This is General MacArthur reporting the battle of Iwo Jima. Our plan is to take the entire island and the three airfields. The Imperial Japanese Army has positioned themselves in a network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions and 11 miles of underground tunnels. The hardest thing to destroy was the tunnels. Our sea power and air power were capable of delivering vast amounts of fire to the Japanese troops. Neither America nor Japan even had the thought of surrendering even though it would save so many men.
We Americans set our mind to something and we do it. We expected the Japanese to surrender to save their men. The Japanese officers vowed to fight to the death, no matter how bad it was. That's exactly what they did.
America posses much of the island towards the end of the battle but we could have lost that battle.
It may sound crazy for America to try so hard and risk so many things for this one island but as always we have a purpose. Which is to give Germany and Japan a taste of their own medicine.
