Pacific War Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces to attack targets throughout the Philippines and the South China Sea. The Battle of Iwo Jima ("Operation Detachment") in February 1945 was one of the bloodiest battles fought by the Americans in the Pacific War. Iwo Jima is an 8 sq mile (21 km) island situated halfway between Tokyo and the Mariana Islands. Holland Smith, the commander of the invasion force, aimed to capture the island and prevent its use as an early-warning station against air raids on the Japanese Home Islands, and to use it as an emergency landing field. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,
Japanese Occupation Site, Kiska Island response. Allied air forces engaged in bombing campaigns that increased in severity as airfields closer to Kiska were built, and Japanese shipping was harried by naval forces. Then, in twenty days of battle in May 1943, American marine forces retook Attu. The Japanese consequently stepped up their fortifications on Kiska, but abandoned the island on July 28, having never finished construction of the airfield. Allied forces, unaware of the Japanese withdrawal, arrived in force on August 15. In an operation that cost 200 men to a variety of causes including friendly fire, the island was occupied. Among the items left