Captain Thomas Fields of the 26th Marines put it succinctly: “The Japanese weren’t on Iwo Jima. They were in Iwo Jima.”12 On the eve of the invasion, Iwo Jima was well prepared to receive the enemy. Suribachi and the Motoyama Plateau had been converted into natural fortresses. Implanted in the rocks were a variety of weapons, from big coastal defense guns in sunken casements, to mortars, light artillery, antitank guns, and machine guns.
