Japan renames island of Iwo Jima

mg · 发表于 21-6-2007 12:47:00|来自：新加坡

Iwo Jima has now become the island of Iwo To, as it was known before the war. The battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 saw 100,000 US troops attack 22,000 entrenched Japanese soldiers. The battle produced one of the most enduring images of the war, showing US troops raising the Stars and Stripes on the island's highest point. The island was the first Japanese territory attacked directly by ground troops in the war. Most of the Japanese soldiers died in battle rather than be taken prisoner. The Americans occupied the island after the war, and returned it to Japan in 1968. Evacuated
In Japanese, the original name Iwo To looks and means the same as Iwo Jima - or Sulphur Island - but has a different sound, the Associated Press news agency reports. The civilians who lived there were evacuated in 1944 as US 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, AP says. Joe Rosenthal - the Associated Press photographer who took the iconic Stars and Stripes photograph after the battle - died last year aged 94.