The rest of the ceremony takes place in an amphitheater. Veteran's Day is a very important national holiday. Although it is very sad, it is the highest respect and honor we can give, as a nation, to show all those who fought in America's wars how much we appreciate all they have done for our country and for freedom.
The people who fought at Iwo Jima also deserve all our honor, respect, and appreciation for fighting, some to their deaths. Iwo Jima is an eight square mile island made of volcanic rock, which was part of the Japanese Empire. It's highest point, at 550 feet, is Mt. Suribachi, and is located 650 miles from Tokyo, Japan's capital city. In 5,000 years not once has a foreign army set foot on Japanese home soil. Both Japan and the United States needed this island under their control. The Japanese needed it because it was strategically important to their war effort. America needed it because they wanted it for a midway landing point between the Japanese island and the Untied States bomber bases located in the Marianas. .
The battle of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945 with the United States Air Force bombing the island. The bombing wasn't successful because the island was made out of volcanic rock, and the Japanese had carved out 1,500 rooms and 16 miles of tunnels underground in the rock. The Marines landed on the beaches of Iwo Jima and a lot of men were killed because the Japanese were shooting them, and the Marines couldn't dig fox-holes for safety. This caused the United States to use grenades and flamethrowers into the underground bunkers to kill the Japanese soldiers. The battle lasted 36 days 20,000 out of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island were killed. There were 110,000 United States Marines were on Iwo Jima and over 6,800 were killed and over 20,000 were missing, wounded, or presumed dead. .
A few weeks before the battle ended, a Marine sergeant ordered five of his men and one Navy corpsman to raise the flag of the United States flag on top of Mt.