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Letter to the editor

Still Iwo Jima in memory, but not in name

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 21, 2007

TOKYO - Japan has returned to using the prewar name for the island of Iwo Jima - site of one of World War II's most horrific battles - at the urging of its original inhabitants, who want to reclaim an identity they say has been hijacked by high-profile movies like Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima.

The new name, Iwo To, was adopted Monday by the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute for the remote island chain some 700 miles southeast of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean.

Surviving islanders evacuated during the war praised the move, but others said it cheapens the memory of a brutal campaign that today is inextricably linked to the words Iwo Jima.

Back in 1945, the small, volcanic island was the vortex of the fierce World War II battle immortalized by the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press showing Marines raising the American flag on the islet's Mount Suribachi.

The battle pitted some 100, 000 U.S. troops against 22, 000 Japanese deeply dug into a labyrinth of tunnels and trenches. Nearly 7, 000 Americans were killed capturing the island, and fewer than 1, 000 of the Japanese survived.

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, who was a 24-year-old captain in the regiment that raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, was surprised and upset by the news.

"Frankly, I don't like it. That name is so much a part of our tradition, our legacy, " said Haynes.

Haynes, 87, heads the Combat Veterans of Iwo Jima, a group of about 600 veterans that travels to the island every year for a reunion. He is working on a book about the battle called We Walk by Faith: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Battle of Iwo Jima. He doesn't plan to change the name.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 00:46:19]