An interesting collision of two very different aspects of American involvement in the Second World War: today is the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the imprisonment of over 110,000 American citizens of Japanese descent, in 1942. It is also the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.
The internment of the Issei and Nisei (1st and 2nd generation) Japanese lasted the entire duration of the war and into 1946, even though the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional in January, 1945. Compensation for material losses took decades; the last compensation payments were not made until 1992. Though the judgment of history has clearly been that the internment camps were utterly unnecessary and a fundamental violation of the civil rights of American citizens, even now there is argument about whether or not the camps represent a precedent that would allow the government to imprison citizens based on a perceived threat to national security in the bogus “War on Terror”. It stands as one of the United States’ most shameful actions in an era of history where our noble intentions were often undermined by our ignoble actions.
The Battle of Iwo Jima was intended to secure a pair of airfields on that tiny Pacific island as a precursor to the preparations for a possible invasion of the Japanese home islands. One of the fiercest battles of the Pacific Theater, it lasted over a month and resulted in the deaths of 20,000 Japanese troops (out of about 22,000 stationed there) and over 27,000 American troops (out of an invasion force of 70,000). More Americans died at Iwo Jima than in the invasion of Normandy. Over the years there has been substantial debate about the strategic importance of securing Iwo Jima — its usefulness as an airfield for long-range fighters did not materialize in the remainder of the war — particularly given the enormous numbers of casualties. Nevertheless, Iwo Jima became one of the most iconic battles of the entire war, with the famed photograph of the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi becoming a permanent totem for the Marine Corps and a symbol of the achievements of all the branches of the American military in World War II. In the half century since the end of the war, that symbolism has cut both ways in terms of the valor and persistence of the men who fought the war, and the huge sacrifices of lives for objectives that were badly judged.
Historian David Silbey, who is one of the regular contributors to the history blog “The Edge Of The American West”, has a wonderful post today examining these two events and their meanings then and now.
Kind of you to say so.