I have sand from that beach in a little vial on my desk from one of the survivors of Iwo Jima. Good reminder of how fortunate we are today and that many have given their lives for us.
My USMC son is nearing the end of his deployment and they were offered the chance to visit Iwo Jima. The Japanese government granted their team permission.
It is indeed hallowed ground.
70 years later is still shows the open scars of heavy shelling, virtually undisturbed tunnel systems, and live ordinance.
My son was astounded at the exposure of the beach landing zone along with the abundant tunnel systems.
That generation of Marines was given quite the heavy lift in the Pacific.
I was a Recon Team Leader in the Marine Corps and my old Platoon Sgt. went on to do well for himself in Hollywood as a military technical adviser on many big films (http://1forceinc.com/). He's worked for Clint Eastwood on many films, including Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. He sent me some pics on Mt. Suribachi. Sacred grounds for the Marine Corps. I did a float in the area (Okinawa, etc.) but I never was privileged to visit Iwo Jima.
It took unbelievable courage to tackle that beachhead. By that point in the war, the Marines had fought the Japanese long enough to know that the per-bombardment was just, more or less, for show. They knew that those guns would undoubtedly be blazing down on them from Suribachi, but it didn't faze their resolve to accomplish the mission. I have always been a warfare history buff. "Strong Men Armed" by Bob Leckie is a great book about the Marines fight with the Japanese in the pacific if anybody needs a good read.
P.S. That is a great picture and puts Mt. Suribachi in better perspective than many others I have saw. You can really get a sense of how foreboding of a site that beach must have been.
It'd be amazing to see what's buried in all that sand. To take a metal detector there, my goodness.... obviously I'm assuming it's illegal but man I bet some interesting stuff would be found.
According to my son, the mountain was honeycombed with these tunnels. They were really tempted to explore the tunnels, but there was live ordinance all over the place.
It quickly became clear how the days of pre-landing shelling had limited effect on the resident forces.