During the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, a Japanese soldier was murdered by American troops and his grisly corpse was scattered in the sandy wilderness southwest of Motoyama No. 2 Airfield. The murdered bodies were lying on their backs with their helmets removed around them, both knees bent and both upper limbs hugged and in rigor mortis. American forces had taken Motoyama No. 2 Airfield by February 27. The Japanese defended themselves on the battlefield of Iwo Jima, which was filled with man-made and natural defenses. They bombarded American troops with artillery during the day, and came up behind them at night, planting mines in their path to block the invasion. The American forces broke through and swept away with massive and overwhelming attacks, flamethrowers, packing explosives, and grenades.
The Battle of Iwo Jima was the first major battle fought on Japanese soil during World War II. It was an extremely fierce and costly battle for the American forces. During the first five days of the landing, there were about 1,200 casualties each day. As many as one-third of the U.S. troops who landed suffered casualties. On March 26, Iwo Jima was conquered by the Americans after Japanese soldiers were annihilated in a banzai charge against American troops near the beach. Only about 216 Japanese troops survived capture, and all the rest were killed in action.
The battle of Iwo Jima was more costly for the Americans than for the Japanese, with about 7,000 of the landing force killed and about 19,000 wounded. Details of the casualties of the 36-day battle of Iwo Jima are suggested as follows: Approximately 110,000 American soldiers participated in the battle of Iwo Jima, less than 19% of the total number of Japanese soldiers, about 20,530. The number of American casualties was about 6,821, and the number of Japanese casualties was about 19,900. American casualties were about 21,865, and Japanese casualties were about 1,033. The total number of casualties was approximately 28,686 for the U.S. forces and 20,933 for the Japanese. In total, the American side suffered about 7,753 more casualties than the Japanese side in the Pacific War. The casualty count at Iwo Jima shocked the American people. Giving no time to condemn the bloody and barbaric battle, the invasion of Okinawa began four days after the fall of Iwo Jima. Beyond the battle of Iwo Jima, the entire Japanese archipelago was bombed in a long and bloody war of revenge that engulfed the civilian population in indiscriminate and tragic casualties.
