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The Darkest Truth About Iwo Jima | Unbelievable true stories | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The Darkest Truth About Iwo Jima
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The Battle of Iwo Jima was an exceptionally brutal and costly campaign in World War II, characterized by fanatical Japanese resistance from extensive underground fortifications and immense American casualties, highlighting the extreme lengths of human suffering when surrender is refused.
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Ioima showed just how far human
suffering could go when no one was
willing to surrender. It became one of
the most haunting battles in human
history. Not just because of how many
lives were lost, but because of the way
that happened. On an island of just 8
square miles for 36 days, over 1,000
people died each day, and many of them
in ways too disturbing to speak of for
years. But the end of the battle didn't
mean the end of horror, as strange
things continued to happen on the island
for years afterward. This is the part of
history that was intentionally left out.
the other side of the metal of what was
supposed to be a victory.
Before we get into why fighting on this
island was so horrifying, let's quickly
set the stage so you have a better
picture of what was about to happen.
Iima was strategically important because
of its location. It sat almost exactly
halfway between the Mariana Islands and
Tokyo, right along the flight path of
B29 bombers attacking the Japanese
mainland. For the Japanese, it was a
forward early warning station and a
fighter base. For the Americans, it was
a serious problem. They wanted it gone,
and they wanted to secure it as a base
for emergency bomber landings and
fighter escorts. In October 1944,
Operation Detachment began. The plan was
to invade Euima. And to do that, the
United States assembled the largest
Marine force ever committed to a single
battle. Around 70,000 men were brought
together, supported by dozens of
warships and aircraft. For 74 days,
before the Marines even hit the beach,
American planes and ships dropped
thousands of tons of explosives on the
island. The final naval bombardment was
supposed to last 10 days, but it was cut
short after only three because from a
distance, the island looked like it had
been completely flattened. To American
commanders, it seemed like the island
had been pounded into submission, and
there was probably nothing significant
left alive on it. Well, they were about
to find out just how wrong and naive
that assumption really was.
Waiting on the island was the Japanese
109th Division under the command of
Lieutenant General Kurabayashi. For
months, his men had been turning Ewima
into a fortress, carefully preparing for
what they knew would be their final
stand. They understood the island's
importance, and they knew exactly what
the Americans were going to do to try
and take it. Kurayashi had a detailed
plan, but there was no plan for retreat,
no plan for victory, and no plan for
survival. He knew there was no way to
evacuate the island since it was
surrounded by the Allied fleet. and
there was no way to get reinforcements
or supplies. The defenders were there to
fight and to die, so they were going to
make it count. Learning from previous
battles and studying American amphibious
tactics, Kuribayashi reshaped the
defense to be as deadly and as difficult
to destroy as possible. About 22,000
Japanese soldiers worked day and night
preparing defensive positions, but not
in the usual way. The island was made of
volcanic rock, which made it easy to dig
by hand. Instead of waiting on the
beaches where American artillery and
naval gunfire would wipe them out, the
Japanese decided to disappear
underground. They built a hidden maze
beneath the island. Caves, reinforced
bunkers, pillboxes, and hardened firing
positions, all connected by tunnels. On
just eight square miles of land, over 11
mi of tunnels were dug out, linking
hundreds of hidden strong points beneath
the black volcanic surface. And this
time, there were no desperate banzai
charges. Every Japanese soldier was
ordered to kill at least 10 Americans
before being allowed to die. That meant
setting up ambushes, withdrawing and
reappearing, and using disturbingly
creative tactics meant to take as many
American lives as possible. And all of
it was already in place, quietly
waiting. So when the American
bombardment began, the Japanese simply
went deep underground. That heavy weeksl
long bombardment ended up causing
surprisingly few Japanese casualties.
And now with hundreds of landing craft
approaching the island, the stage was
set for what would become a true meat
grinder of a battle. It was February
19th, 1945. At exactly 8:59 in the
morning, wave after wave of marine
assault troops began storming ashore on
Euima's beaches under the cover of naval
gunfire. As they hit the sand, they were
surprised by how light the resistance
was. Only a few sporadic gunshots rang
out, and for the first hour, there was a
strange and ominous calm. Thousands of
Marines gathered on the beaches along
with their tanks and heavy equipment,
but it felt too quiet. Something was
clearly wrong, and many of the men
started to sense it. Kuribayashi had
ordered his troops to hold their fire
until the beaches were absolutely packed
with marines and vehicles. And just as
those first waves struggled through the
soft volcanic ash that clogged up their
landing craft and slowed every step, the
Japanese sprung their trap. Dozens of
pre-sighted and camouflaged artillery
batteries opened fire. Shells that had
been buried in the ash were remotely
detonated. Machine guns laid down
overlapping fields of fire, and every
available Japanese rifle opened up on
the densely packed beach. There was no
cover, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
The Marines tried to dig in, but the
volcanic sand offered almost no
protection. They were sitting ducks in a
deadly crossfire, and they were getting
absolutely decimated. These were the
first hours of the battle, and already
the casualties were in the thousands.
Marines were being cut down as they
desperately tried to move inland toward
their objectives. By the end of the day,
around 30,000 Marines had made it
ashore, but it came at a horrific cost.
In the days that followed, US Marines
pushed inland and set their sights on
capturing Mount Surabachi in the south.
They surrounded the base of the volcanic
cone and began a methodical assault
uphill, straight over a maze of hidden
caves and pillboxes. What they found was
a battlefield like nothing anyone had
ever seen. The Japanese were everywhere,
attacking from all directions at point
blank range and from positions that were
supposedly already cleared. Marines
quickly realized just how massive the
underground network of pillboxes,
bunkers, and tunnels really was.
Everything was connected. They would
clear out a position and move forward
only for Japanese troops to reappear
behind them from that same spot and open
fire. It was chaos. There were no clear
front lines. Bayonet charges and
hand-to-hand fighting broke out
constantly. And the worst part was this
was still just the beginning. The most
brutal phase of the battle was still to
come. And here, one weapon would become
the symbol of just how close and brutal
the fighting really was, the
flamethrower. We actually have a
separate video talking all about this
weapon, but it's important to mention it
here as well. Flamethrowers were
credited as the weapon that ultimately
brought victory on Euoima, but they were
also known as both the best and the
worst weapon marines had. Their
operators rarely survived long. In fact,
92% of them were killed on Euima.
Flamethrowers had only about 20 yards of
effective range and just 7 seconds of
actual firing time before running out of
fuel. The weapon weighed 70 lb when
fully loaded, so good luck storming
uphill with that on your back. And if
the enemy caught you alive, that was
probably a worse fate than dying. One
operator reached a cave entrance and
prepared to fire, but his flamethrower
misfired. Two Japanese soldiers saw
their chance, rushed out, grabbed him,
and dragged him back inside. For 2 days,
his fellow Marines could hear his
screams echoing from that cave. They
couldn't reach him or even end his
suffering. Still, flamethrowers were the
only reliable way to destroy the pill
boxes connected by tunnels, and the
Japanese knew it. So, every time a
flamethrower appeared, the entire front
would light up and try to take that man
down. Eventually, the Zippo Shermans
arrived, modified tanks fitted with
massive flamethrowers that had greater
range, more fuel, and much better
survivability. To the Japanese, these
tanks were the worst nightmare
imaginable. Their effects were
horrifying. And if you're curious, there
are still videos online showing them in
action. Though frankly, I wouldn't
recommend watching them. On the fourth
day of battle, a patrol of Marines broke
through to the summit of Mount
Surabbachi and raised a small American
flag on a piece of pipe to signal its
capture. A few hours later, a second,
larger flag, was raised and
photographed. Marine Corps photographer
Bill Janow, who filmed and photographed
that second flag raising, was later
killed while clearing a cave. The cave
entrance was collapsed with TNT, and his
body was never recovered. But the fall
of Mount Surabbachi, while a major
objective, was not even close to the end
of the horrific fighting that lay ahead.
Only about onethird of the island, was
now secured, and the Marines still did
not realize just how extensive the
underground Japanese positions really
were. The enemy still held a dense
network of defensive zones across the
wider northern part of the island,
including several fortified high grounds
that had to be captured by hand.
Progress became slow and punishing. The
Marines were paying for every inch of
ground in blood whenever they took a
hill or ridge, often with dozens of
casualties. Japanese soldiers would
suddenly emerge from behind or from the
flanks and open fire again from ground
that was supposed to be cleared.
Relentless naval gunfire and air strikes
were called in constantly, but
flamethrowers and grenades remained the
only weapons that could actually clear
out the tunnels and pillboxes
effectively. Meanwhile, inside those
tunnels, the Japanese were enduring
truly horrific conditions. The volcanic
rock trapped heat and filled the air
with sulfur. Many tunnel sections had
collapsed from the bombardment or their
entrances had been sealed. So, the
defenders were often trapped in total
darkness, sometimes for days without
water, food, fresh air, or even a way
out. Speaking of grenades, there was one
moment that defined the kind of courage
this battle demanded. Navy Corman John
H. Willis saved wounded Marines by
picking up and throwing back eight
Japanese grenades. He grabbed a ninth
one to throw it too, but it exploded in
his hand, killing him instantly. He was
postuously awarded the Medal of Honor,
and he was just one of many. On Euima,
that kind of bravery was a daily
occurrence. In just 36 days of fighting,
27 medals of honor were earned. 14 of
them were awarded postumously. That is
more than a quarter of all the medals of
honor earned by Marines during the
entire Second World War. All from this
single battle. As the Marines eventually
managed to cut the island in half and
push the remaining Japanese defenders
back, the fighting still did not stop.
The Japanese were now almost completely
out of water. But they kept fighting
fanatically. Small groups would slip
through American lines at night, trying
to scavenge weapons and cantens or just
to terrorize the exhausted Marines who
could never truly feel safe. Some
Japanese soldiers wore American uniforms
to sneak closer. Others shouted medic or
coreman in English, trying to lure out
American medics or trick them into
revealing their positions. Medics were a
prime target, and around 60% of them
became casualties. Many Japanese
soldiers had been heavily indoctrinated
with the belief that Americans would do
horrific things to them, even going as
far as eating them. So, surrender was
not just a violation of Hushido, it was
also something they believed would lead
to torture or death. Even when wounded
or dying, they tried to kill. A wounded
Japanese soldier grabbed a scalpel and
stabbed the surgeon who was treating
him. He was shot on the spot. Others
booby trapped themselves. They would
strap grenades to their bodies using
rubber bands soaked in gasoline with the
pins already pulled. After some time,
the gasoline would eat through the
rubber, releasing the grenade spoon and
triggering an explosion. Some fake
surrender just to get close enough to
throw a grenade. Because of this,
Marines eventually stopped taking
prisoners. It became a nightmare in
every possible way. The danger was
constant and it came from places you
could not even imagine. And yes, there
were brutal acts committed on both sides
against captured soldiers. Many of those
we cannot even talk about here on
YouTube, but you can probably imagine
what that means. By March 16th,
organized resistance had largely ceased
and the island was officially declared
secured by US command. However, there
were still hundreds of Japanese soldiers
underground and they still weren't
quitting. General Kuribayashi himself
had withdrawn into a northern cave. On
the night of March 25th, in one final
act of defiance, around 300 remaining
Japanese troops who could still fight
were led in a surprise attack by a
senior officer. Some accounts claim this
might have even been Kurabayashi
himself. They burst out of the tunnels
in a sudden banzai attack behind
American lines. They struck an airfield
supply depot and overran part of a field
hospital, killing everyone in their
path, including the wounded. By dawn,
the rampage was finally brought to an
end. After this, the battle of Euajima
was officially over. After 36 days of
non-stop fighting with around 30,000
people dead and another 20,000 wounded,
it was finally over. Or was it? Just
wait for a second. Take a moment to
truly grasp those numbers. About 1,000
people, both Japanese and American, died
every single day. And that happened on a
tiny island, not across some vast front
stretching for hundreds of kilome. So
many horrors were packed into such a
small space and short period of time
that no account or documentary could
ever fully capture what it felt like.
Even after the island was declared
secured, Marines spent weeks clearing
bunkers and caves with flamethrowers and
demolition charges because holdouts were
still sniping and booby trapping the
area. Around 3,000 Japanese soldiers
were found hiding in the tunnel systems
in the weeks that followed. Most of them
refused to surrender and were either
killed by Marines or simply never
emerged from those caves. But listen to
this. Two Japanese soldiers managed to
survive and evade capture by hiding in
the island's jungle and caves for four
more years after the war had ended. They
were finally caught in January 1949
after they learned that the war had long
been over. For weeks after the island
was declared secure, muffled gunshots
and explosions could still be heard from
inside the caves. And you can probably
imagine what those sounds meant. Many
were too afraid to come out or simply
too wounded, too weak, or too far gone
to surrender. Perhaps the darkest part
of all of this is what came next. Most
of those tunnel systems and cave
networks were sealed after the battle,
but at the time they were sealed, there
were still people alive inside. Now,
just take this in. Only a few thousand
Japanese were officially buried. As of
today, 12,000 Japanese soldiers are
still listed as missing. So are 218
Americans. They are somewhere beneath
the ground of Euima. And all we can do
is imagine what their final moments
might have looked like. The Americans
captured the island, repaired the
airirst strips, and used it for the
exact reason they had fought so hard to
take it. And yet, the war would soon end
in that infamous way we all know. What
makes everything you just heard even
worse is the fact that it might have
been completely avoidable. Some believe
the Americans could have simply
surrounded the island and waited it out,
forcing the Japanese to surrender or die
inside their fortress. Some veterans
later questioned why the atomic bomb was
never used on Euima instead of on
Japanese cities since the island had no
civilian population. There were a lot of
hard questions after the battle.
Questions about whether the cost was
justified. In postwar analysis, Ioima
was considered helpful to the bombing
campaign, but not absolutely necessary
and certainly not for the price that was
paid. On the Japanese side, it was even
worse. Out of more than 20,000 men, only
216 surrendered and survived. The darker
truth is that the vast majority of them
are still there, buried in the same
tunnels they dug before the battle
began. Today, Ioima is a Japanese
military base with restricted access.
And even now, almost 80 years later, it
still bears the scars of one of the most
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