Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Seashore calling front power

can we return shell from takeoff,

return shell from takeoff, over.

(ominous music)

(dramatic music)

(pleasant music)

- [Narrator] Tokyo, spring 1945.

One of the great cities of the world

becomes one of the great battlefields of the world.

Center and soul of the Japanese war effort,

Tokyo is objective number one

for strategic air attacks by the Allies.

From the faroff Mariana, from Guam,

from Saipan, from Tinian come the B-29s

bringing war to the makers of war.

(dramatic music)

Strategic attacks.

Shatter and destroy transport, industry, communications,

resources, manpower.

More critical to a country at war

than her divisions in the field,

her ships at sea, her planes in the air,

the great fire raids consume Japan.

66 cities are swept by hurricanes of flame.

(dramatic music)

Long range fighters from Iwo Jima,

rough, tough Mustangs protect the superports

on their incessant sweeps over Japan

and scourge and strafe as they come and go.

Fighters and bombers together destroy 51% of Tokyo,

44% of Yokohama, 26% of Osaka.

City after city, raid after raid.

(dramatic music)

Back to base, 1,400 miles from Tokyo for the Marianas.

A distance that would mean death for the cripples

were it not for the emergency landing strip on Iwo Jima.

Without a haven midway, without the protection

of the fighters to beat off the Japanese,

the raids would be impossible.

(somber music)

(dramatic music)

Iwo Jima is the haven.

B-29s wounded over Japan come limping in

to safety, to refuge.

Before the war is done, 25,000 American airmen

will owe their lives to Iwo Jima.

And in the shadow of Mt. Suribachi

a base for the rough, tough Mustangs

that guard the bombers on their way to Tokyo.

Iwo Jima, the indispensable island.

But before Iwo Jima, over the

limitless wastes of the Pacific,

on 100 islands behind Iwo,

a different war has been waged before Iwo could be reached.

The campaign of staging and supplies

in a twilight zone which was neither combat nor peace.

Only a fraction of the millions in uniform

ever fired a shot in anger.

For them, World War II was routine monotony

from morning 'til night, day in and day out,

week in and week out, month in and month out,

year in year out.

(pleasant music)

Floating apathetically back and forth

on routine, unspectacular missions,

cargo ships called by their crews buckets or sieves

kept island tied to island,

linking rear area bases to war at hand, to peace at home.

If the dreary role of these ships and sailors

demanded that they do that and this and that,

they nevertheless executed their dull charges.

(upbeat music)

The South Sea Islands.

Exotic, magic, fragrant.

Land of mystery and romance.

Unity and platoons.

Los Negros and Marnok.

Humaputi and Lumi.

Tonga, Tuvaluand and Epok.

But when the GIs arrived, the islands

became something else again.

A land of horse shoes and horse play,

beer and baseball, jive and jazz.

(jazz music)

(pleasant music)

Task groups gathered as the waning days of the war

called for yet more fire, yet more blood,

on a yet more distant island.

From rear bases long since forgotten

by all except those who were stationed there,

the convoys continually moved on

toward the destiny of history.

(dramatic music)

Not all the battles in the Pacific

were fought against the Japanese.

There were other terrors to face,

and none was worse than an angry sea lashed by typhoons.

Eternal father, strong to save,

whose arm has bound the restless wave

who bids the mighty ocean deep

its own appointed minutes keep.

Oh hear us when we cry to thee

for those in peril on the sea.

(dramatic music)

According to the Marines, the South Pacific

is the only place in the world

where you can stand up to your waist in mud

and have dust blow in your eyes.

(pleasant music)

For assault troops, one thing was always certain.

However bad any given island may have been,

the next was sure to be worse

but the men who were ordered to take Iwo Jima

in February 1945 did not know

that the worst of all lay ahead.

(upbeat music)

From all over the Pacific,

the ships converged on Iwo Jima.

The voyage was long, heated, interminable.

The men relaxed and waited as best they knew how.

(pleasant music)

(upbeat music)

Iwo Jima, eight square miles of reeking volcanic ash

on the doorstep to Tokyo.

Seven battleships, four heavy cruisers,

15 destroyers take up position,

planting a ring of floating artillery

around the tiny island,

picking their targets, finding the range.

(dramatic music)

February 1945, all the guns and all the ships

prepare for 72 hours of furious,

continuous, unbroken barrage.

The most concentrated naval bombardment of World War II.

(dramatic music)

(booming)

(dramatic music)

Secretary of the Navy, Forrestal is there to tell

the sailors and marines we have little choice

except to take Iwo Jima by force of arms,

by character and courage.

There is no room for surprise maneuvers,

only headlong assault.

Ashore, 23,000 Japanese soldiers

are dug deep in the most formidable defenses

the Marines have ever encountered.

The island is a solid mass of underground fortifications,

impregnable against bombardment.

They can be destroyed only by force of arms,

by character and courage.

(dramatic music)

From the caves of Mt. Suribachi which dominate

the entire island, the Japanese zero in

their artillery on the landing beaches,

pinning the Marines to the shore

in an avalanche of fire and steam,

paralyzing any advance, threatening obliteration.

(dramatic music)

Desperate calls for help or support

go out to the carriers offshore.

In combat information centers,

all available planes and pilots

are prepared to answer the pleas from the beachhead in hell.

Winged sailors fly to the aid of earthbound Marines.

(dramatic music)

By character and courage, more reserves,

more supplies, more Americans spill

into the slaughterhouse that is Iwo Jima

and claw their way toward their party, Suribachi.

While the mountain remains Japanese,

the island remains invincible.

5,000 American Marines will die before Iwo Jima falls,

but in the bloody bookkeeping of war,

the price will be in balance by the 25,000 American airmen

whose lives the island will save.

One man will die today to save five who will live tomorrow.

(dramatic music)

556 feet, Suribachi towers above the island Iwo Jima.

556 feet the Marines fight their way upward.

556 feet from disaster to victory.

When freedom from her mountain heights

unfurled the standard to the air,

she tore the azure robe of night

and set the stars of glory there.

(dramatic music)