Strike and Return: American Air Power and the Fight for Iwo Jima

160 pp. The Pacific island of Iwo Jima was the most expensive piece of real estate America has ever purchased. Lying halfway between U.S. air bases in the Mariana Islands and downtown Tokyo, the Japanese island was a threat to American aviation operations during the last phases of the war in the Pacific theater. So the United States took Iwo Jima, and in the process lost over 6,800 fighting men in some of the most brutal and bloody fighting of the war. Once the tables were turned, Iwo Jima offered valuable advantages to its conquerors.