The battles included “The Meat Grinder,” where nearly 850 Marines died capturing a Japanese stronghold, and “Bloody Gorge,” where Japanese defenders made their final stand. US Marines immortalized the bloodiest battles on Iwo Jima with names depicting the brutal combat. This deadly isolationist web of defenses exacted a terrible toll. The general placed weapons to rain deadly fire on the beaches, but concentrated his forces in the northern part of the island within underground bunkers and gun positions linked by miles of tunnels. Instead, he planned a long and costly defensive battle to shake American resolve to continue the war and invade the Japanese mainland. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander on Iwo Jima, recognized that he could not defeat an American landing. The bloodbath horrified Allied military planners and American citizens, who feared a far greater slaughter during an invasion of Japan’s home islands. The Japanese had to be rooted out of caves and other strongholds in merciless close-quarter assaults. But for more than five weeks, Japanese forces mounted a fierce defense. When US Marine divisions invaded on February 19, 1945, planners expected a brief campaign. On Iwo Jima, site of a strategic air base located between the Mariana Islands and Japan, the Japanese carved out a network of underground fortifications aimed at turning the small volcanic island into a death trap for invading US Marines.

Us navy deaths in the pacific war