between Japan and the Marianas where there were American bomber bases. This tiny, barren island was just about the only island in that region of the Pacific that was large and flat enough to accommodate runways for the American bombers.
             Lea Myrick sums up the key reasons on why it was crucial for the U.S. to capture Iwo Jima:
             Since the summer of 1944, the Japanese home islands had been hit by from strikes by the new, long-range B-29's. The Americans, however, had no protective fighters with enough range to escort the big superfortresses. Many aircraft were lost to Japanese fighter-interceptor attacks. Iwo Jima, with its three airfields, was ideally located as a fighter escort station. It was also an ideal sanctuary for crippled bombers returning from Japan. (Myrick)
             The Japanese knowing that Iwo Jima was a key link in the Allies island-hopping strategy, fortified the island with a network of underground tunnels and bunkers. Unfortunately for the Americans, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
             As soon as the U.S. captured the Marianas, Japan started preparing Iwo Jima against an attack in June of 1944. Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was in charge of commanding all 21,000 Japanese troops on Iwo Jima. He decided to use a new military tactic of the time by defending the island from underground. He had concealed interior rooms and caves dug into strategic positions scattered all over the island. The most noteworthy is Mt. Suribachi, which was a 550-ft. volcanic cone at the southern edge of the island. There were a total of over 1,500 rooms dug out of the sulfurous rock with about 16 miles of underground tunnels linking them. General Kuribayashi's famous command center boasted 5-ft. thick walls, a 10-ft. thick roof, and was situated beneath 75 ft. of solid rock. That was not all, however. Japanese machine gunners stationed at Mt. Suribachi had access to every foot of the landing zone in their vi...