IWO Traditional Cache

This cache was inspired by my recent trip to Iwo Jima early January 2015 and with the anniversary for the battle coming on the 19 of February marking the 70^th year I deicide to place a cache in its name.  

The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which theUnited States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire during World War II. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, along with its three airfields (including theSouth Field and the Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands.^[2] This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.

After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet base.^[4] However, Navy Seabees rebuilt the landing strips, which were used as emergency landing strips for USAAF B-29s.^[5]

The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hiddenartillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels.^[6][7] The Americans on the ground were supported by extensive naval artillery and complete air supremacy over Iwo Jima from the beginning of the battle by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators.

Iwo Jima was also the only battle by the U.S. Marine Corps in which the American casualties exceeded the Japanese, although Japanese combat deaths numbered three times as many American deaths.^[9] Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled.^[1] The majority of the remainder were killed in action, although it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards, eventually succumbing to their injuries or surrendering weeks later.^[1][10]

Despite the bloody fighting and severe casualties on both sides, the Japanese defeat was assured from the start. Overwhelming American superiority in arms and numbers as well as complete control of air power — coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement — permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Americans could have lost the battle.^[11]

The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 m (545 ft)Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy battlefield Hospital Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, both of which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. Rosenthal's photograph promptly became an indelible icon — of that battle, of that war in the Pacific, and of the Marine Corps itself — and has been widely reproduced.^[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVO7NbhhsoI

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=iwo+jima+documentary

The cache is located near Torii Station along the beach area if you do not want to get wet then it is best you go during low tide.  However the cache is available during high tied as well.  The first to find not only get bragging rights, but also a bottle of sand from Iwo Jima.  I also put a few more bags of sand for other cashers as well. 

Enjoy,

Iwillfindit22