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Crusade in the Pacific is a video series that documents the fighting between the United States and Japan's Empire of the Rising Sun during and immediately after World War II. Each episode examines a crucial stage in a war that was contested bitterly and marked by unheard-of savagery. This episode, Crusade in the Pacific: Bloody Iwo - The Capture of Iwo Jima, investigates the battle of Iwo Jima, the climax of the land campaign in the Pacific theater. The capture of Iwo provided a valuable base for crippled U.S. bombers and in many ways broke the resolve of many of Japan's leaders. Also covered in detail is the raising of the flag atop Mt. Suribachi, the American equivalent of Russian troops hoisting the hammer and sickle over the Reichstag in Berlin.