[Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan]

Photograph of Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, circa 1945.

Typed caption on album page: "Iwo Jima, EE woh JEE muh, is the middle island of the three Volcano Islands, or Kazan Retto, in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. More than 5,000 men of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth United States Marine divisions gave their lives to capture its 8 square miles from the Japanese in February and March, 1945. The capture of the island was of great help to the American forces in the last stages of the war against Japan. Before Iwo Jima was captured, Japanese fighter planes had attacked American bombers from here. After American forces won the island, United States fighter planes used the airstrips to protect their bombers flying from Saipan and Tinian to Japan. Two Jima fields also served as emergency landing places for B-29 bombers returning from raids on Japan.

"Iwo Jima is about 5 miles long and about 2 1/2 miles wide at its widest point. It is shaped somewhat like the continent of South America. At the southern end is the 546-foot-high cone of Mount Suribachi, a volcano. The northern part of the island has hills with deep gulches. The soil is of gray volcanic ash. It was soft enough for the Japanese defending Iwo Jima to dig extensive underground fortifications."

"Iwo Jima means Sulfur Island in Japanese. Before World War II, sulfur was mined on the island. About 1,000 Japanese lived there at the time. They planted cotton, sugar cane, cacao, coffee, and vegetables. The soil is so porous that there are no streams. Water is scarce, except for rain water. Civilians were removed before the war. The United States now controls the island. -Edwin H. Bryan, Jr."

Part of a photograph album page containing captioned photos of the Pacific Theater during World War II, circa 1945.