At the risk of grossly oversimplifying, I believe the island had major tactical value as an air base w/in fighter range of the Japanese home islands and as an emergency landing site for B-29's. It was also desirable to deny it to the Japanese as a base from which to harass American forces.
The same factors made it valuable to the Japanese. It also had great symbolic importance because it was considered sacred Japanese soil (or ash, anyway). It was part of the prefecture of Tokyo.
Interesting. Thanks Homer.
Still curious if we added the “Jima” later because that is what the Asians called it (because every south-Asian island doesn’t end with “Jima”).
I pretty much agree with Homer. There were important strategic reasons to take the island, all of which had to do with the B-29 campaign:
1. Deny the Japanese a base to mount attacks on our strategic airfields in the Marianas;
2. Deny the Japanese a forward base that would provide early warning of B-29 raids.
3. Provide an emergency landing strip for damaged B-29s returning from the Empire;
4. Provide a base for fighter escorts for the bombers.
However, the ferocity of the land combat was something of an order not seen since Verdun. From that it became symbolic of American determination to take an objective against the bitterest resistance. The flip side was it symbolized the cost we thought we would bear in an invasion of the Home Islands, but on a much larger scale.