In Japanese Iwo Jima means Sulfur Island.  The island has the smell of brimstone about it.  In 1945, when the battle of Iwo Jima was fought in the second world war, it must have added to the feeling that this place was indeed hell.   It is still an active volcanic area.  In 1945 it was just over 20 square kilometers in size. Today it is just under 30. In the last decade the island has risen about 3 feet a year and since the Second World War the beach where US marines landed in 1945 it has risen more than 56 feet. Magma under the island is pushing the whole place up.  The terrain is mostly volcanic ash, hard to walk through, harder to climb, and impossible to drive through except with great difficulty in a tracked vehicle.  Even without the history of the war this would be an interesting place.

On board we are having an excellent series of lectures by military historian Rob Quintrell on the war in the Pacific. He has given us lectures on the course of the war and on battles in places we have visited on this cruise, the Aleutians, Okinawa, the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the plans for the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, and Iwo Jima. Pearl Harbor and Midway are yet to come (although we will have to skip our sail by of Midway. Because of a seriously ill passenger we are making headway directly to Honolulu. There but for the grace of God…)

I will not go into the details of the battle except to say that 19,000 of 21,000 Japanese defending the island were killed and 6,800 US military lost their lives.  The island was defended by a series of bunkers connected by a network of 11 miles of tunnels.  US flame throwers would clear a bunker, and more Japanese soldiers would take it over and keep fighting. 

One of the iconic photos of the Second World War was Joe Rosenthal’s raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi by 6 US marines.  It won a Pulitzer Prize and became the model for a monument at Arlington National Cemetery and a US postage stamp.

The US occupied the island until 1968 before returning it to the Japanese.  My mother was very upset at the time because she feared (correctly) that the US flag would not fly over Mt. Suribachi.  That is how emotional my mom was about Iwo Jima more than two decades later.

Iwo has no permanent residents.  There is a Japanese military presence on the island.  The only civilians work for the weather service, provide construction services for the bases or are doing geological research.  The only visitors allowed are Japanese or Americans attending memorial services.

Our sail by had to be approved by Japanese Coast Guard.  The captain wanted to come within one nautical mile of the black volcanic ash landing beaches and do a 360-degree turn allowing everyone to view the beaches.  The authorities only allowed the ship within 2 nautical miles.

We approached the island from the North, circled it counter clockwise (the island on our port side), rounded Mt. Suribachi, stopped at the landing beach for the 360^o circle and continued to sail north, and then East, away from the island. 

The captain explained what he was doing and suggested that, as we sailed away, we stand on the aft lido deck and take a moment of silent reflection.

Karlijn, the Cruise Director gave commentary throughout the sail by.  For me the most interesting part was on the west side.  There was a semi-circle of wrecked ships.  They had been sunk by the US in 1945 to create a breakwater and artificial harbor. The island has risen so much that they have surfaced, and some are sitting, dry on the beach.

We decided to watch and listen from the Lido deck because our stateroom is on the starboard side of the ship.  We did this because when we passed through the Kanmon Strait, we could not hear the commentary on the bow because of a combination of low volume speakers and high volume talkers.  The same thing happened on the aft lido deck.  The volume on the speakers was so soft that we could not hear.  (I contacted guest services.  They said it was because of the wind. In other words, they didn’t have a clue.)  When the boat started its 360^o turn we returned to our stateroom and watched from our balcony while listening to Karlijn. 

After she finished, I went back up to the aft lido deck to follow the captain’s advice and stand for a moment of silent reflection.  By then the speakers were working just fine pumping out music for the lido bar.  So, while I reflected Abba “sang out for you and me and liberty, Fernando.”