[ErnBatavia]

I’ve been reading Homer’s WWII New York Times threads, and find it interesting that back then it was simply called Iwo Island (Since “Jima” is Nipponese for “Island” anyhow....).

[chajin]

I’ve been reading Homer’s WWII New York Times threads, and find it interesting that back then it was simply called Iwo Island (Since “Jima” is Nipponese for “Island” anyhow....).

"wo" is an archaic way of Romanizing one form of the "o" in Japanese, like the "ye" in the archaic Romanization of Yedo was simplified to Edo.

Also, in Japanese the kanji or written characters from Chinese can be read at least two ways, with the meaning staying the same. In 硫黄島, the 硫黄or "Io" (pronounced EE-oh) means sulfur, and 島 means island, but can be read either as "to" or "shima," except that sometimes the "shima" is altered to "jima" when combined with other words. Here endeth the lesson :-)

[PLMerite]

Is this where I should jump in and say at the time the guys called it “Iwo Gina” ?