Marines Land on Iwo Jima - 1995 Mint Imperforate Issue
February 19, 1945 The tiny island of Iwo Jima, located 660 miles south of Tokyo, became strategically important to the U.S. Its capture would reduce air force losses on bombing raids and would serve as a springboard for a U.S. invasion of the Japanese mainland. But invading the island was no easy task. The enemy and their equipment were so well camouflaged and entrenched in the island’s thousands of caves that most of them survived the 74-day pre-invasion bombardment. It took another two months of savage combat to finally secure the island. Only 1,200 of the 22,000-man Japanese garrison survived. U.S. losses were also high: 5,931 killed and 17,372 wounded. Historians have argued that since the air base never played a major offensive role Iwo Jima was not worth the sacrifice of American lives. Yet the airstrips on the island did serve as refuge for 2,251 emergency landings by damaged B-29 bombers returning from raids against Japan, saving over 25,000 American lives.
