Iwo Jima The war of Iwo Jima was one of the most important battles in Word War II. The United States Marine Corps played a huge role in defeating the Japanese. Iwo Jima was a small island that was controlled by Japan. Iwo Jima is only about 4 miles long and half that in width. (John Man 116)But the Island was very strategically important for the U.S. to attack Japan. On February 19th 1945 a massive fleet of U.S. ships gathered off the coast of Iwo Jima. The ships unloaded a total of 30,000 U.S. soldiers. The first to reach the shore were 8,000 marines from the 4th and 5th marine divisions. (Encarta 1) The deployment was led by, Major General, Harry Schmidt