Why were the battles at Iwo Jima and pacific islands so bloody?

Question

Enlighten me please :)

Answer 1

what is there to enlighten about? the Japanese where dug in to the very terrain, they had committed themselves to not surrendering, they had no hope of escape and fought desperate like as they say a trapped rat. the US troops had to land on open beaches, and fight for each square yard of terrain, some had no foliage to speak of for cover, like Iwo Jima, it had only volcanic ash, and if you dug down a few feet or so the ground could slow roast you, it was hot, no water to speak of, and no protective cover, the Japanese had tunneled into the volcanic mountain and the surrounding ash hills, and fought for there very lives. other Island where heavy in foliage and riff with heat and disease, this caused severe problems in conducting war fare, and most ware ware in all the Island was not armies facing armies, but small groups in isolated area as attacking one another, it was hand to hand in most instances, the shore bombing they found did little, it looked good, but rarely affected the dug in troops. No one wore body armor, bullets came from all directions in such confused combat locations.

Answer 2

Iwo Jima and Okinawa were the two bloodiest in terms of U.S. losses. Both of those islands were within the Pacific Central Command under Admiral Chester Nimitz. Both were also Japanese soil. The island campaigns fought in the Southwest Pacific Theater under General MacArthur were less bloody. That's because his doctrine was to use massive aerial and naval bombardment to reduce the fighting effectiveness of enemy forces ashore to less than fifty percent before landing U.S. troops.
That technique did not work for Nimitz at Iwo Jima because the opposing Japanese had taken up "hardened"positions in caves and controlled the high ground looking down at the invasion beaches. At Okinawa, General Usijima formed his forces into the famous Shuri Line (somewhat like circling the wagons in western movies) and offered no resistance to U.S. forces landing on invasion beaches for the western part of the island. The Marines, attempting to scale the cliffs leading up to the Shuri line, suffered the most casualties on D-Day. Additonally, the Japanese launched massive waves of Special Attack Squadron aircraft (the "kamikaze") against the ships of the landing force. The U.S. lost more ships and Navy personnel off the beaches of Okinawa than they had suffered in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Answer 3

from what i've read, the island iwo jima is important to the japanese as a warning station and the loss of the island to america can be severly devastating as it would facilitate more american air raids against japan's home islands.
despite the fact that the base in iwo jima is heavily fortified, due to heavy losses of japanese aircraft in 1944, it is almost impossible for japan to avoid american landing. so, in order to buy time, the japan revert to delaying tactics and suicidal attacks by airplanes.
i guess that's why the battles were so bloody as both America and Japan tried hard to either conquer or keep iwo jima due to it's importance.

Answer 4

Because the Japanese were fanatically determined fighters. Any Japanese Soldier in WW2 would raher die than surrender... literally.Often in these island battles the Japanese garrisons had to be wiped out to the last man.That causes lots of casualties.

Answer 5

American doctrine prefers fire and maneuver, and the use of firepower over manpower to limit casualties. You can't do that against a fortified island. The restrictions of terrain required frontal assaults against prepared positions and against a determined enemy. It's the bottom of the list when it comes to how you want to fight, but when other options aren't available, you do what you must.

Answer 6

The Japanese had years to dig underground fortifications and tunnels, the marines couldn't dig in and were exposed to artillery and mortar fire and Japanese that would come out at night, infitrate American lines, then disappear into their underground hideouts.

Answer 7

The Japanese refused to surrender and fought to the death, which meant that you needed to kill every Japanse soldier.

Answer 8

Thankyou all for your replies and opinions.

Answer 9

because the japs chose to die than to surrender