The Japanese had hundreds of these inter-connecting underground tunnels and bomb shelters on Iwo Jima. Japanese snipers would pop up out of nowhere often from underground tunnels the Marines thought had been cleared and sealed. Torraca recalls that it was difficult to dig foxholes in the volcanic ash that covered the entire island. Upon landing, we would run up the beach and try to find cover.”Īfter fighting their way up the beach, they set out for their objective, Airfield Number Two in the middle of the island. “We were given a gun, and told to board the ship. He and the 21st Regiment were assigned to land three days after D-Day. Before hitting the beaches, Joseph and his fellow Marines had to circle around for hours in their ship before piling into their landing craft. Iwo Jima would prove to be Lieutenant Torraca’s first engagement and trial by fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Division, 21st Regiment, G Company under the command of General Howland “Howling Mad” Smith, whom he greatly admired, “A Marine through and through,” who fought hard for his men. “He possessed the power to make his men fall into formation at 3:00 in the morning for the slightest infraction.” By doing this, he instilled cooperation and teamwork into the minds of the young Marines.įollowing boot camp, he was sent to the island of Guam, arriving at the island near the end of the American invasion. His drill instructor at boot camp was, as Joseph puts it, “God-like” in his authority over his men. When he turned 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, and was sent to boot camp at Parris Island. As he was 17 at the time, he needed his parents’ consent, which they refused to give. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Joseph was at his cousin’s apartment on Oliver Street, when they heard, over the radio, that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. They would hike across the George Washington Bridge to Fort Lee, where they would pitch their tents and set up their camp. For their summer camp, each scout would pay 25 cents for a week of camping. The troop, run by Dominican nuns, at the Madonna House, was very poor. He joined the Boy Scouts in 1937, in a troop in Lower Manhattan, near the Fulton Fish Market. He grew up on the Lower East Side on Cherry Street. Joseph Torraca was born in New York City April 19, 1924, the son of a chief electrical inspection engineer for the City. On December 8, 1941, the United States was at war. The attack took the lives of over 2,000 seamen, and wounded over 1000 more. The Japanese destroyed over 300 planes and 20 navy vessels, including sinking the battleship USS Arizona. Lasting only a few hours, the attack was a devastating blow to the proud Pacific Fleet. On December 7, 1941, “A date which will live in infamy,” hundreds of Japanese planes carried out a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This would mean attacking United States naval bases in the Philippines, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to protect Japan’s navy. In search of iron and oil, the Japanese decided to invade Southeast Asia. The United States promptly placed an embargo on Japanese goods, a boycott that could have resulted in a large blow to the Japanese economy. In search of resources, Japan invaded the French colony of Indo-China in 1941. In that same year, Japan had signed a treaty with Germany and Italy. In 1940, the war on the European continent had been raging on for a full year, with Hitler’s armies sweeping across the continent.
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