to follow on the 26th of March 1945 the American military officials on Iwo Jima announced that major combat operations had come to an end after 36 Days of brutal fighting the small island with an area of less than eight square miles had finally been pacified the United States suffered 27 071 casualties including almost 7 000 dead while the Japanese Garrison of 22 000 men fought nearly to the death despite its revered place in U.S military history the conquest of Iwo Jima continues to be the source of controversy as in the decades following the Battle many veterans and historians have questioned whether capturing the island was worth the effort the argument made for the Battle of Iwo Jima being unnecessary rests on questioning its overall strategic importance in the context of the Pacific Campaign the need to capture the otherwise insignificant Island had been questioned before The Invasion took place most notably by the commander-in-chief of the U.S naval fleet Admiral Ernest King who saw the operation as a waste of resources King declared that Iwo Jima would be a sinkhole in the hands of whoever held it along with other Skeptics King believed the island was too small to act as a staging area for the invasion of Japan and its lack of anchorages made it useless as a safe harbor for American warships the alternative to invading Iwo Jima would have been to bypass the island completely and cut off its Defenders from Supply faced with starvation the enemy would be forced to either evacuate their position or eventually surrender to the allies this tactic known as withering on the vine had been used to neutralize several Japanese bases in the Pacific Theater from June 1943 to March of 1944 General Douglas MacArthur's forces successfully isolated the main Japanese Naval and Aviation Hub at rabal in operation cartwheel MacArthur and the Allies avoided storming the heavily defended port and instead captured several bases in the immediate vicinity which rendered rabble useless by the end of the operation Admiral King hoped to apply this same tactic to the Japanese Garrison on iwojima yet Admiral Chester Nimitz and U.S army planners insisted that taking the island was necessary because its airfields could be used in the Strategic bombing campaign against Japan fighter escorts and medium-range bombers could be based just 700 miles south of Tokyo the U.S Army Air Forces intended squadrons of P-51 Mustangs and B-24 Liberator bombers to use the island to strike Targets in the surrounding area it was believed that its capture would also eliminate a Japanese radar post which provided early warning of American Air Raids against the home Islands as well as destroying an air base for enemy fighter interceptors Nimitz and the Army planners eventually prevailed in the argument and Iwo Jima was marked for invasion Nimitz was also optimistic that the operation would not be difficult after American Intelligence Officers predicted the Japanese Garrison was small and weak this notion was quickly dismissed when the battle began and casualties quickly began to Skyrocket While most Americans were in awe of Associated Press photographer Joe rosenthal's iconic photograph of six Marines raising the flag over the island detractors of the invasion were horrified by the losses the battle was incurring less than a month after the end of the battle former American chief of Naval operations William Pratt bemoaned the expenditure of manpower to acquire a small godforsaken island useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base frustratingly for the U.S Marine Corps they were never consulted during the planning phase of the operation and were thus unable to influence the direction of the battle while the Japanese airfields and radar station had now been taken permanently out of action it did not have the desired effect on the Strategic bombing campaign the Japanese Fighters based on the island were only able to occasionally harass American aircraft on reach of Japan shooting down just 11 B-29 super Fortress bombers in the months prior to the invasion Amber notes to the Americans the Japanese had constructed a listening post on the nearby island of Rota which could also detect incoming B-29 raids thus making the neutralization of Iwo Jima station less significant the planned medium bomber raids out of Iwo jima's Airfield were never put into action although aircraft did occasionally fly ground attack missions Pratt added that one wonders if the same sort of air base could not have been reached by acquiring other strategic localities at lower cost many proponents who supported the invasion point out that the small island became a place where American pilots in stricken aircraft could perform emergency Landings on the 4th of March 1945 while the battle still raged on the island a B-29 requested an emergency landing and managed to touch down on the american-controlled Airfield it would be the first of 2251 emergency Landings by b-29s on its airstrips this point has been championed as one of the main justifications for the taking of iwoijima James Bradley author of the book Flags of Our Fathers contends that the American victory unquestionably hastens the end of the war distressed B-29 bombers carrying 27 000 kriegmen would make emergency life-saving Landings on the island however the original justification for invading Iwo Jima never included establishing a base where aircraft could perform emergency Landings the historian Mark Grimsley argued that this narrative emerged later in order to support the idea that the invasion was necessary Grimsley studied each emergency landing attempt and concluded that 80 were actually for non-emergency situations such as refueling or training purposes furthermore he challenged the idea that 27 000 men had been saved by emergency Landings arguing that the number is too exaggerated considering that about half of the B-29 Crews which ditched at Sea during the second world war managed to survive Grimsley asserts that the true number of lives saved can't have been more than three thousand critical of the rationale for The Invasion he concluded the battle for Iwo Jima although a high point for American Valor was a low point for American strategy nonetheless the capture of the island did allow the U.S Army Air Force to fulfill its original task of setting up an air base to support the Strategic bombing campaign P-51 Mustang Fighters often flew long-range missions to escort bomber streams to their targets from March of 1945 onward American aircraft flew 1191 fighter escort missions and 3081 strike sorties against the Japanese home Islands although the importance of these missions has been subject to debate the fall of Iwo jima's Airfield also put an end to Japanese harassment raids on major American bases in the mariamas islands a small but not insignificant development despite the high casualty rate the tough experience on Iwo Jima would serve the Allies well later into the war the lessons learned during the battle were put to use during the Okinawa campaign where American Naval commanders resolved to make the pre-invasion bombardment the heaviest in the war to that point American Naval forces pounded Okinawa for a full week before landing on the beaches whereas the Marines on Iwo Jima received barely a day and half of Preparatory artillery and air support furthermore the combat on iwojimo proved the usefulness of certain weapons which would clear out Japanese fortifications Chief among them being flamethrower tanks and napalm the battle for Okinawa saw a much increased use of these Force multiplying tools to neutralize enemy bunkers and caves although the Americans took more overall losses during the Okinawa campaign it represented a smaller proportion of the entire invading force compared to the Bloodshed suffered on Iwo Jima most importantly the fanatical Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima as well as on other Pacific Islands played a major role in convincing American leadership to consider using the atomic bombs to end the war of the almost 22 000 Japanese military personnel on the island only 1083 survived to become prisoners of War the other 95 percent of Japanese soldiers fought to the death rather than surrender even as their situation quickly became hopeless in the face of overwhelming American Firepower The increased use of kamikazes further shocked U.S military leadership and horrified the American Home Front three aircraft carriers at iwoijima were struck by kamikazes including the escort carrier USS Bismarck C which exploded and sank in total 719 Navy sailors were killed during the battle operation downfall the planned invasion of the Japanese home Islands took the casualties suffered at Iwo Jima and Okinawa into consideration even before the Marines landed on Iwo Jima American operational planners from the U.S army service forces estimated that the Allies would suffer approximately 863 000 casualties including 267 000 killed in action during an invasion of Japan such a figure represented more casualties than the Western allies had suffered in Europe between the D-Day Landings in June 1944 and Germany surrender in May of 1945. following the brutal battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa Secretary of War Henry Simpson's staff would later revise these numbers upward to a minimum of 1.7 million Allied casualties along with 5 to 10 million Japanese fatalities a figure which included both civilian and Military dead the prospect of paying such a high price for victory is ultimately what influenced new U.S president Harry Truman to order the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while Iwo Jima did not directly lead to this decision its impact certainly played a role in ending the war and ushering in the atomic age whatever the justification or lack of justification for the decision by generals and Admirals to send young men to assault Iwo Jima there can be no doubt in The Bravery shown by both American and Japanese fighters in the battle within the U.S military and particularly the U.S Marine Corps the otherwise insignificant Island now has a revered place in its history 27 Medals of Honor the U.S military's highest award for gallantry were given out during the assault on Iwo Jima representing 25 of all Medals of Honor won by Marines in the Second World War the young sons of Japan were ferocious adversaries and fought bravely to the end to defend the island