Iwo Jima Takes Toll--Even 50 Years Later : World War II: Remorse accompanies memories as veterans gather on the anniversary of the battle.

Fifty years later, Jim Weiry still feels remorse over something he did during the battle for Iwo Jima.

The determined Japanese defenders, manning the last island bastion between advancing U. S. forces and the Japanese mainland, were putting up fierce resistance, exacting a terrible toll on the American invaders, whose daily progress across the eight-square-mile Pacific island was measured in yards.

Weiry, then a 19-year-old rifleman with the 3rd Marine Division, was directing a flamethrower inside a cave occupied by Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender. Suddenly, three of the enemy soldiers ran out.

“They were on fire and screaming. I kept the flame on them and laughed. I quickly realized what I was doing, and turned around to see if anybody saw me laughing,” said Weiry, now 69 and a Placentia resident. “I was ashamed of my conduct, and it embarrasses me to this day. I’m not apologizing for killing my enemy. But laughing while I did it . . .”

Weiry and dozens of other veterans of the bloodiest battle ever fought by the U. S. Marine Corps gathered at a hotel in this coastal San Diego County community over the weekend to reminisce about their fallen comrades, and commemorate today’s 50th anniversary of the landing on Iwo Jima.

The barren island, honeycombed with natural caves beneath a layer of volcanic rock, was the most heavily fortified island assaulted by U. S. forces in World War II. Located 660 miles from Japan, Iwo Jima, which means sulfur island, was symbolically significant for the Japanese because it was part of the Tokyo Prefecture.

For the United States, its capture was strategic. The island had three airfields, which could be used by B-29 bombers and accompanying fighters for raids against the Japanese mainland.

On the morning of Feb. 19, 1945, an armada of U. S. Navy vessels launched the attack on Iwo Jima. The ensuing battle for Marines and their Navy comrades became a walk through hell that lasted 36 days.

Iwo Jima produced the most celebrated combat photograph in U.S. history--the raising of the Stars and Stripes on Mt. Suribachi--and moved Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to offer an eloquent tribute to the Marines and sailors who fought for the island:

“Among the Americans who served on Iwo island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

Consider that:

* The valor of the U. S. combatants produced 27 Medals of Honor, the highest number for any World War II action. Among those honored were one 17-year-old, one 18-year-old and three 19-year-olds. Four of those so honored were Navy corpsmen, who exhibited extraordinary bravery in tending to the battle’s wounded.

* U.S. casualties totaled 28,686, including 6,821 dead. The Marines took 2,420 casualties on the first day alone.

* Of an estimated 21,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,083 survived the battle, and many of those were wounded. The Japanese military’s code of conduct forbade surrender.

* Before the U. S. landing, the island was bombarded with naval gunfire and aerial attacks for 74 consecutive days, the longest pre-invasion bombardment of World War II.

* A total of 650 ships took part in the battle. There are only 373 ships in today’s Navy.

* 75,144 Marines fought on Iwo Jima--equivalent to 41% of today’s Marine Corps’ strength.

Marine and Navy brass had predicted that the island could be taken in a week or less. Two entire Marine divisions, the 4th and 5th, were sent ashore on D-day, while the 3rd Division, with Weiry’s unit, was held in reserve aboard ships.

Japanese artillery was zeroed in on the invasion beach, and began pounding men and incoming landing craft with deadly efficiency. Shattered equipment and debris littered the beach. American dead were being piled near the water’s edge, while corpsmen tended thousands of wounded.

On the fifth day, the 3rd Division was thrown into the battle. But the day before his unit waded ashore, Weiry, since retired as a construction company official, remembers seeing the raising of the U. S. flag over Suribachi.

“We knew the first day of the battle that casualties were terrible. I was on the ship when the Stars and Stripes were raised on the island. It was an emotional moment,” Weiry said.

Lawrence Miller, now 72 and a retired elementary schoolteacher from Rossmoor, was a quartermaster aboard LSM 46, for Landing Ship, Medium. He was 22 when his ship, carrying six tanks, lurched onto the beach on D-day. Most of the tanks, he remembered, were quickly disabled by Japanese anti-tank crews firing from the slopes of Suribachi.

Miller described a scene of carnage and confusion on the beach.

“You could hear an awful lot of gunfire, and the smell of cordite was heavy and pungent. The smoke from the gunpowder lay a hazy, fog-like cover over the island,” he said. “There was shattered equipment and bodies littering the beach. If you were there, you can’t forget the sight of our bulldozers digging long trenches to bury our dead. That was very disturbing.”

Miller’s ship was hit and partly disabled by Japanese mortar shells, which killed and wounded several crew members. But LSM 46 continued to ferry wounded and supplies to and from the beach for the duration of the battle.

For Miller, Weiry and most of the men who fought there, Iwo Jima was the only combat experience they would have during the war.

John Armendariz and Luis Escalante are also Iwo survivors. The two retired Los Angeles Department of Water and Power engineers are lifelong friends who grew up in the same Boyle Heights neighborhood. Armendariz, 69, and Escalante, 70, both went ashore with the 5th Division but never saw each other during the battle.

Armendariz, who lives in Whittier, remembered that the Marines were ordered to paint their faces white, to deflect the heat from gasoline drums that the invasion planners expected the Japanese to ignite on the beach. That never happened.

“We were all joking about wearing our Al Jolson faces. None of us really thought we were going to die,” Armendariz said. “But all that changed very quickly. . . . As soon as we hit the beach, my lieutenant was cut in two by a Japanese machine gun.”

“I saw more dead and wounded Marines than I did Japanese,” Escalante said. “The Japanese suffered four times as many dead, but most of them died in caves and gun emplacements.”

During most of the five-week battle, advances of only 25 to 50 yards per day were common.

“We had a daily routine. Every morning, the order was to fix bayonets and move out,” Armendariz said. “You knew that as soon as the order was carried out, somebody was going to get hit; somebody was going to die. We’d carry out the order, but move only 25 or 50 yards all day.”

Armendariz and Escalante had belonged to a Reserve Officers Training Corps group at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights. Many of the group’s members joined the Marine Corps at about the same time and fought at Iwo Jima. Escalante, who lives in Montebello, remembered Fernando a la Torre, who came ashore with the 3rd Division.

“He knew I was there, and looked for me. He finally found me, and we spent about 20 minutes together before he had to return to his company. Fernando was killed a few days later. I still visit his grave at Calvary Cemetery” in East Los Angeles, Escalante said.

Oscar Morales, who lived in the same Boyle Heights neighborhood, was in Armendariz’s company. Morales, whose nickname is “Loafy,” was wounded twice during the battle for Iwo Jima, Escalante said.

“Both times that Loafy was wounded, he had somebody from his company come get me so I could comfort him at the hospital,” Escalante said.

Over the weekend, some conversations turned to Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, the first enlisted Marine to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II. Basilone was honored for his actions at Guadalcanal in October, 1942. As a Medal of Honor winner, he had the right to stay in the rear for the remainder of the war.

But Basilone chose to return to combat, and landed at Iwo Jima. He died on the first morning of the battle. As the wounded Basilone lay dying on the sand, Marines who witnessed his death said that the tattoo on his left arm, which read “Death before dishonor,” was clearly visible.

Time has tempered the bitter feelings that the Marines had for their old enemy. Many at this weekend’s reunion remembered the Japanese soldiers with respect and admiration.

“They were damned good fighters; very disciplined and very determined,” Escalante said.

“I have no animosity against them,” said Jack Claven, 70, of Glendora. “They were fighting for their country like we were fighting for ours. We were just better.”