[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 39 (Thursday, March 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3376-S3377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF IWO JIMA

  Mr. GLENN. Mr. President, I rise today to add my voice to that of my 
colleagues who have made remarks commemorating the 50th anniversary of 
the heroic Battle of Iwo Jima, which began on February 19, 1945.
  I made some impromptu remarks on this subject last week when my 
colleague from Arkansas delivered his remarks. It was one of the most 
moving moments on the floor of the U.S. Senate that I have participated 
in. We had the Senators here who had been marines at one time in their 
lives, and it was a very moving moment. Each of the other former 
marines in the Senate have stood on the Senate floor over the last 
several days to pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery of the men who 
fought so ferociously in the Battle of Iwo Jima. It was this grueling 
36-day battle that gave rise to Admiral Nimitz' famous description that 
``Among the Americans who served on Iwo, uncommon valor was a common 
virtue.''
  This battle also exacted one of the greatest casualty tolls in the 
history of the Marine Corps. For that uncommon valor, more medals of 
honor--27 in all--were awarded for that action than for any other 
action in World War II. Out of those 27, 14 were awarded posthumously.
  I was in World War II. I went in a few days after Pearl Harbor and 
started training. Fifty years ago, I had just returned to the United 
States from combat in the Pacific in the Marshall Islands, just when 
the Marine assault on the island of Iwo Jima began. Having participated 
in combat at that time in the Marshall Islands, we took our losses 
there, too, but nothing like Iwo, of course. But I understood the 
strategic importance this battle was to play in our island-hopping 
campaign in the Pacific. We watched that very closely, because I was in 
training, along with other members of the squadron I was in, to go back 
out again for the assault on Japan. Lying between Japan and our bomber 
bases in the Marianas was Iwo Jima, which would provide a critical base 
from which fighter escorts could protect our B-29's en route to the 
Japanese home islands.
  Our B-29's had the range to make their way from the Marianas, but 
without fighter escorts, they went unprotected and too often fell 
victim to attacks by Japanese fighters.
  Iwo Jima also would provide a haven for battle damaged bombers 
returning from their assaults on Japan. And taking Iwo Jima's three 
airfields would deprive the Japanese of a base from which they could 
intercept our bombers.
  This was part of the overall strategy, the strategy of saying we 
needed bases that bring the Japanese to their senses to bomb, to bomb, 
to bomb, and hope that we could end that war before we would need to 
make an invasion. Estimates of that invasion were that if the Japanese 
fought with the tenacity they had throughout that war, we could lose as 
many as a million people in that conquest of Japan. So it was in that 
strategy that Iwo was of critical importance.
  The challenge that 75,000 marines of the 3d, 4th, and 5th Marine 
Divisions faced was an awesome one. Iwo Jima, despite the heavy bombing 
it had endured in the hours leading up to the Marine assault, remained 
heavily defended by Japanese in caves and pill boxes and bunkers.
  Just picture yourself coming to shore in a bobbing landing craft, 
coming in with shells landing and people being hit in the landing craft 
before it got there, and seeing other craft ahead of you that had 
already been hit. It was a very tough moment. The island provided no 
natural cover for attackers, and Marines were slowed by Iwo Jima's 
black sand beaches. It was a sand of large grain, where you would step 
up on the beach and try and go uphill, and you made two steps forward 
and went one step backward.
  As I mentioned the other night, Mr. President, I did not participate 
in the Battle of Iwo Jima. But after the war, following assignment to 
China, my squadron flew through Iwo. We were there for several days and 
we walked that territory. I stood on those beaches and on the cliffs 
and was up on Mount Suribachi. I tried to imagine what it must have 
been like in those days.
  Having seen the terrain, it is hard to imagine how anybody could have 
ever made it up those beaches. They were the only landing areas on the 
island, but above the beaches, the cliffs were literally honeycombed 
with caves, back in the rocks, interconnected so the defenders could go 
from one cave opening to another. From the caves, machine guns would 
come out and fire, and unless naval supporting gunfire was able to make 
an unlikely very direct hit on a tiny cave opening, the guns kept 
coming out and kept mowing people down, and mowing them down, and 
mowing them down.
  As far as that gunfire, I remember one large Japanese gun that had 
been shooting at ships, and it accidentally had been hit directly by a 
shell while coming in from the sea. The whole end of that gun barrel 
was splayed out just like a banana that you would peel down, or like a 
flower petal spread out in different directions. It was a savage, 
savage battle. We were there, and my squadron mates and I walked in the 
caves and walked on the beaches just as the Japanese gunners were able 
to during that combat. How anybody ever got ashore with that kind of 
withering fire coming right down their throats, on top of them, is 
something hard to fathom. It was an experience being 
[[Page S3377]] there even after the battle. The experience was vividly 
impressed on my memory to this very day. As they came ashore, the usual 
thing would be to hunker down in a fox hole or a crater. But here was 
Mount Suribachi looking down. There was no such thing as a fox hole. 
They were being fired upon out on the beach. It is no wonder there were 
so many casualties.
  My visit to Iwo makes me appreciate just what is meant when it is 
said that the progress of the marines of the V Corps was measured in 
yards, as Japanese defenders resisted to the death.
  The Japanese were of a mood and psyche at that time, as they were 
through all of World War II, that they would rather be killed than give 
up. It was a Kamikaze mentality. We expected the assault on Japan, 
which we were training for, would be the same, and that, once again, 
emphasizes the importance of Iwo.
  Yet, by February 24, 1945, 4 days after the onslaught began, the 
American flag waived from the summit of Mount Suribachi, the proud 
image that to this day symbolizes the unwavering resolve of the Marine 
Corps, of our Nation, and of the staggering sacrifices that were made 
by the marines in their relentless advance on Iwo Jima.
  Uncommon valor was indeed a common virtue.
  Just imagine you are there, and just think of the determination. You 
have flamethrowers, tanks, bulldozers, landing craft hit and on the 
beach and shot up and out of commission, and still you have to advance 
and neutralize and silence the fire from those hundreds and hundreds of 
enemy caves.
  Well, by early March, the three Marine divisions had compressed the 
remaining enemy into isolated pockets of resistance. An awesome foe, 
the Japanese defenders fought with courage and determination, with the 
vast majority in their fanaticism, preferring death to surrender. The 
final pockets of resistance were finally eliminated, and the capture of 
the island was announced on March 26.
  The casualty statistics are harrowing. Almost 7,000 Americans were 
killed, and more than 17,000 were wounded. But the assault and capture 
of Iwo Jima was of critical importance to final victory in the Pacific, 
and the island proved to be an important base from which to deliver 
more and heavier blows against the enemy.
 It also became the emergency landing field it had been envisioned to 
be.

  And by the end of the war a total of 2,251 B-29 bombers, carrying 
24,761 crewmen landed on Iwo Jima. A large number of these brave pilots 
and crewmen undoubtedly would have been lost if the land had not been 
taken.
  Once again, you can imagine those planes coming in, shot up, battle 
damaged, wounded being taken out, planes repaired, wounded being given 
help, back to Guam or Saipan, and out again to pound Japan after being 
repaired.
  Mr. President, I conclude my remarks by repeating the words of then 
Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal, who was present on the island 
during the campaign, when he expressed his ``tremendous admiration and 
reverence for the guy who walks up beaches and takes enemy positions 
with a rifle and grenades or his bare hands.''
  We have had a lot of battles, Mr. President, battles we read about. 
The battle of Iwo Jima, like Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Belleau Wood, and 
Normandy, was won literally not just by machines but by young Americans 
who wanted to live but were not afraid to die for their country.
  People go off to war with the flags flying and bands playing and we 
think about liberty and the pursuit of justice and world community and 
all of these things we like to talk about, loyalty to country. But to 
the people on a beach, it is a matter of them and their fellow marines 
that they are trying to survive alongside. And it is that Marine 
training, which makes them more afraid of letting their fellow marines 
down than they are of getting hurt, that wins those battles. Sometimes 
they are killed. Sometimes it is hard to explain that kind of 
psychology, that kind of mentality that wins battles, particularly a 
battle as vicious and as tough as was Iwo Jima. But that Marine gung ho 
spirit of being more afraid of letting each other down in a battle than 
they are of getting hurt or killed themselves, while hard to explain, 
is what is so important in winning battles. It means that a person will 
take grenades over to somebody and expose himself to fire because his 
fellow marines need that kind of help. It is what you have seen in the 
squadron where people dive back in on a target a second time to split 
up antiaircraft fire. You would think that would be the most stupid 
thing anybody can do, but it is done because they see somebody in 
trouble.
  So, Mr. President, to those brave Americans who paid the ultimate 
sacrifice on the black sand beaches of Iwo Jima and the rocky slopes of 
Mount Suribachi, ``Semper Fi,'' and may God's blessings rest on our 
Corps, on our military, and on this United States of America.
  Thank you, Mr. President I yield the floor.
  Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I enjoyed very much hearing the Senator from 
Ohio, Senator Glenn, who is a stalwart member of the Armed Services 
Committee and has been a stalwart defender of the United States his 
entire life, either as a member of the Marine Corps or in the space 
program or in his splendid service here in the U.S. Senate.
  I heard him talk about Iwo Jima. All of us, I believe, are the 
beneficiaries of that reminder of the heroism that took place on Iwo 
Jima. And I might add that no one is better qualified to speak of 
heroism and patriotism and dedication than the Senator from Ohio, 
Senator Glenn, his plane having been shot five times when he was flying 
in the Marshall Islands, and I believe seven times his plane was shot 
when he was in Korea fighting for our country.
  So I thank the Senator from Ohio for that beautiful tribute to those 
who were so brave and gave so much of themselves for their country on 
Iwo Jima and other places in the Pacific.

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