Iwo Jima Tactical Beach Landing Map, February 1945

Accession number:
2023.01

Maker:
N/A

Historical period:
1944-1945

Type:
Map

Dimensions:
N/A

Acquisition date:
2023

Credit line:
Gift of James "Knox" Kerr

Location:
Iwo Jima Room, Second Floor

Provenance:

2023: Gift of James Kerr

Label:

This "secret" map of Iwo Jima was issued little more than a week before the February 19, 1945 U.S. invasion. These beach diagrams were used to plan and execute the American landings on Iwo Jima. The map shows the American landing zone on the southern end of the island and the Japanese defensive installations in minute detail—at least as they were known to American forces before the landing. This map is heavily marked to show the progress of the battle, likely annotated during the course of battle by a U.S. Marine to reflect day-by-day progress of American forces as they first established a beachhead and then advanced north and south to capture the island.

This map would have provided planners and troops on the ground with a staggering amount of information about the natural and man-made landscape. Contour lines are at 20-foot intervals. Symbols indicate bluffs and terraces, and the mapmakers seem to have attempted to indicate every dwelling and other civilian structure on the island.

The southeastern beaches, site of the actual landing, are divided into colored zones, which depict where the 4th Marine Division and 5th Marine Division each landed. Mount Suribachi, or "Hot Rocks" as it was codenamed, appears at the bottom left of the diagram.

These diagrams relied on aerial photographs taken on July 4, 1944, more than seven months before the invasion. They show little in the way of manmade impediments to amphibious invasion, belying the extensive Japanese fortifications and the dogged resistance that the Marines would face from the roughly 20,000 Japanese defenders. Lieutenant General Kuribayashi, eschewing Japanese doctrine that called for troops to contest every inch of the landing beaches, instead instructed his soldiers to allow the American forces to land en masse, before springing traps to kill as many newly landed troops as possible.

American planners misunderstood the nature of the volcanic sand and terrain of the beaches, most of which was thought to be perfectly suitable for disembarking and traversing. In other diagrams, the volcanic sand is described as "firm" and "firm enough for movement of vehicles." In reality, the ash was very difficult to traverse and equally difficult to dig into, greatly complicating the unloading of equipment and vehicles and the excavation of foxholes and trenches. These errors were symptomatic of a general lack of accurate pre-invasion intelligence, which ultimately cost hundreds, perhaps even thousands of American lives.