Letter from an Iwo Vet

Iwo Jima
World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific

The men who fought and survived the deadliest battle of the Pacific come to life in this powerful oral history.
On February 19, 1945, nearly 70,000 American soldiers invaded a tiny volcanic island in the Pacific. Over the next thirty-five days, approximately 28,000 soldiers died, including nearly 22,000 Japanese and 6,821 Americans, making Iwo Jima one of the costliest battles of World War II. Best-selling oral historian Larry Smith dug deep for exclusive stories from Iwo Jima veterans, including the last surviving flag raiser on Mount Suribachi, a Navajo “Code Talker,” a retired general, two Medal of Honor recipients, B-29 flyers, and other die-hard Marines who secured the island. Along the way, Smith investigates the controversy surrounding the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal and presents the groundbreaking story of Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, rumored to have committed suicide rather than submit to capture. With dozens of photographs and maps, Iwo Jima is an unprecedented look at this pivotal battle and an inspiring study in courage, perseverance, and humanity.

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“Through this captivating collection of survivor’s stories, Larry Smith brings alive the myriad experiences of the brave and courageous Marines who witnessed first-hand 35 unbelievable days of warfare. .Iwo Jima is indeed a vivid and compelling account by a true master of oral history, and it paints a very accurate portrait of those who have served with honor, perseverance, courage, and commitment.”— General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret.), former Commandant and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

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"Interest in Iwo Jima was revived by director Clint Eastwood's two fine movies (Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima), so it seems fitting that a book would come along combining the finest elements of oral history with the conflagration on Iwo Jima. Larry Smith has crafted such a work with Iwo Jima. Any reader with an interest in how combat impacts the individuals involved, and in seeing how a single battle can touch many different areas of military activity, would do well to read and re-read Iwo Jima." More

“Iwo Jima is by turns poignant and powerful, inspiring and sobering. This is a superb and fascinating work by one of our nation’s leading oral historians.”—Jay Winik, Author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World.

“Nobody can get warriors to share their heroic stories better than Larry Smith. He’s a master journalist with a golden ear.”—Jack Jacobs, MSNBC commentator and Medal of Honor Recipient, Vietnam

“It may have been the greatest battle American marines ever fought. Now a superb reporter revisits Iwo Jima through the men who actually fought there and how they remembered their time in Hell.”—James Brady, author of Why Marines Fight

“Page after page of compelling stories unfold in Larry Smith’s brilliant new oral history, Iwo Jima. The tales of valor and humanity, as told by veterans of the battle, reveal the magnitude of their remarkable accomplishment during this pivotal campaign of the Pacific war. This is neither a statistical account nor a mere summary of ships. Rather, it is a dramatic portrait of ordinary men confronting and surviving extraordinary events, all in their own words.”—Walter Anderson

“A superb collection of 22 oral histories from Iwo Jima veterans. . . [who] make for a good mix of officers and enlisted men. . . . A unique and compelling book; strongly recommended for all collections.”—Library Journal

“Smith has cast his net widely and generated interviews with a wide range of veterans… eminently readable and historiographically useful.”—Booklist