Marine amphibious tractors burn after being hit by Japanese mortar shells during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. (U.S. Marine Corps)
The vast number of graves he saw on Iwo Jima remains a lasting memory for Robert Bergen, a former Navy corpsman and one of the few remaining survivors of the battle fought there 80 years ago.
Troops dug three massive cemeteries for American and Japanese forces killed in the fighting on the island — now called Iwo To — in February and March 1945.
Bergen, 99, served aboard the USS Cecil, a Bayfield-class attack transport that landed troops, vehicles and cargo, and evacuated casualties during the battle.
His 10 days at Iwo Jima were a “terrible, terrible experience with dead people everywhere,” he told Stars and Stripes in a recent phone interview ahead of this month’s 80th Reunion of Honor on the island.
The annual event is scheduled for March 29, Lt. Col. Joseph Lee, the U.S. Marine Corps attache to Japan, said by email Wednesday.
“It is a bilateral ceremony attended by the U.S. and Japan commemorating the Battle of Iwo Jima,” he said.
Robert Bergen attends a 2017 reunion for Battle of Iwo Jima veterans in San Diego. The event was hosted by Operation Meatball, a nonprofit dedicated to honoring veterans and connecting them with young people. (Operation Meatball)
A Marine calls out instructions after spotting a Japanese machine gun nest during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. (U.S. Marine Corps)
In years past, Japanese and U.S. veterans and their families, along with service members from both nations, have attended the event.
During the war, Bergen was working at a San Diego aircraft factory building B-29 Superfortress bombers when he was “kidnapped” by the Navy at age 17, he recalled.
“A recruiter asked me to sit in the back of his car,” he said. “He drove me to a naval training center where they cut my hair and gave me a box of clothes.”
In February 1945, Bergen watched from the deck as battleships bombarded Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima.
“I had never seen a battleship,” he said. “When they fire their guns, the whole ship rolls, but the guns stay right on the target.”
Marines launched their amphibious assault on Feb. 19, 1945. The Japanese had dug a vast defensive network of tunnels into the island’s volcanic rock. Of the 70,000 Marines who fought there, more than 6,800 were killed and 19,000 were wounded.
Marines and their equipment are dwarfed by Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. (U.S. Marine Corps)
Bergen returned to Iwo Jima for the 10th and 15th anniversaries of the battle and explored caves and tunnels where Japanese defenders had sheltered.
About 18,000 Japanese troops died in the battle, with only 216 taken prisoner. The island was declared secure on March 26, 1945.
The flag-raising atop Mount Suribachi, captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, became an iconic symbol of American sacrifice and courage.
The remains of U.S. service members who died on Iwo Jima were repatriated after the war, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
These days, Bergen uses a wheelchair to get around and doesn’t plan to return for this month’s Reunion of Honor.
“I’m very proud of the United States Marine Corps,” he said.
