Although likely passed by Micronesians who made their way to the Bonins to the north, Iwo Jima was largely ignored by the Spanish, Dutch, British, and Japanese until a relatively late date after its 1543 rediscovery.

The Japanese eventually colonized the island, administering it as the Ioto or Iojima Village under Tokyo's jurisdiction until all civilians were forcibly evacuated to Honshu in July 1944 near the end of World War II.

Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the second flagraising on Mount Suribachi has become one of the most famous examples of wartime photojournalism and an iconic American image.

Now technically part of the territory and municipal jurisdiction of Ogasawara Village, the island still has no permanent inhabitants except a Self-Defense Force base on its Central Field.

Its soldiers, sailors, and airmen receive their own services from Ayase or Sayama but provide emergency assistance to communities on the Bonins who are still connected with the mainland only by an infrequent day-long ferry.

[10] Certainly, John Gore was aware of Spanish accounts of the area with him[9] when he visited in 1779 and recorded its English name as Sulphur Island.

[11] The name was subsequently calqued into Late Middle Japanese with the Sino-Japanese form and pronunciation Iwōtō or Iwō-tō (硫黄島, イヲウトウ, "Sulfur Island"), still used by the control tower for the remaining airport.

[13] In general Japanese use, the /w/ has dropped out of the modern pronunciation to become Iōtō or Iō-tō (イオウトウ), a spelling formally adopted following Japan's 1946 orthography reform.

The high-profile Clint Eastwood films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima revived complaints from prewar residents about continued misreadings of the island's name,[13] particularly within Japanese.

[19] Iwo Jima has a history of minor volcanic activity a few times per year (fumaroles, and their resultant discolored patches of seawater nearby).

From these circumstances, Captain Gore gave it name of Sulphur Island.”[30]On 11 July 2022, the first magmatic eruption in over 1000 years began just offshore.

[42] Iwo Jima has a tropical savanna climate (Aw) with long, hot summers and warm winters with mild nights.

[citation needed] Even before the beginning of World War II, there was a garrison of the Imperial Japanese Navy at the southern part of Iwo Jima.

The Marine invasion, known as "Operation Detachment", was charged with the mission of capturing the airfields on the island for use by P-51 fighters, and the emergency landings of damaged heavy bombers that were not able to reach their main bases in the Marianas (Guam, Saipan and Tinian).

The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with vast bunkers, hidden artillery, and 18 kilometers (11 mi) of tunnels.

With the landing area secure, more troops and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields and the remainder of the island.

"[50] Comparatively, the 82-day Battle of Okinawa lasted from early April until mid-June 1945 and U.S. (five Army, two Marine Corps Divisions and Navy personnel on ships) casualties were over 62,000 of whom over 12,000 were killed or missing, while the Battle of the Bulge lasted 40 days (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) with almost 90,000 U.S. casualties comprising 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 captured or missing.

After Iwo Jima was declared secured, about 3,000 Japanese soldiers were left alive in the island's warren of caves and tunnels.

The claim was initially made by authors at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, parsing heavily redacted declassified documents.

Under Secretary for Defense Policy Walter Slocombe told The New York Times, "Our position is that there have been no violations of our obligations under the security treaty and related arrangements.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) operates a naval air base on the island at Central Field.

The airstrip is rarely used for emergency landings by commercial airplanes flying transpacific routes (between the Northeast Asia and Saipan, Guam).

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is in charge of explosive ordnance disposal, and maintains a garrison of 400 troops on the island.

Civilian access to the island is restricted to those visiting graves of former residents and attending memorial services for U.S. and Japanese fallen soldiers, construction workers and cafeteria staff for the naval air base, and meteorological, geological and environmental agency officials.

The Japanese troops stationed on the island register their residential addresses in Ayase, Kanagawa or Sayama, Saitama for voting, tax, and social security purposes.

[66] During the memorial service a granite plaque was unveiled with the message: On the 40th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, American and Japanese veterans met again on these same sands, this time in peace and friendship.

We commemorate our comrades, living and dead, who fought here with bravery and honor, and we pray together that our sacrifices on Iwo Jima will always be remembered and never be repeated.It is inscribed on both sides of the plaque, with the English translation facing the beaches where U.S. forces landed and the Japanese translation facing inland, where Japanese troops defended their position.

The joint U.S.–Japanese ceremony was attended by Yoshitaka Shindo, a Japanese lawmaker who is the grandson of the Japanese commander during the battle, Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, and Yasunori Nishi, the son of Colonel Baron Takeichi Nishi, the Olympic gold medalist equestrian who died commanding a tank unit on the island.