Japan reverts to prewar name for Iwo Jima

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 name Iwo To was adopted Monday by the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute in consultation with Japan's coast guard.

Surviving islanders evacuated during the war praised the move, but others said it diminishes the memory of a brutal campaign that today is inextricably linked to the words Iwo Jima.

In 1945, the small, volcanic island was the scene of a battle between some 100,000 U.S. troops and 22,000 Japanese deeply dug into a labyrinth of tunnels and trenches. Nearly 7,000 Americans were killed capturing the island, some 700 miles southeast of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, and fewer than 1,000 of the Japanese survived.

The Americans occupied the island after the war, and returned it to Japanese jurisdiction in 1968. The U.S. Navy still uses an airstrip on the island to train pilots who operate from aircraft carriers.

Today, Iwo To's only inhabitants are about 400 Japanese soldiers.

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, who was a 24-year-old captain in the regiment that raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, immortalized by the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press, 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," Haynes said.

Haynes, 85, heads the Combat Veterans of Iwo Jima, a group of about 600 veterans that travels to the island every year for a reunion.

"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. 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.

In March, Ogasawara, the municipality that administers Iwo To and neighboring islands, responded by adopting a resolution making Iwo To the official name.

Ogasawara residents and descendants of Iwo To evacuees petitioned the central government to follow suit.

The government agreed; an official map with the new name will be released on Sept. 1.

Most Japanese refer to it as Iwo Jima, and some Japanese war veterans, like 84-year-old Kiyoshi Endo, who heads an association commemorating soldiers killed in the battle, feel uncomfortable about the switch.

"Naval maps have long used the name Iwo Jima," Japan's Sankei newspaper quoted Endo as saying. "We should respect that history."

Associated Press Writer Lily Hindy in New York contributed to this report.