Reconciling Iwo Jima-- Part 6: Afterwards Used As Emergency Landing Place for B-29s

Though a very small island, now called Ioto or Iwoto on Japanese maps, it was strategically important because it was being used by the Japanese to launch air attacks on American bombers.  After its capture, it was used by the U.S. as an emergency landing site for B-29s, which eventually made 2,900 emergency landings there that are estimated to have saved the lives of 24,000 airmen who would have otherwise crashed into the sea.

Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded at the battle, more than at any other battle in history.

The only surviving Medal of Honor recipient from Iwo Jima, Hershel "Woody" Williams, 91, attended the ceremony.  Afterwards he said that his feeling against the Japanese soldiers he faced had still not changed.  "They were just doing their jobs like we were.  We tried to kill them before they could kill us.  But that's war."

--GreGen