Volcano Islands uninhabited. The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in October 1543 by Spanish navigator Bernardo de la Torre on board of carrack "San Juan de Letrán" when trying to return from Sarangani to New Spain. Iwo Jima was charted as Sufre, the old Spanish term for sulphur. The islands were uninhabited until 1889, when the two northern islands were settled by Japanese settlers from the Izu Islands. They were annexed by Japan in 1891. The population was about 1,100 in 1939, distributed among five settlements: Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Kita and Motoyama (meaning "East", "South", "West", "North" and "Mountain of Origin",
Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign mission, and the battleship was destroyed before it could engage the US navy. Control of the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands enabled the US Army Air Forces to conduct missions against targets on Honshu and Kyushu, with the first raid occurring on Tokyo, from March 9–10. Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign The Volcano and Ryūkyū Islands Campaign was a series of battles and engagements between Allied forces and Imperial Japanese forces in the Pacific Ocean campaign of World War II between January and June, 1945. The campaign took place in the Volcano and Ryukyu island groups. The two main land battles