A U.S. marine gives a cigarette to an injured Japanese soldier, buried in the sand at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.



A U.S. marine gives a cigarette to an injured Japanese soldier, buried in the sand at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.

Equipped with a grenade, the soldier lay in ambush for 36 hours. Marines spotted him concealed in the dark sand and managed to dislodge the grenade out of his reach. Although he surrendered, the cautious Marines suspected potential booby traps and approached carefully. At his request, he was given a cigarette, and thereafter, they cautiously removed him from the shell hole.

The 3rd and 4th Marine Divisions broke up the remaining organized resistance on March 16, 1945, the same day this photo was taken. Occasionally individual enemy soldiers armed with demolition charges and grenades raced out against tanks or groups of Marines but were shot down before they could do any great damage to personnel or equipment. Isolated pockets, totaling some 3,000 enemy soldiers, remained around the island. US V Amphibious Corps Command declared Iwo Jima secure at 1800 Hours on MArch 16, but another ten days of fighting remained. 
Only 216 prisoners were captured between February 19 and March 26, 1945. The US Army's 147th Infantry Regiment would capture another 867 between March 27 and May 1945. A major push by psychological warfare experts to encourage holdouts to surrender on March 17, 1945 netted few results. Japanese Commander Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi radioed nearby island ChiChi Jima, "They [the Americans] advised us to surrender by a loudspeaker, but we only laughed at this childish trick and did not set ourselves against them

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