Iwo Jima (Japanese: 硫黄島, Hepburn: Iōtō, Iōjima; English: , Japanese: [ì.ó̞ó̞.tó̞ó̞] or [ì.ó̞ó̞.(ɟ̟͡)ʑí.mä́], lit. 'Sulfur Island') is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands, which lie south of the Bonin Islands and together with them make up the Ogasawara Archipelago. Together with the Izu Islands, they make up Japan's Nanpō Islands. Although 1,200 km (750 mi) south of Tokyo on Honshu, Iwo Jima is administered as part of the Ogasawara Subprefecture of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Only 21 square kilometers (8.1 sq mi) in size, the island is still volcanic and emits sulfurous gases. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at 169 m (554 ft) high. Although likely passed by Micronesians who made their way to the Bonins to the north, Iwo Jima was largely ignored by the Spanish, Dutch, British, and Japanese until a relatively late date after its 1543 rediscovery. The Japanese eventually colonized the island, administering it as the Ioto or Iojima Village under Tokyo's jurisdiction until all civilians were forcibly evacuated to Honshu in July 1944 near the end of World War II. Because it was able to provide secure airfields within easy range of the Japanese Home Islands, Iwo Jima was not passed by like other Pacific fortresses; instead, the Battle of Iwo Jima between February and March 1945 was some of the fiercest fighting of the Pacific War, with Imperial Japan and the United States both suffering over 20,000 casualties. Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the second flagraising on Mount Suribachi has become one of the most famous examples of wartime photojournalism and an iconic American image. Following the Japanese surrender, the US military occupied Iwo Jima along with the other Nanpo Islands and the Ryukyus; Iwo Jima was returned to Japan with the Bonins in 1968. Now technically part of the territory and municipal jurisdiction of Ogasawara Village, the island still has no permanent inhabitants except a Self-Defense Force base on its Central Field. Its soldiers, sailors, and airmen receive their own services from Ayase or Sayama but provide emergency assistance to communities on the Bonins who are still connected with the mainland only by an infrequent day-long ferry. As of 1991, the land of Iwo Jima was owned by six individuals, the Village of Ogasawara, and the Government of Japan. Additionally, at least eight individuals held leasehold interests in certain parts of the land owned by the village. The North Kanto Defense Bureau of the Ministry of Defense pays rent on the land lease to the individual owners and leaseholders. The area of Iwo Jima continues to increase due to the uplift of the ground due to active volcanic activity; in 1911 it was 19.3 square kilometers (7.5 sq mi), in 1945 it was 20.3 square kilometers (7.8 sq mi), in 2014 it was 23.73 square kilometers (9.16 sq mi) and in 2023, it was 29.86 square kilometers (11.53 sq mi).
Name
The original records of De la Torre's 1543 expedition have been lost, but he does not appear to have separately named Iwo Jima, despite later sources sometimes miscrediting him with the name Sulfur or Sulphur Island (orig. Isla Sufre or de Sufre). Instead, he seems to have only named the Volcano Islands as a group (orig. Balcones) after an eruption—probably on South Iwo Jima—active as his ship passed through the area. Other Spanish explorers may have named or renamed the island in the years afterward. Certainly, John Gore was aware of Spanish accounts of the area with him when he visited in 1779 and recorded its English name as Sulphur Island. The name was subsequently calqued into Late Middle Japanese with the Sino-Japanese form and pronunciation Iwau-tau (硫黄島, イワウタウ, "Sulfur Island"), still romanized as Iwōtō on the control tower for the remaining airport. The native Japanese reading of the same character 島 is shima, which typically shifts to jima when preceded by another character. This reading was reinforced during the Second World War, when it was mistakenly used by Japanese naval officers who arrived to fortify the island ahead of US invasion, and is the source of the English name "Iwojima" (also rendered "Iwo-jima" and "Iwo Jima"), which is pronounced or . In modern Japanese, the /au/ has assimilated to /ō/ and the /w/ has dropped out, with the phonetic spelling イオウトウ Iōtō formally adopted following Japan's 1946 orthography reform. This newer form is sometimes borrowed into English as and . The high-profile Clint Eastwood films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima revived complaints from prewar residents about continued misreading of 島 in the island's name as jima, particularly within Japanese. After formal debate, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism's Geographical Survey Institute formally announced on 18 June 2007 that the official pronunciation would return to Iōtō. 硫黄島, pronounced Iōjima, is the name of a different island in Kagoshima.
Geography
Iwo Jima has an approximate area of 21 km2 (8 sq mi; 5,189 acres). The most prominent feature is Mount Suribachi on the southern tip, a vent that is thought to be dormant and is 161 m (528 ft) high. Named after a Japanese grinding bowl, the summit of Mount Suribachi is the highest point on the island. Iwo Jima is unusually flat and featureless for a volcanic island. Suribachi is the only obvious volcanic feature, as the island is only the resurgent dome (raised centre) of a larger submerged volcanic caldera surrounding the island. The island forms part of the Kazan-retto islands Important Bird Area (IBA), designated by BirdLife International. 80 km (43 nautical miles, 50 mi) north of the island is North Iwo Jima (北硫黄島, Kita-Iō-tō; literally: "North Sulfur Island") and 59 km (37 mi; 32 nmi) south is South Iwo Jima (南硫黄島, Minami-Iō-tō; "South Sulfur Island"); these three islands make up the Volcano Islands group of the Ogasawara Islands. Just south of Minami-Iō-jima are the Mariana Islands. The visible island stands on a plateau (probably made by wave erosion) at depth about 15 m, which is the top of an underwater mountain 1.5 km to 2 km tall and 40 km diameter at base.
Eruption history Iwo Jima has a history of minor volcanic activity a few times per year (fumaroles, and their resultant discolored patches of seawater nearby). In November 2015, Iwo Jima was placed first in a list of ten dangerous volcanoes, with volcanologists saying there was a one in three chance of a large eruption from one of the ten this century.
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