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, known in English as Iwo Jima ( ), is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago also known as the Bonin Islands. The island of 21 km2 (8 square miles) is south of mainland Tokyo and is administered as part of Ogasawara, one of the eight villages of Tokyo (though it is uninhabited). It is famous as the setting of the February–March 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and elements of the British Pacific Fleet versus the Empire of Japan during World War II. The island grew in recognition in the west when the iconic photograph ''Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima'' was taken on Mount Suribachi, the highest point at 160 metres (528 feet), during the battle by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. The U.S. occupied Iwo Jima until 1968 when it was returned to Japan. ==Name== It was discovered by Spanish sailor Bernardo de la Torre who named it Sufre Island, after the old Spanish term for sulphur (''azufre'' in modern Spanish). At that time Iwo Jima and other islands were the limit between the Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the far East. In 1779, the island was charted as Sulphur Island, the literal translation of its official name, during Captain James Cook's third surveying voyage.〔Patrick, John M. ''Iwo Jima – Sulphur Island.'' United States Naval Institute Proceedings 76, no. 9 (September 1950): 1028-1029.〕 The historical spelling ''iwautau''〔Kōjien dai rokuban (Japanese dictionary). Iwanami shoten, 2008.〕 had come to be pronounced (approximately) ''Iwō-tō'' by the age of Western exploration, and the 1946 orthography reform fixed the spelling and pronunciation at ''Iō-tō''. An alternative, ''Iwō-jima'', modern ''Iō-jima'', also appeared in nautical atlases. ''Tō'' and ''shima'' are different readings of the kanji for , the ''shima'' being changed to ''jima'' in this case. Japanese naval officers who arrived to fortify the island before the U.S. invasion mistakenly called it ''Iwo Jima''.〔 In this way, the "Iwo Jima" reading became mainstream and was the one used by U.S. forces who arrived during World War II. Former island residents protested against this rendering, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Geographical Survey Institute debated the issue and formally announced on June 18, 2007, that the official Japanese pronunciation of the island's name would revert to the pre-war ''Iō-tō''.〔 Moves to revert the pronunciation were sparked by the high profile films ''Flags of Our Fathers'' and ''Letters from Iwo Jima''.〔 The change does not affect how the name is written with kanji, "", only how it is pronounced or written in hiragana, katakana and rōmaji. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iwo Jima」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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