On March 14, the Americans, deeming all organized resistance over, declared the island officially conquered. In fact, hidden in underground shelters or tunnels, several hundred Japanese were still resisting. On March 17, Kuribayashi addressed the survivors:“The battle is coming to an end. The survivors, officers and soldiers, must go out and attack the enemy. These are my orders. You have devoted your life to the Emperor, do not think of yourself. I remain at your head. »
Liquidation of pockets of resistance, left to tanks and squads demolition forces armed with flamethrowers, lasted until March 26. That day, the Japanese attempted a final attack:350 assailants stormed an Air Force and Navy engineering camp; it took a day of fierce fighting and the intervention of a battalion of Marines to bring it down. In the final days of the battle, Kuribayashi committed suicide; it was then at the northern tip of Iwo Jima.
By March 26, only 216 Japanese had surrendered; 20,000 had been killed. In the following two months. 1,600 Japanese were killed and 370 taken prisoner as pockets of resistance were liquidated. The American losses, taking into account the air and sea supremacy of the forces engaged as well as the superiority of their firepower, were also impressive:the Marines had 275 officers and 5,610 soldiers killed, 826 officers and 16,446 soldiers wounded. Iwo Jima cost 30% of the entire landing force. A terrible figure finally:the infantry regiments of the 4th and 5th divisions lost about 75% of their strength.
Iwo Jima quickly justified the strategic value that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and in particular the Air Force. had attached to his grip. Before the end of the war, more than 20,000 aircrew landed on the island's airfields; from April 7, thanks to the efforts of engineer units, Mustang fighters were able to escort the daytime raids of the Super Fortresses against Tokyo and other Japanese cities.