IWO JIMA: Fifty years after US Marines stormed ashore here, finally carrying the Pacific War to the Japanese home islands, Iwo Jima is a dormant fortress which still divides the two allies.
Iwo Jima or 'Sulphur Island' is much as the Marines found it on February 19, 1945.
The John Wayne movie later had the Marines fighting on the The Sands of Iwo Jima but there is no sand on Iwo Jima. The island is an inactive volcano, and the steep beaches are formed from soft black ash which was an impediment to Americans as they landed.
When the Japanese knew winning was no longer possible, their aim was to kill as many Americans as they could.
The Marines had hoped to take Iwo Jima in four or five days, but the vicious fighting lasted from February 19 until March 26. The Americans won but the Japanese succeeded in their aim, too - killing 6,821 Americans and wounding another 25,851. Nearly 21,000 Japanese died, while 1,083 surrendered or were captured.
All local inhabitants were removed from Iwo Jima in July 1944 and never returned. The United States returned it to Japanese sovereignty in 1968.
Four hundred Japanese military run the air base. The last Americans on the island, Coast Guardsmen manning a navigational station, recently left when their equipment was automated.