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This is Chris Flannery with the Cramoni. inspiring and endlessly interesting.

This is Chris Flannery with the Kramon Institute.

I call this one War and Peace.

Among the countless millions of human events, postponed, rescheduled or cancelled in the long hard year 2020.

One was a gathering scheduled for an 8 square mile volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean,

some 6,000 miles west of San Diego and 750 miles south southeast of Tokyo.

The gathering was to be a reunion of honor, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle

of Iwojima. Very few of the Japanese and American soldiers who fought in that bloody battle were still living.

But a few of them, or their descendants, and representatives of their respective governments,

had for many years now met on the island annually when possible,

to honor and peace the sacrifices so many thousands of soldiers made so long ago in war.

75 years before, in anticipation of the battle,

the more than 20,000 Japanese troops deployed on the island, dug miles of underground tunnels connecting hundreds

of pill boxes and well fortified gun sites.

They were instructed to fight to the death, and each to take 10 Americans with him.

70,000 American Marines began to come ashore on February 19, 1945, and for 36 days, the deeply entrenched defenders, none of them expecting ever to see

home again, contested every inch of the island. The Marine's victory moved America one step closer to victory in the war against Japan,

but it was costly.

Almost 7,000 Americans were killed and over 21,000 wounded or missing.

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