Japan: Battle of Iwo What?

Japan has changed the name of the island of Iwo Jima, the site of one of World War II’s most horrific battles, to its prewar name at the urging of its original inhabitants, who want to reclaim an identity they say has been hijacked by high-profile movies like “Letters From Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers.” The name Iwo Jima was a mispronunciation by Japanese Naval officers of Iwo To, which uses the same characters. The misnomer stuck, much to the islanders’ dismay. The revision may have little effect among nonislanders, however. “It was Iwo Jima to us when we took it,” said Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, 87, a retired marine who was in the regiment that raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi in 1945, a moment immortalized in a photograph by Joe Rosenthal. “We’ll recognize whatever the Japanese want to call it but we’ll stick to Iwo Jima.”.