The Battle of Iwo Jima

Sample Student Speech 1113 February 2011

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience of the important aspects of the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Central Idea: The Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the most intense, grueling, and bloody battles of World War II, was fought by American troops attempting to obtain the strategic island and by Japanese soldiers struggling to defend a piece of their homeland.

I) The location as well as the terrain of the tiny island of Iwo Jima deemed it valuable in the eyes of the American Navy.

A) Located in the Pacific Ocean, Iwo Jima is only a few square miles long and is located approximately 600 miles from Tokyo (Brown 112).

B) The Motoyama plateau forms the northern part of Iwo Jima while Mount Suribachi comprises the southern portion of the island (Brown 112).

C) By being so close to Tokyo, Iwo Jima would provide the airbase necessary to keep up and improve the success of the American bombing raids on the Japanese mainland (G. Brown).

1) Before the invasion of Iwo Jima, U.S. bombing aircraft were forced to bomb Japan without fighter aircraft accompanying them (G. Brown).

2) The fighter aircraft were unable to make the distance to Japan because the Navy had no base close by (G. Brown).

3) Therefore, by capturing Iwo Jima, fighter planes located at the Motoyama plateau airbase could meet B-29s, which were en route from the Marianas, at Iwo Jima and accompany them on their missions to bomb Japan (Brown 112).

4) Furthermore, airfields at Iwo Jima could serve as a temporary base for B-29s damaged in the bombing raids since the island was closer to the bombing sites than the main naval bases (G. Brown).

D) Finally, if the U.S. decided to invade the mainland, Iwo Jima would be the ideal location for preparation of such a mission (Frank).

II) Once the Battle of Iwo Jima began, the ferocity in the fighting and the refusal by both sides to give up resulted in an intense and prolonged campaign. 2

A) To defend Iwo Jima from the Americans, Japan sent Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi along with 22,000 imperial soldiers to the island (Frank).

B) On February 19, 1945, more than three times as many Marines invaded Iwo Jima (Frank).

C) Although the Marines greatly outnumbered the Japanese forces, the Americans would by no means have an easy fight.

1) The Japanese had constructed a vast defensive network of trenches, tunnels, and bunkers (Brown 112).

2) The Japanese soldiers were given a single order by General Kuribayashi: Fight to the death to defend Iwo Jima (Brown 112).

3) Under the protection of this defensive network that encompassed most of the northern portion of the island, the Japanese were able to bombard the oncoming Marines with massive amounts of “machine-gun, mortar, and artillery fire” (Frank).

D) Therefore, the Marines had to settle into a daily grind of warding off the massive enemy attacks before mounting the offensive (Revis).

E) To keep the upper hand against the Japanese, the Americans were constantly replenishing their forces with replacement troops (Revis).

F) The Americans claimed victory on March 16, 1945, with the length of the battle spanning 36 days (“Battle of Iwo Jima” 23).

III) By the end of the Battle of Iwo Jima, both sides had experienced massive casualties.

A) The Americans fared much better than the Japanese.

1) 6, 821 Americans lost their lives on Iwo Jima (G. Brown).

2) 20,000 other American soldiers were either injured in the battle or went missing (Brown 112).

B) Japanese losses were much more astounding.

1) The Japanese lost most of their troops on Iwo Jima (G. Brown). 3

2) Just 1,083 out of 22,000 Japanese soldiers were alive at the end of the Battle of Iwo Jima (G. Brown). 4

Works Cited

"Battle of Iwo Jima." Officer Review Magazine 44.7 (2005): 23. Academic Search

Complete. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.

Brown, Gerry. “Iwo Jima.” Infoplease. Pearson Education, 2007. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.

Brown, Jerold E. "Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth." Military Review 75.2 (1995): 112. Academic

Search Complete. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.

Frank, Richard B. "The Marines' Most Famous Battle." Naval History 24.2 (2010): 58-

59. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.

Revis, Avan P. "Letters to Iwo Jima." Naval History 23.1 (2009): 44-51. Academic

Search Complete. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.