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Virtual Iwo Jima Museum

Museum Lobby

Museum Lobby
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2 Curator
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Resources
Template by David Lee Image from National Register of Historic Places
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Curator: Sam Willcuts

Curator’s Office
Sam Willcuts is a student at Vallivue Middle School.
He plays basketball, tennis, and runs Cross Country.
His favorite color is gold, and his favorite team is the
Lakers.
THESIS STATEMENT: Though it was at a high cost,
taking Iwo Jima finally gave America the chance they
needed to hit mainland Japan hard and knock them
out of the war.

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The Strategy of
taking Iwo Jima

Room #1
Location US Bombers

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Japanese Mindset

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Samurai
Mentality
Japanese
Tactics

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Image from Asergeev
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Iwo Jima Defences

“The Meat “Bloody

Grinder” Gorge”
Room #3

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Image from pxhere
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The Aftermath

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Natural
Emergency
Landings
Resources Victory

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Image from touristlink.com
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Location
● Iwo Jima was only 750 miles off the coast of
mainland Japan, according to the History.com
Editors.
● It was also one of the last islands that the
Japanese had control over.
● It was believed that Iwo Jima was only defended
lightly by a couple of Japanese squads, and the
entire campaign was only supposed to take 3-4
days.
● After the US took Iwo Jima, it would be able to be
used as a staging ground for the bombing of
Japan.
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United States Bombers

● The bombers that the United States had currently
possessed were able to fly 5,592 miles. That was
quite a stretch if they were launched from a
further island, but it was a peace of cake if they
were being launched from Iwo Jima.
● There were also three airfields on Iwo Jima that
the Japanese were using, and once the US owned
Iwo Jima they would be able to use those three
to launch attacks against mainland Japan.
● Having Iwo Jima would also serve as a great
place for emergency landings, so planes didn’t Museum
Room 1
have to go down in the Pacific. Lobby
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Samurai Mentality
● The soldiers of the Japanese Empire had come
from a long line of warriors.
● Back in the day, surrendering was actually
considered worse then dying. This is why the
Japanese would fight to the last man, even if it
seemed hopeless.
● The soldiers on Iwo Jima knew that the
Americans would take Iwo Jima, however they
were determined to make the Allies pay a very
high price to obtain this strip of land.
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Japanese Tactics
● The current leader of the Japanese forces on Iwo
Jima was named General Tadamichi Kuribayashi.
● According to Joseph Alexander, “He decided to
junk the defensive tactics used by his
predecessors in the ill-fated campaigns in the
Gilberts, Marshalls and Marianas. Significantly,
Japanese forces on Iwo Jima would defend the
island in depth–from hidden interior positions,
not at the water’s edge–and they would eschew
the massive, suicidal banzai attacks.”
● This meant that once the Marines stormed up
the beaches, they were met with heavy Museum
Room 2
resistance. It was a very well played tactic on Lobby
Kuribayashi’s part.
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www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/history/what-it-was-

“The Meat Grinder”

like-to-be-on-the-ground-at-iwo/.

● The Meat Grinder was one of the hardest eggs to

crack in the campaign on Iwo Jima.
● It was a series of hills that were pretty steep, and
there was no cover for the ground below.
● The machine gun emplacements allowed the
Japanese to cut down Marines down with ease,
and it took the lives of 850 marines, according to
Michael from the nationalww2museum.org.

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“Bloody Gorge”
● Bloody Gorge was another of the
Japanese strongholds on Iwo Jima.
● It was the last defensive position
that the Americans broke through,
though it costed many casualties.
● It right before a beach facing the
NW, and there were many trees to
give the defenders cover. Museum
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Emergency Landings
● It’s no secret that many planes were shot down
in WWII. In fact, around 12,000 heavy bombers
were shot down during the entire extent of the
war from the United States alone.
● However, just because a plane is hit doesn’t
mean it will go down. Many planes were injured
by their raids on Japan, and they needed a place
to land.
● Iwo Jima served as a great recovery station,
allowing planes that had been hit to go and land
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on the island as opposed to landing in the Pacific Room 4
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Ocean.
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Natural Resources
● The country of Japan itself isn’t very big. It also doesn’t
have a lot of natural resources, kind of like Britain.
● This meant that Japan didn’t have hardly any gas, which
fueled planes and other vehicles. That was why the
Japanese invaded other countries in the first place,
because they wouldn’t be able to sustain itself if they
didn’t have all of these natural resources.
● Now that America had started taking land back, the
Japanese started to run low on their natural resources.
● While Iwo Jima wasn’t very rich with oil and gas, it
provided the Japanese with the ability to launch assaults
at other countries that were. This is another big reason Museum
Room 4
why taking Iwo Jima was so important, because it Lobby
stopped the Japanese offensive.
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VICTORY
● This picture, taken by Joe Rosenthal, was the
portrayal of American victory over Japanese
forces on Iwo Jima.
● While this was not taken at the end of the war,
this showed that America not only could, but
would, persevere and persist until they had
victory. The number of lives that were lost to
have this image is astonishing, but the Japanese
suffered far more deaths than the Americans.
● Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles fought
in the Pacific Theatre, but it was 100% worth it Museum
to show the Japanese that while America wasn’t Room 4
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dropping A-bombs just yet, Japan had already
lost the war.
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Resources
● Editors, History.com. “Iwo Jima.” History.com,
A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009,
www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iw
o-jima.
● Sommerville, Donald. “Battle of Iwo Jima.”
Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 12 Feb. 2019,
www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Iwo-Jima.
● Rosenthal, Joe. Iwo Jima Flag.
● Alexander, Joseph. “The Battle of Iwo Jima: A
Museum
36-Day Bloody Slog on a Sulfuric Island.” Military
Times, Military Times, 17 Feb. 2018,
www.militarytimes.com/news/2018/02/17/the-b
Lobby
attle-of-iwo-jima-a-36-day-bloody-slog-on-a-sulfur
ic-island/.
● Michal. “Iwo Jima and Okinawa: Death at Japan's
Doorstep.” The National WWII Museum | New
Orleans, The National World War II Museum, 9
July 2017,
www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/iwo-
jima-and-okinawa-death-japans-doorstep.
● “What It Was like to Be on the Ground at Iwo
Jima.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution,
www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/hist
ory/what-it-was-like-to-be-on-the-ground-at-iwo/.
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