Part 1
Who was Japan fighting on Iwoto?
US forces.
How long did the battle of Iwoto continue?
The battle continued for over one month.
After Kuribayashi analyzed the geographical features of Iwoto, what did he decide?
He decided to fight a guerilla war in underground shelters.
What did Kuribayashi encourage his soldiers to do?
He encouraged them to write letters to their families.
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From where did Kuribayashi write letters to his wife?
He wrote them from the battlefield.
How many soldiers were on both sides of the battle?
US: 60,000
JP: 20,000
What was the "iwo" the soldiers suffered from while digging?
Sulfur gas
What happened on February 19th, 1945?
The US forces started their all-out invasion of the island.
In what situation was the letter at the end of Part 5 written?
No flights could deliver letters to the soldiers' families anymore, so it was a farewell letter.
Fill in the Blanks:
"You will need to prepare a small ____ ______ or a ___-_____ ______ to warm yourself when you enter the ___-____ shelter at our house, because it is very cold inside."
foot warmer; hot-water bottle; air-raid
Fill in the Blanks:
Whoever ________ this war situation, the difference was _______ and that there was ______ ______ of Japan winning the battle.
How deep did the soldiers need to dig (in order to make the shelters strong enough against bombings)?
15-20 meters below the surface.
What day did flights stop coming to Iwoto (to deliver letters to and from the mainland)?
February 11th, 1945.
For what purpose have many efforts been made since the war?
To return the Japanese soldiers' belongings to their families from the US.
Part 1 starts with two of these
Letters written by Lt. Gen. Kuribayashi to his wife.
With what aim were the Japanese troops sent to Iwoto?
They were sent to Iwoto with the sole aim of delaying US attacks on the Japanese mainland for as long as possible.
To fight a guerilla war by hiding in underground shelters, what did Kuribayashi's soldiers need to do?
They needed to dig into the ground and make a network of about 500 underground shelters.
Rearrange the sentence:
The situation / to land / was / and the / becoming tense / US forces / were about / on Iwoto.
The situation was becoming tense and the US forces were about to land on Iwoto.
Why did the soldiers write farewell letters?
There were no more flights delivering to the mainland because of the US' invasion (that they had to fight to the very end without retreating).
What kind of island Iwoto?
Iwoto is a small flat island of 23.73 km2 that lies some 1,250 km south of Tokyo. It is a barren island with no rivers or ponds.
Why was Iwoto significant for both the US and Japan during the war?
For the US, it was an important stopping point to carry out big attacks on Japanese cities.
For Japan, losing Iwoto meant losing the base that protected the mainland.
Fill in the Blanks:
[Kuribayashi] understood his _______ clearly and was ________ __ ___ on Iwoto with his soldiers.
mission; prepared to die
Fill in the Blanks:
Kuribayashi's soldiers ______ ____ from their ___________ ________ for a _____ until the very end.
fought hard; underground shelters; month
Fill in the Blanks: They were taken from _____ by the ________ ________ and included _________, diaries, and ______ ______.
Iwoto; American soldiers; notebooks; family photos.