Iwo Jima has always been beautiful, a volcanic chunk of rock surrounded by cobalt sea. But a World War II battle 80 years ago this month turned the Japanese island into a byword for desperate, deadly combat — and for American triumph.

       On Feb. 23, 1945, a contingent of American Marines climbed to the top of Mount Suribachi, the highest point of Iwo Jima. Atop the rubble of war and volcanic eruption, they pitched forward and raised an American flag. A photographer for The Associated Press, Joe Rosenthal, snapped an image, indelible and iconic.

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       Credit...U.S. Navy, via Associated Press

       U.S. troops landed on Iwo Jima four days before they claimed Mount Suribachi. A Navy photographer made this image, which was transmitted from Guam by radio to San Francisco.

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       Credit...The Asahi Shimbun

       Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, second from left, in 1944. He led the Japanese forces defending the island and died there.

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       Image

       Credit...Joe Rosenthal/Associated Press

       Sailing on U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, the Marines landed on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945.

       The map locates the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, in the Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Japanese mainland. It also locates Mount Suribachi at the southwestern end of the island.

       IWO JIMA

       Mt. Suribachi

       russia

       china

       N. Korea

       japan

       S. Korea

       Tokyo

       Pacific

       Ocean

       Pacific

       Ocean

       IWO JIMA

       1 mile

       By The New York Times

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