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Roy Exum: Our Flag At Iwo Jima Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - by Roy Exum
Roy Exum
This morning marks the 76
th anniversary of the sun coming up on Mount Suribachi and, as it lit the dawn, every warrior in one of the most merciless battles in the Pacific theater could see the American flag on the crest of the 554-feet-tall hill. The battle to secure the island was perhaps the most intense fighting in World War II.
Almost 7,000 Marines and Navy Seabees were killed on the heavily fortified 8-square-mile island between February 19 and March 26 in 1945 while the Japanese lost approximately - get this number 28,000. (Remember, in just five weeks!) Only 214 of the enemy were able to surrender after five weeks of horrors, with as many as 3,000 Japanese hiding in the 11 miles of tunnels on the three-by-five-mile island.