawing from experience gleaned at Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, the military knew that every beach, town, village, and field would be defended to the death by both the armed forces and the civilian population.
Japan still had 2,350,000 regular troops, 250,000 garrison troops, 7,000 aircraft, 4,000,000 employees of the armed services, and 23,000,000 men, women, boys, and girls sworn to fight to the death. Adding the kamikazes and the remnants of the navy provided the ingredients for a bloodbath that would make previous battles pale into insignificance. The Joint Chiefs were expecting 70 percent casualties in the landing force and the war was projected to last until 1946 or even 1947. Troops, ships, and aircraft (Tiger Force) were already on their way from the European theater when the war ended. The authors, who have corresponded and talked to hundreds of Marine veterans, have yet to meet one who does not consider that he owes his life to the dropping of those bombs.