After countless requests for the whole story… here it is.

Just to let you know what exactly Iwo Jima is, it is an island about 750 miles south of Tokyo. It is a volcanic island that is uninhabited, takes up all of about 8 square miles and the only thing on it besides a huge field is a small mountain known as Mount Suribachi. This small moutain is only about 530 feet tall. Mout Suribachi is famous for the flag raising on February 23, 1945. If your still not sure what flag raising I am talking about, look at the picture. After a quick search about battle details, 21,844 Japanese soldiers died on the island, 6,800 American soldiers died, and 26,000 plus casualties. So roughly 30,000 people died on this little island where 36 days of shelling and battles took place. Keep in mind, the island is still littered with all the scars of the battle including bombs, guns, helmets, tanks, engines, boats, etc. I am sure there are even bodies still on there somewhere unless they are decomposed. If you want to read more about what took place there, read more here.

During our work week on Okinawa, we were offered the chance to take a private plane to the island and check it out. It was a once in a lifetime chance and I was not about to pass this up. So, me and a few friends showed up with a backpack, and few bottls of water, our cameras, and that’s about it. We took the 750 mile trip and eventually landed on the island. During the approach onto the island, I noticed how there were ships along the coastline there were rusted and blown up. First, I had mistaken them for coastal rocks. We eventually landed and started our hike to Mount Surabachi where we could see the spot where the flag was raised.

The trip to Mout Surabachi was down a dirt road. We didn’t realise what we had in store for us. At the very beginning of this hike, we noticed plane engines and boat shellings gathered in a single area. Yes, we “oooo ahhhh” and took a few pitcures. As we finally got onto the first road, we found tunnels that went into the ground where the Japanese hid during the shelling phase of the battle. It is rumored that there were approximately 16 miles of tunnels in the island. That included a everything they needed to survive such as a hospital. We didn’t take the trip underground. We also found a rusted blown up tank burried in the shrubs and small pieces of rusted caseings and metal all over the place. As we continued down the dirt road, there was a ball of dirt wedges in the ground. My buddy decided to kick this thing down the road for something to do.

After about a mile, the dirt ball didn’t get any smaller and was very hard. So, he decided to see what this thing was all about. Once he picked it up, he noticed it was very hard unlike a typical dirt ball. He dusted it off only to find that he had been kicking a 65 year old unexploded hand grenade. At any minute this thing could have blew. In all honesty, we thought this was the coolest thing in the world. Since I had the backpack, guess who would most likely be carrying this thing? Yes, me! I was not comfortable with that by any means. I wanted a picture of it and then we could send that thing elsewhere. So, my buddy decides to ask the pack leader a question. He ask to the leader who was a bomb expert “can I keep this and take it home”? I watched this guy turn solid white as he was scared out of his skin. He told my buddy that a stupid question had just been born. After he ran away, we disposed of the grenade obviously. I on the other hand checked my backpack 50 times before getting back on the plane! I was not about to be anywhere close to that thing. Not only is it against the rules to keep a “War Trophy”, I don’t like flying already. Having this with me only scared me stiff.

As we approached Mount Surbachi, we noticed that the mountain was pounded with shells and gunfire dramatically. Huge boulders were split in half and tumbled down the side. It was heavily covered with bushes and trees. It’s amazing our soldiers made it up that hill and took it. We finally made it to the top where the flag had be raised. There was a monument and plaque exactly where it had taken place. After hundreds of pictures and sightseeing, we notice how the island was very small and the beaches on each side were bombarded with boats and US troops.

Once we came back down the hill, we decided to walk directly on the sandy ash (very very hard to even walk on) beach where we noticed thousands and thousands of bullets and shells had caked the beach. Along the edge of the beach was pill boxes. A pill box is where the Japanese were underground with a very small opening (bunkerlike) where a large gun could be used to shoot at on coming forces from the beach. We each emptied our water bottles to take a little piece of history (the black sand).

To this day, I have that sand and always wonder what exactly happened on that sand. It was definitely a 5 star historical trip that almost no one gets to experience in their life time to experience. I highly recommend that you YouTube a few videos and read about this very important part of our history.