Iwo Jima - Naval air base, U.S. nuclear arms base

area c.21 km²/8 sq mi. The most important and largest of the Volcano Is; in the W Pacific Ocean, 1222 km/759 mi S of Tokyo; 8 km/5 mi long; maximum width 4 km/2½ mi; rises to 161 m/528 ft at Suribachi-yama, an extinct volcano; coastguard station (N); scene of major battle of World War 2 (1944–5), when the heavily fortified Japanese air base was taken in a 3-month campaign; returned to Japan, 1968; no permanent population; sugar, sulphur.

For the battle, see Battle of Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima listen (help·info) (Japanese 硫黄島 Iōtō, or Iōjima, meaning "sulfur island") is a volcanic island in Japan, part of the Volcano Islands (the southern part of the Ogasawara Islands), approximately 650 nautical miles (1200 km) south of Tokyo (24°47'2"N, 141°18'46"E). It is famous as the site of the Battle of Iwo Jima in February and March, 1945, between the United States and Japan during World War II. Iwo Jima was occupied by the U.S. until 1968, when it was returned to Japan. Iwo Jima is unusually flat and featureless for a volcanic island. Suribachi is the only obviously volcanic feature, although Iwo Jima is almost entirely volcanic in origin, as it is only the raised center of a larger submerged volcanic caldera.

The island is a part of the city and prefecture of Tokyo.

Naval air base

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) operates a naval air base on Iwo Jima.

U.S. nuclear arms base

Iwo Jima appears to be one of a number of Japanese islands which has been used by the United States to host nuclear arms, according to Robert S. Whether the site is currently used for this purpose is unknown, as great secrecy surrounds the United States' siting of nuclear arms bases.

"There were nuclear weapons on Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima, an enormous and varied nuclear arsenal on Okinawa, nuclear bombs (sans their fissile cores) stored on the mainland at Misawa and Itazuki airbases (and possibly at Atsugi, Iwakuni, Johnson, and Komaki airbases as well), and nuclear-armed U.S. Navy ships stationed in Sasebo and Yokosuka."

"It is true that Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their plutonium and/ or uranium cores, and that the nuclear-armed ships were a legal inch away from Japanese soil. URL: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/ Iwo-Jima, Volcano Islands, Japan History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II Volume IV: Western Pacific Operations by George W. Strobridge , - Satellite photos taken on Dec 4, 2003, from www.spaceimaging.com http://www.3rdrecon.org/Webber.htm 3-D Stereo Photograph of Iwo Jima Flag-raising - From The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com Photograph of a C130 fly-by past Iwo Jima and the original source can be found here.