Battle of Iwo Jima

And he points at one of the pages and he says to his dad, that's where I was shot down.

And he's pointing at the Battle of Iwo Jima.

And so Bruce, you know, again, he doesn't really know what he's trying to accomplish here.

But, you know, clearly his son has pointed out this particular fact that's sort of roughly tied in with the other things he's brought up.

So it sort of made sense.

Okay, fine.

Maybe my son's dream is about something that happened at the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Don't know how this even happens.

And that closing in on Germany was making the outcome of the war pretty clear by this point.

But even as in Europe, things are... seemingly reaching their conclusion the fighting in the pacific actually continued ramping up like this was when the battle of iwo jima was in february where you get that kind of iconic statue of the raising of the flag i know clint eastwood made those two-part movies from the japanese side and from the american side which i believe both might have been nominated so we might eventually watch those for the podcast so just you know keep that in mind for five years from now when we finally watch those movies that that's what was happening when uh anchors away it is coming out.

In April, so this is going to be spoilers for Reincarnation Roulette, but FDR died in early April, which is what made Vice President Harry Truman president at that time.

And then in late April, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in Berlin.

And I never, it never had occurred to me, but I looked it up.

Thousands of, uh, US soldiers were killed at the Battle of Iwo Jima, all right? Probably the last major battle of World War II.

And I never did the through line on it.

Obviously, they had to be buried, and as is the custom, there would be a chaplain who would deliver a eulogy.

And there are well-known famous photographs for every generation.

For instance, if you were the World War II generation, you can think of the U.S. flag being raised atop Mount Suribachi after the Battle of Iwo Jima.

But for my generation, a generation that grew up coming of age in 2001, it was this picture of three firemen raising the flag at Ground Zero after 9-11.

The photo called Raising the Flag was taken by the photographer named Thomas E. Franklin.

Iwo Jima's MIA Long search for war dead on a volcanic island Iwo Jima Island, the stark volcanic outpost home to one of World War II's fiercest battles, remains the site of an unfinished search for the Imperial Japanese Army soldiers who never made it home.

Of the roughly 21,900 Japanese troops who died here, more than half 11,120 have yet to be found, 81 years after the bloody Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February to March 1945.

Their absence lingers beneath the island's black sand and sulfur-stained ridges, a reminder that the war's toll did not end with the final shots.

A fresh volcanic eruption in September has only deepened the challenge, adding disruptions to excavation and recovery work in the punishing heat.

Iwo Jima's MIA, long search for war dead on a volcanic island Iwo Jima Island, the stark volcanic outpost home to one of World War II's fiercest battles, remains the site of an unfinished search for the Imperial Japanese Army soldiers who never made it home.

Of the roughly 21,900 Japanese troops who died here, more than half 11,120 have yet to be found, 81 years after the bloody Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February to March 1945.

Their absence lingers beneath the island's black sand and sulfur-stained ridges, a reminder that the war's toll did not end with the final shots.

A fresh volcanic eruption in September has only deepened the challenge, adding disruptions to excavation and recovery work in the punishing heat.

Iwo Jima Island, the stark volcanic outpost home to one of World War II's fiercest battles, remains the site of an unfinished search for the Imperial Japanese Army soldiers who never made it home.

Of the roughly 21,900 Japanese troops who died here, more than half 11,120 have yet to be found, 81 years after the bloody Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February to March 1945.

Their absence lingers beneath the island's black sand and sulfur-stained ridges, a reminder that the war's toll did not end with the final shots.

A fresh volcanic eruption in September has only deepened the challenge, adding disruptions to excavation and recovery work in the punishing heat.