Needed to do a personnel transfer, ship to ship, a few years ago and went in close there to shelter there from a Cyclone that was blowing itself out.
We could still see what looked like the remains of landing craft on one of the beaches.
The overriding question we had was how could 22,000 Japanese and 6,000 Marines die for such a little island? I know it was all for strategic reasons but it isn’t any where near as big as you may think and is actually very small for such a high price to have been paid.
Even though I never actually stepped foot on the place it was still a great a privilege to be so close and an experience that will never be forgotten.
Archie