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No his­tor­i­cal account of World War II would be com­plete with­out cov­er­ing the Bat­tle of Iwo Jima.

At first glance, it seems sim­i­lar to many oth­er bat­tles that hap­pened late in the Pacif­ic War: Amer­i­can troops fierce­ly fought their way through boo­by traps, Ban­zai charges and sur­prise attacks while stal­wart dug-in Japan­ese defend­ers strug­gled against over­whelm­ing U.S. pow­er in the air, on land and by sea.

For the Unit­ed States Marine Corps, how­ev­er, the Bat­tle of Iwo Jima was more than one more island in a string of bat­tles in an island-hop­ping cam­paign. The Pacif­ic War was one of …