Tokyo — Japan has returned to using the prewar name for the island of Iwo Jima - site of one of World War II's most horrific battles - at the urging of its original inhabitants, who want to reclaim an identity they say has been hijacked by high-profile movies like Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima." The new name, Iwo To, was adopted Monday by the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute in consultation with Japan's coast guard.
Back in 1945, the small, volcanic island was the vortex of the fierce World War II battle immortalized by the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal showing Marines raising the American flag on the islet's Mount Suribachi.
Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, who was a 24-year-old captain in the regiment that raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, was surprised and upset by the news.
"Frankly, I don't like it. That name is so much a part of our tradition, our legacy," he said.
Haynes, 87, heads the Combat Veterans of Iwo Jima, a group of about 600 veterans that travels to the island every year for a reunion. He is working on a book about the battle called "We Walk by Faith: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Battle of Iwo Jima." He doesn't plan to change the name.
"It was Iwo Jima to us when we took it," Haynes said. "We'll recognize whatever the Japanese want to call it but we'll stick to Iwo Jima."
Before the war, the isolated spit of land was called Iwo To - pronounced "ee-woh-toh" - by the 1,000 or so people who lived there. In Japanese, that name looks and means the same as Iwo Jima - Sulfur Island - but it has a different sound.
The civilians were evacuated in 1944 as U.S. forces advanced across the Pacific. Some Japanese navy officers who moved in to fortify the island mistakenly called it Iwo Jima, and the name stuck. After the war, civilians weren't allowed to return and the island was put to exclusive military use by both the U.S. and Japan, cementing its identity.
Locals were never happy the name Iwo Jima took root. But the last straw came this year with the release of Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Flags of Our Fathers," war films that only reinforced the misnomer.
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sunshine_noise (anonymous) says…
No matter what Americans mispronounce it either way.
cg22165 (anonymous) says…
Doesn't matter what we, Americans, want to call it; it's not our island. In WWII histories, it should be called Iwo Jima because that was the name used at that time. The inhabitants have every right to move on past that time, and indeed, return the name to its original.
75x55 (anonymous) says…
A rose by any other name....