Iwo Jima – Connoisseurs of Experiences

This is the famous photo of the second flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on D+4 taken by Associated Press photographer, Joe Rosenthal. It is perhaps one of the most reproduced photos of all time, certainly of World War II.

The first Pacific island battlefield I visited was Iwo Jima in 2002. I was in the middle of writing about my Uncle Jim Craig’s experience as a platoon leader in the battle and wanted to see Iwo Jima for myself.

I flew from Los Angeles to Guam, from where we stage for our visits to Iwo Jima and the islands of Saipan and Tinian.

In 2002 digital photography was in its infancy. A few weeks before I left for the Western Pacific I bought my first digital camera, a 2-megapixel Canon Point-and-Shoot. Being brought up with film cameras, I was still a little dubious about this new format, so much so that I also brought along my old Canon film camera. As it turned out, the best photos I got of Iwo Jima were with my little digital camera. I was hooked on the new format and never looked back.

Iwo Jima is not a tourist destination. There are no hotels, no fast-food joints, and no T-shirt shops. It is a Japanese military base. Americans are allowed to visit the island but once per year, always in March. This is by treaty that was promulgated in 1968 under the Johnson Administration when the United States ceded Iwo Jima back to the Japanese. The American flag no longer flies over Mt. Suribachi.

Here is a copy of a newspaper article describing the return of Iwo Jima back to Japan:

The one-day visit for Americans coincides with a day that, what few Japanese veterans remain, also return to Iwo Jima to remember their lost comrades. The visit is intended to be a day of remembrance and reconciliation between once hated adversaries. There is a joint memorial service at a rock cairn up from the landing beaches.

Our visit to Iwo Jima starts in Guam. The night before we fly up to Iwo Jima there has usually been a banquet with all the passengers and military dignitaries who are going to Iwo Jima the next day. In my past three times on the ground the Marine Commandant has always been in attendance. I have also met the famed author, Richard Franks, Iwo Jima Medal of Honor recipient, Woody Williams, and other high-ranking military and diplomatic dignitaries at this banquet. During my first visit in 2002 I had the honor to meet the son of the Japanese commanding officer of the garrison, LtGen Tadamichi Kuribayashi. You just never know who is going to show up.

The day after the meet-and-greet banquet we get up early in the morning for the bus ride to Guam International Airport. We board a Boeing 737, sometimes more than one, for the flight up to Iwo Jima. If one is lucky, he will have a window seat. During the little over one hour flight, the same route the B-29s would have flown on their way to bomb Japan, we are served breakfast and our passports are collected. We will get them back on our return flight with the coveted Iwo Jima passport visa.

As we approach Iwo Jima the anticipation builds. By the time we get there the sun is up – hopefully – so that the invasion beaches are spot lit. The pilot circles the island so that all aboard can see the island from the air from both sides of the airplane. We then fly north, turn around, and come in for a landing from the north. There is usually an eruption of cheers and applause as we land and taxi to the hangar.

In the past we have been given prior instructions on the order of deplaning. Iwo Jima vets are first to go down the stairs (no jetway here) followed in order by World War II vets, other vets, relatives of vets, and, lastly, the rest of us. Also, in the past, we have been greeted by United States Marines who line a path for us to the hangar where we meet for preliminary instructions about our brief stay on Iwo Jima. We then hike down to just above the beaches for the memorial ceremony. When that is mercifully over, we are free to head down to the beaches and to Mt. Suribachi.

During my first visit in 2002 we were allowed to go into, and sometimes down into, the caves in the north of the island. Since then, some Japanese were killed in a cave when some unexploded ordnances detonated. Those caves are now off limits. Because of the time it takes to endure the memorial ceremony, the time remaining before we fly back to Guam needs to be spent getting to the summit of Suribachi and the invasion beaches.

The invasion beaches are over 2000 yards long. I like to spend most of my time on the beaches before heading up to Suribachi. But you can also visit Suribachi first then go to the beaches. In the past there have been Marine Humvees to take people up to the summit. I have always hiked to the top along the serpentine paved road. I like to time my visit to the summit to maximize the chances for the sun to be shining on the beaches. The views of the invasion beaches, the airstrip, and the northern part of the island defy words to adequately describe the emotions I have had when I am there. The entire island is there to see. The spot where the famous flag raising took place is marked so be sure to see it. There is also a memorial to the 5th Marine Division (it was the 28th Marines of the 5th Division that put the flag up on Suribachi on D+4). The consummate photo to get from the summit is of you with the invasion beaches in the background.

A short walk will take you to the lip of the crater from where you can still see sulphureous fumes billowing up from hidden vents. While I am there gazing at the island, I contemplate the cost in American Marine and Japanese soldier’s lives that were sacrificed to take this island. It is a sobering moment. Stand there and look and listen. Take in the scenes one last time before heading back down.

Be sure to have bottled water to drink. Iwo Jima is at the same latitude as Miami, Florida so it is likely to be warm. Additionally, the bottles make great containers for invasion beach sand, the best souvenir from Iwo Jima. The only limit is how much you want to carry with you. I have never had any trouble getting sand back home through security and customs. It is inert.

Some have asked, why spend the money to fly such great distances to see this ugly rock where so much blood was shed and all in less than one day? Standing atop Mt. Suribachi and taking in the sight of the invasion beaches and contemplating the battle that was fought here is an experience you will not soon forget. It will most likely not leave you unmoved. I have been to nearly every island battlefield in the Pacific and there is no place that moves me more than to stand atop Mt. Suribachi on a little island that was once Hell on Earth.

Iwo Jima is located roughly 813 miles from Guam and 760 miles from Tokyo.

Here is a gate announcement monitor in 2013 that you do not see very often and will likely never see again. It is at Andersen Air Force Base, the airport that services Guam.

This is the gate announcement at the gate where we boarded in 2013.

2002 Tour

The view looking southeast at the west side of the island. Kangoku Rock is just below the plane and Kama Rock is now clearly the tip of a peninsula.

The view of the northern end of the island with the airstrip in the center and Mt. Suribachi in the distance.

A view of the northern end of the island looking mostly south.

The airstrip dominates the center of the island.

Looking south along the invasion beaches toward Mt. Suribachi.

The view of the right-most end of the landing beaches where the 4th Division landed.

One of my favorite photos of Mt. Suribachi in 2002 with my little 2-megapixel camera.

The scene as I reached the bottom of the stairs from the plane.

When I encounter U.S. Marines like this it renews my confidence in America’s youth and ability to defend our country.

This is the site of the memorial service looking east.

General James Jones, 32nd Commandant of the United States Marine Corp.

This is a concrete bunker just down from the dirt road that traverses the lenght of the island. I passed it on my way down to the beaches. No doubt it was covered with sand to camouflage it during the battle. The occupants were likely killed on the first day.

This Nambu heavy machine-gun was bolted to the floor of the concrete bunker.

This Japanese flag was posted near Kuribayashi’s cave entrance.

This is the entrance to Kuribayahsi’s command post cave. I started down this cave but it was so narrow and steep that I started to get frankly claustrophobic. Because of my backpack I could not turn around and had to back out.

This is the entrance to the hospital cave. It was very hot in there.

This is the hospital cave. I got about 100 yards into the cave going slightly down when it became so hot that I had to leave.

This is another one of the caves. Since a couple of Japanese were killed when a previously unexploded ordnance detonated a few years ago, nobody is allowed to go into these caves.

This is the view looking out from inside one of the little caves.

This is a couple of caves on the north end of the island.

This is another view looking out from a cave.

Marine Humvees wait at the bottom of Suribachi waiting to take people up to the summit.

A view from Mt. Suribachi Hot Rocks. This was taken with my old film camera.

This is a view from Mt. Suribachi of the western side of the island where the alternate landing beaches were located. Kama Rock can be seen as the tip of a peninsula. Kangoku Rock is beyond Kama Rock.

This is the view looking north along the invasion beaches from Mt. Suribachi. Note the dirt road that runs the length of the island from the airport terminal to Mt. Suribachi.

This is the classic view of Mt. Suribachi from the beaches. The serpentine road to the top can be seen on the right side of the volcano.

This is the view just above the beaches looking northeast. This section of beach was where the 4th Division came ashore.

This is the son of LtGen Kuribayashi. I had the honor to meet this guy in 2002. Here he is being interviewed by a Japanese journalist.

This is the rock cairn of the Reunion of Honor where the memorial ceremony is held.

This is the road on the west side of the island heading north.

On two occasions I have sailed around Iwo Jima on a cruise ship. On July 22, 2009 I had the added pleasure to witness the longest total solar eclipse of this century. One of the draws to see this eclipse – I saw my first solar eclipse in Turkey in 2006 – was its path of totality, which went right over Iwo Jima. When I woke that morning I rushed up on deck in time to see Iwo Jima from the sea, a breathtaking view. We sailed around from the southwest, around Suribachi and along the entire length of the invasions beaches. The ship’s captain then lined the ship on the centerline of the eclipse and a short while later we were greeted to a spectacular eclipse that lasted ~ 6′ 40″. It was a glorious day and I got some beautiful views and photos of the island from the sea.

In 2019 I was on another cruise through the Western Pacific that included a pass by Iwo Jima. This time the weather was not quite as good.

2009 Cruise

My third visit to Iwo Jima took place in 2009 as part of a cruise to see the 2009 total solar eclipse, at 6 minutes and 39.5 seconds, the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st Century. Accompanying me on this cruise were my wife, Blythe (her first eclipse) and my parents (my dad’s second eclipse). The cruise began from Tianjin, the port that services Beijing. We sailed into the Yellow Sea, past South Korea, into the East China Sea, and finally, into the Philippine Sea. One the morning of the eclipse, July 22, 2009, I woke and rushed up to the deck in time to watch us sail down the east side of Iwo Jima, around the southern tip of Mt. Surbachi. It was a glorious day of abundant sunshine that promised good viewing of the eclipse. I saw the invasion beaches as I imagined the Marines might have seen them on the morning of February 18, 1945. We sailed at a sedate pace not more than a few hundred yards from the beaches. The water was calm; I could have swum to the beaches. Once beyond the island we moved to the center line of the eclipse and eventually observed a beautiful solar eclipse.

This map depicts the path of totality for the July 22, 2009 solar eclipse. The point along this path with the longest during of totality was just north and a little east of Iwo Jima.

This is the path of totality that included Iwo Jima. The point of maximum totality was just north and a little east of Iwo Jima.

Our cruise ship, the Costa Classica, was chartered specifically to view this eclipse and by viewing the eclipse at the point of maximum duration and cruising along the centerline during the event, duration was extended to 6 minutes, 42 seconds.

North Iwo Jima about 40 miles due north of Iwo Jima. There is also a South Iwo Jima.

This is one of my first views of Iwo Jima on July 22, 2009 on an eclipse cruise. This is the east side of the island. A whiff of sulfurous vapor can be seen on the left and the buildings of the Japanese military base in the center.

This is a view of the open crater of Mt. Suribachi from the southwest.

A view of Mt. Suribachi from the south with the invasion beaches in the distance.

A view from a little farther to the east with the invasion beaches clearly seen.

This is a view from the south looking at the east side of the island and the alternate landing beaches. Kangoku rock can be seen on the left of Iwo Jima.

Our ship continued around the island, rounding Mt. Suribachi and sailing north along the invasion beaches. We were close enough that I could have swum to the beach. The next several photos are sequential views as we sailed past the beaches.

The beach just down from Suribachi on the left is the part of the beach where the 28th Marines landed and from where they cross the island to the other side in just 30-minutes.

This is one of my favorite photos of Iwo Jima.

This is the right-most part of the invasion beach where the 24th Marines went ashore in the late afternoon on February 19, 1945.

This is the center of the invasion beach where the 3rd Marine Division went ashore.

This is another view of the northeast part of the island with the conical-shaped North Iwo Jima in the distance.

These are cliffs just north of Blue Beach 2. This was known during the battle as the East Boat Basin.

This is the northeastern end of Iwo Jima. North Iwo Jima is in the distance.

This is the cloud that moved in from the north that eventually dumped rain on the island after we sailed away.

As we sailed away we got a good view of North Iwo Jima. This clearly had no military value to either the Japanese or the Marines.

The northern-most end of the island with North Iwo Jima on the far right.

The northeastern end of the island. This was the part of the island where the 4th Division fought.

The entire length of the invasion beaches.

The cliffs on the north end of the island where the 4th Division fought.

A view of the entire island from the northeast. Note the cloud moving in from the north.

As we sailed away the cloud that moved in from the north turned into a big rain squall. Our timing was perfect.

The diamond ring is one of the most spectacular parts of a total solar eclipse. This one was simply beautiful.

2013 Tour

The following photos represent a circumferential view of the entire island. These are technically not good photos because of the haze, but they are an otherwise nice collection of photos showing what the island looked like from the air. This series of photos was taken as we flew in a counterclockwise direction around the island.

Note the “Iwo To” on the control tower. It was “Iwo Jima” in 2002.

After we disembark the plane we meet in this hangar for preliminary instructions. We were all itching to get going but had to wait for the all clear.

Once the memorial ceremony is over we are free to wonder the island. The first place I go to is the invasion beaches. Here in the foreground is my wife, Blythe, walking down the path to the beaches. As you can see, the weather is pleasant. The path is down but not steep. Some of the beach terraces are steep. They change every year due to wave action.

This is the same bunker I first saw in 2002.

The Nambu heavy machine-gun is still in the bunker up from the beaches.

The west side of the island with the alternate landing beaches. It is clear from this photo that Kama Rock is no longer an islet but the tip of a peninsula indicating that Iwo Jima is rising.

The inside of Mt. Suribachi. A wispy plume of sulfurous vapor can be seen emanating from the left side of the crater.

We met this Marine, LtCol Bill, on our way up to Suribacbi. We have continued to stay in touch with Bill after we returned from Iwo Jima meeting him in Honolulu and Washington D.C. Bill and I swam the 2013 Waikiki Rough Water Swim. He finished way ahead of me. Blythe and I consider it a great honor to have Bill as our friend.

Here is Bill taking in the view looking down the length of the invasion beaches.

A view of nearly the entire island from Mt. Suribachi looking north. The invasion beaches are on the right and the alternate beaches are on the left.

This is the side of the memorial rock cairn facing the sea. This is where the reunion of honor is held each year.

This is the reverse side of the memorial.

After spending the day at Iwo Jima we reboard our plane for the flight back to Guam.

2015 Tour

The 2015 tour to Iwo Jima was the 70th Anniversary tour. There were so many people going that year that three United 737s were charted. Unfortunately, the weather was not quite as good. There were two good friends of mine on this tour. Diane Basilone Hawkins, the niece of Sgt. John Basilone, a Medal of Honor recipient from the battle of Guadalcanal, and a good friend of my wife, Blythe, and me, went to Iwo Jima to see where her uncle was killed on February 19, 1945. Iwo Jima Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams, also a good friend, was along, too. I had met Woody several years previously and we had become good friends. He invited us to a couple of Medal of Honor Society meetings where we rubbed elbows with several other MOH recipients. This was Woody’s first time back to Iwo Jima since the war.

This is the view from our hotel in Guam.

The lagoon at our hotel in Guam. The coral is sharp; beware.

This is the gate announcement at Andersen Airport, Guam. Note the current time. It is an early start. Get to bed early the night before.

Diane Basilone Hawkins (L) is the niece of MOH recipient Sgt. John Basilone. I first met Diane on my annual tour to Guadalcanal in 2014. She also was on the Philippines tour with my wife, Blythe. Diane is trying to visit all the places where her uncle served during the war. Standing next to her is Richard Frank, Pacific war historian and author. Frank’s book *Guadalcanal, The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle*, sits prominently on my bookshelf. In my opinion it is the best account of the battle of Guadalcanal. I got him to sign a copy in New Orleans where I attended a symposium on Guadalcanal.

John Basilone earned his MOH at Guadalcanal during the Battle of Henderson Field (Battle of Coffin Corner) on the night of October 24, 1942. He was killed on February 19, 1945 leading his men off the beach at Iwo Jima.

Woody Williams earned his MOH on February 23, 1945 while destroying several Japanese defensive positions with a flamethrower.

In 2015, for the 70th Anniversary tour, there were three United 737s that were charted for our tour.

This is the concrete bunker I first saw in 2002. It is just down from the road on the path to the beaches.

In 2015 there had been a storm across this part of the Pacific that left a lot of garbage on the beach.

This photo illustrates the difficulty the Marines had scaling the terraces. One advantage of these terraces, I suppose, would be protection from direct fire.

A bent prop from one of the B-29s that crashed on Iwo Jima.

2023 Tour

Ordinarily, Valor Tours guide, Andy Giles, leads the tour to Iwo Jima but because he was unable to do so this year, I got the opportunity. I knew the routine having guided to other island battlefields in the Pacific and had also been on the ground to Iwo Jima on three previous occasions. This tour also included a pre-tour to the islands of Saipan and Tinian, and a post-tour to Peleliu, all islands I have visited in the past. The groups visiting these islands were not the same, although everybody on the tour visited Iwo Jima, the main attraction. We stayed in three different hotels and made several flights between the islands. All this made for a logistically challenging tour for me. It went well and there were no major complications.

There were five passengers with me for the tour of Saipan and Tinian. We were then joined by twenty-four others for the tour of Iwo Jima. Of these, nineteen went with me on the post-tour to Peleliu.

The tour of Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Tinian all start in Guam. We stayed at the Dusit Beach Resort (formally the Outrigger Resort) in Agana, Guam. Agana is like a little Honolulu with nice resort hotels, good restaurants, and upscale shopping. There is also a very nice beach and reef to swim.

Our tour to Iwo Jima started early in the morning of March 25. It took three buses to get us all out to the airport where we checked in for our United charted flight. United provided muffins and coffee for us at the gate and also gave us little cork-stoppered vials for Iwo Jima sand. It seemed to take forever to get all three planes loaded. My passengers and I were on plane three. Because we were the last, we got to Iwo Jima so late that the memorial ceremony was about over. This did not bother me in the least. We have such a short time on the island to see the invasion beaches and Suribachi that the time at the ceremony seems like a big waste of time.

After circling the island so everybody could see it from the air, we landed, this time from the south, and taxied to the hangar. There we had to wait for about an hour for the second plane to deplane using the only portable stairway on the island. This is the reason we missed the ceremony. At the bottom of the stairway United employees and U.S. Marines greeted us and gave us bottled water.

This was the scene at the Dust Beach Resort hotel the morning we departed for the airport for our flight to Iwo Jima.

We were greeted at the airport by these junior Marines.

This is the gate announcement for our flight to Iwo Jima. The second language is Russian for some unknown reason.

This is the only veteran in our group, Ed Cavallini, who was 99 years old at the time. I had mentioned Ed in my book about my Uncle Jim Craig, *The Last Lieutenant*. Ed and Jim served in the same battalion of the 24th Marines. Both were officers who commanded a platoon and both served on Okinawa together during the occupation after the war. I first met Ed several years ago during a reunion between Jim and a Navy Corpsman, Windell Trent, who served on Iwo Jima and who knew both Jim and Ed. This was Ed’s third time to Iwo Jima, the second time as a tourist.

The following gallery of Iwo Jima photos will show a circumferential view of the island as the plane circled it in a counter-clockwise direction. Click on the first photo and then click on the (>) to advance to the next photo.

Since we were the last plane to depart Guam, we were the last to land. By the time we pulled up to the other two planes, already parked on the tarmac, plane 1 passengers had already deplaned and plane 2 was in the process of deplaning. There was only one portable stairway and it was being used to offload plane 2. We had to wait on the tarmac for over an hour before plane 2 was emptied and we could use the stairway. When it was finally our turn, we were greeted at the bottom of the stairs by Marines and United Airlines employees who offered us bottled water. I took two and put them in my backpack and took a bottle of Gatorade and drank the entire bottle before heading to the hangar where I got two more bottles of water to carry with me. I then followed the crowd down the road toward the beach and the memorial ceremony.

By the time we got to the ceremony is was winding down. I made a left hand turn and took the path to the beaches. The weather was nearly perfect, the heat and humidity notwithstanding. It was not this clear since my fist visit in 2002. The photographs attest to the good conditions.

I walked along the center of the beaches near the divisional dividing line between the 4th and 5th Divisions. By now there were lots of people who had come down from the memorial ceremony and were collecting sand, the consummate and highly prized Iwo Jima souvenir.

Knowing that time was short and that we might be hustled back to the hangar early, I began to work my way up through the beach terraces and the scrub brush to the road to Mt. Surbachi. The going was very difficult, especially through the waist-high scrub grass. I came upon a bunker I had not seen in my previous visits and paused only long enough to get a photo of the gun port.

Finally, back on the unpaved road to Suribachi, I began the long slog to the volcano. It was mostly uphill. The heat and humidity was relentless and the sun merciless. I soon tired but was determined to keep going. I would not be denied the good opportunity to get some good views and photos from the top with the bright sunshine behind me looking down on the invasion beaches.

Ahead of me was a small group with an elderly man who was obviously in trouble. He was staggering and would have fallen had it not been for his friends. This was not the first person I came upon who was obviously dehydrated. I came upon others who simply could not make it and had turned around to head back to the hangar. There was no water available along the way.

I finally came to the base of the mountain and began the climb up the switchbacks to the top. The incline made the going much tougher. I had hoped to explore some of the caves I had heard about at the base of Suribachi, but was in no mood to look for them in the thick brush that surrounded the mountain. I kept plodding ahead. I was tired and my feet, legs, and mid back were sore.

I finally reached the summit of Mt. Suribachi and took in the scene. To the north the skies were clear and brilliantly blue. The sun was behind me illuminating the invasion beaches below. There were several others at the summit including a tent with some Marines and Navy Corpsmen, but no water. I took the requisite photos of the primary and the alternate landing beaches, and the volcanic crater.

I then began the long hike back to the hangar. The first part was mercifully down hill to the coast road. Despite the lateness of the hour – plane 1 passengers had to be back to the hangar by 2:30 and plane 3 passengers by 3:30 – I ran into people heading up. It was clear that I would not get back by 3:30. I was not concerned. There were lots of other people who were going to be late, too. Back at the memorial cairn I came upon some young enlisted Marines and began walking with them. I keep up with their pace for about a half mile then backed off the pace as too fast for me. My ego took a mild hit.

Finally, back at the hangar I got a couple more bottles of water and snacks and a sandwich to eat. I was dead tired and just wanted to sit down along with a couple hundred others. I got in a short line where my backpack was inspected and its contents declared free of Iwo Jima contraband (war relics) and then into another line to get my passport with the Iwo Jima visa stamp.

Despite the late hour, plane 1 passengers had not begun to climb aboard. We sat around for at least an hour before anybody was called to board. After sitting for just a few minutes, getting up was an effort and produced pain in every part of my body particularly my mid back.

Plane 1 was loaded and took off after a long wait on the tarmac. Eventually plane 2 was allowed to board and it, too, took off. Finally our plane was set to take on passengers. A woman collapsed on her way to the plane. Within seconds Marines and corpsmen ran to her aide. They brought all of their gear and a stretcher. After their ministrations she got up and continued her walk to the plane. Another dehydration case. Some of the fault for this common problem can be blamed on the passengers for not taking enough water with them (I took four bottles with me) – they had been warned that dehydration was a very real problem. But, some of the blame has to be laid at the feet of those in charge. There simply was not enough water along the road or at the top of Mt. Suribachi. Also, despite the presence of numerous trucks and vans, nearly all of them passed us by without picking up people who were obviously in trouble. When asked for a ride, they were told they were for emergencies only.

Once aboard the plane we settled in for the flight back to Guam. Because of the late hour, it was dark by time we took off so that we got no views of the island on our way out. In previous visits we have taken off in time to get nice views of Suribachi.