Pacific

1945: Iwo Jima and Okinawa

February – June 1945 · 2 battles

In 1945 the American offensive in the Pacific reached the threshold of the Japanese home islands. In February the Marines landed on Iwo Jima, a volcanic islet halfway between the Marianas and Tokyo, needed as an airfield for escort fighters and an emergency landing ground for B-29 bombers. General Kuribayashi’s Japanese, hidden in a network of tunnels, held out for more than a month, almost to the last man. On 1 April the invasion of Okinawa began, the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war; nearly three months of fighting, massed kamikaze attacks on the fleet and enormous losses among the island’s civilians foreshadowed how costly an invasion of Japan itself would be.

19 February – 26 March 1945Key battleBattle of Iwo Jima19 Feb – 26 Mar 1945: US Marines took Iwo Jima, which Kuribayashi defended from tunnels. Total American casualties exceeded Japanese ones.
1 April – 22 June 1945Key battleThe Battle of Okinawa1 April – 22 June 1945. The US took Okinawa in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War – kamikaze, the Shuri Line and the tragedy of the island’s civilians.