The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 called millions of Americans to duty.

As World War II efforts mounted, thousands of young Minnesotans answered the call, including three Litchfield men.

Those three men also were part of the Battle of Iwo Jima, each serving in a different branch of the military. Don Nordlie was a sergeant in the Marines, Roger Tipka served as private first class in the Army, and Stan Mortenson was a machinist’s mate third class in the Navy.

Nordlie and Tipka were stationed on the island, while Mortenson worked on a destroyer escort in the sea.

“I think it’s … I don’t know if ‘incredible’ is the right word. I have yet to find the right word to put it together that 69 years later, we have three guys who were involved in this battle, to talk to us about it, and tell us about it,” said Tim Mergen, a Litchfield businessman. “I think that is so special for a town of this size to be able to have that.”

Mergen, general manager of Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association, didn’t know the three men until their paths crossed unexpectedly. Mergen was in Washington, D.C., several years ago with his family and walked past some displays.

“I saw maps that showed different map-making technology through the years,” Mergen recalled, including one that had been top secret and was now unclassified. “It showed … very, very detailed, where the U.S. believed Japanese had installations on Iwo Jima. I asked the guy if I could have the map. He said, ‘sure,’” Mergen said.

After returning home with the map, Mergen read a newspaper story in the Litchfield Independent Review about Tipka serving in Iwo Jima. Mergen thought Tipka would value the map even more. So, on a winter day near Christmas, Mergen went to Tipka’s house, knocked on his door and presented the map to a surprised, yet, grateful Tipka.

Months went by, and Mergen needed to find someone to give a presentation to his Kiwanis Club. He asked Tipka to speak about his time at Iwo Jima. Tipka said he was not comfortable speaking, but would tell Mergen about Iwo Jima, if Mergen would do the presentation. Mergen agreed, gathered stories from Tipka and gave his Kiwanis speech.

After the presentation, a friend of Nordlie’s approached Mergen and told him Nordlie had served at Iwo Jima, too. Mergen contacted Nordlie, and after hearing about Nordlie’s time on Iwo Jima, he revised his presentation to include Nordlie’s service. Mergen gave another presentation at First Lutheran Church in Litchfield, and following that speech, Mortenson, who had been in the crowd, approached Mergen. Mortenson said he, too, had served at Iwo Jima.

Mergen has developed a presentation that he has now given to several organizations and civic groups throughout Meeker and McLeod counties in which he shares general history of the Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as some of the three men’s stories.

The story of Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima is an island 650 miles off the coast of Japan and 3,800 miles from Hawaii. For the United States, securing Iwo Jima was important as an air base for long-range bombing missions against mainland Japan, Mergen said.

Because of the distance between mainland Japan and U.S. bases in the Mariana Islands, the capture of Iwo Jima would provide an emergency landing strip for crippled B-29s returning from bombing runs. The seizure of Iwo Jima would allow for sea and air blockades, the ability to conduct intensive air bombardment and to destroy the enemy’s air and naval capabilities, according to the Navy Department Library.

Japan knew the United States needed Iwo Jima, if it were going to do any sort of invasion of the mainland to continue with the war on Japan, Mergen said. As a result, “It became the most fortified island in the world.”

The Japanese were intent on protecting Iwo Jima, he said. “This was the first battle to be fought on Japanese ground, and the Japanese considered their land sacred. So, by the U.S. coming onto their land, that was a huge thing for them, because that was sacred ground to the Japanese and the Japanese empire.”

Iwo Jima, which means Sulfur Island, is 8 square miles in size. To put that in perspective, Mergen compared the island to the city of Litchfield. “If you were to start on the south end of Lake Ripley and drive north to where the outdoor theater is, you’ve gone about four miles. If you start at Walmart and drive to the west where County Road 1 is, you’ve gone about two miles. So, literally, this island is pretty close to the size of Litchfield.”

The U.S. invasion started Feb. 19, 1945. However, the United States had done three days of naval bombardments before that.

The invasion came on the east side of the island of the different beaches.

“The invasion force was huge. Fifty thousand Marines landed on Iwo Jima for the invasion. There were 800 different Navy vessels that were used. They had eight battleships, 12 aircraft carriers, 19 cruisers, and 44 destroyers that were involved,” Mergen said. “There were about 110,000 total troops involved with the invasion, just in that particular part of it. Along with that, the Navy had to cut off reinforcements coming from Japan. So, when you consider what the Navy did in their blockade, there were about 250,000 troops involved with this invasion. A lot of people involved in something 8 square miles big,” Mergen said.

“It was actually a pretty simple plan that the military developed – the Navy was supposed to cut off the Japanese air and sea support and put all the troops ashore. The Marines were to take the island, the Army would run it, and the Air Force was going to use it,” he said.

The United States figured it would take three days to capture the island, maybe five. A week at the most, Mergen said. Unfortunately, the U.S. military “estimated there were about 7,000 Japanese on that island. They underestimated by about 70 percent. There were more than 22,000 Japanese on the island,” Mergen said. “And those 22,000 Japanese were not on the island. They were in the island. They had tunnels all throughout that island.”

With 16 miles of tunnels, the Japanese moved their troops back and forth, he said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Marines had no idea what was going on inside those tunnels.

“That’s what made the Japanese so much more effective. These tunnels, a lot of the openings were no bigger than a 5-gallon pail. So the Japanese could pop up behind the Marines, start shooting at them. Or, as a tank was going by, throw a bomb out to disable it, slip back down the hole, and you would have no idea what happened. That’s what made them so effective. The Japanese had over 1,500 pillboxes dug in around the island. And hundreds of military artillery dug in, in other spots. One particular ridge in which many Marines died became known as the meat grinder,” Mergen said. “A comment by one of the Marines: “Never saw Jap, but gunfire was coming out of every hole and every rock.”

Nordlie

Nordlie landed on Yellow Beach about two hours after the initial forces landed. When Nordlie hit the beach, “He was trying to dig himself a hole for cover, and he said it was like trying to dig a hole in water. It would just keep caving in and caving in,” Mergen said.

Coarse volcanic ash that never packed like sand hampered the movement of men and machines as they struggled to move up the beach, according to the Navy Department Library.

“They struggled to climb the sandy beaches, Mergen said. “All their equipment was getting stuck in that sand.”

A sergeant in the Marines, Nordlie was a radio communications operator. The radio pack he had to carry with him weighed about 25 pounds. Nordlie, himself, went into battle weighing about 155 pounds, and came out weighing about 130.

“Don didn’t have a permanent home on the island. When he landed that first day and until that battle was over 36 days later, he never had a change of clothes or a bath,” Mergen said.

Tipka

Tipka was a private first class in the Army and worked as a radio/radar code operator on the air field. He landed on Purple Beach under Mount Suribachi on the west side of the island.

“We set up our camp up close to the mountain,” and that was his home for about six months, Tipka said. “It’s amazing with all the gunfire that I came back.”

Tipka had worked at a Litchfield garage before he was drafted, so he thought the Army would put him in the motor pool. “That’s where I got my training,” he said.

Instead, his typing skills earned him a radio/radar code operator job.

“In high school, I took typing as extra credit and when I got to Hawaii, they had electric typewriters, and that put me in good shape (to be a radio/radar code operator),” he said.

“I didn’t have time to fight. We set up camp with the radar equipment and stayed put,” Tipka said.

The radar was so new, it was top secret, he said. His instructions were to protect it first, and if there was any chance it would fall into the enemy’s hands, he was to destroy it.

Mortenson

Iwo Jima was hot and dry, and there was no water on the island.

“The ground was so hot in places, you could cook on it,” Mergen said. “Each Marine was allowed one canteen of water a day. If you wanted to clean up, shave, anything, take a bath, you had to use salt water for that.”

To keep the troops hydrated on an island surrounded by salt water, the Navy used machines to remove salt from the water so troops could drink it.

“I made fresh water out of salt water,” said Mortenson, who was a machinist’s mate third class on the USS Corbesier DE438, a destroyer escort with 225 crew members.

“The Corbesier had a two-fold job,” Mergen said, “It needed to prevent the Japanese submarines and other reinforcements coming in from the mainland. Then, also their job, and this was really Stan’s job, was to make fresh water out of the salt water. He had to make sure he was running that equipment. I was under the impression that they take all the salt out of it, and Stan tells me, ‘No, that’s not the case.’ You actually leave some salt in there, so the U.S. troops didn’t have to take salt tablets.”

Mortenson enlisted when he was 18 because, “I was going to be drafted, and I wanted to get into the Navy. So, I made sure I got my choice.”

Flag-raising

The Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took the historic photo of U.S. troops raising a flag on Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945, which was the fifth day of the battle.

“That’s the day of the famous flag raising. But on Day Five, the U.S. only controlled Mount Suribachi. Remember, they thought they’d have the whole island at this point, that they’d control everything. That battle went on for another 31 days,” Mergen said. “When that (photo) got back to the U.S., everybody thought the fighting was over. Everybody was astonished to find out it was going to go for a month yet.”

Rosenthal’s photo actually portrayed the second flag raising, which took place about two hours after the first flag raising, Mergen said.

Both Tipka and Nordlie were on the island when the first flag was raised.

“And they’ll tell you, when that first flag went up, everything got quiet for a few minutes on the island. I suspect it got quiet for two reasons: one, for the Japanese, that was the first time in their history that a foreign flag had ever been raised on sacred Japanese territory. Two, the U.S. troops knew they had finally secured part of that island after five days of battle.”

However, the battle waged for 36 days, ending March 26, 1945.

Different mindsets

The Japanese were led by Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi.

“Kuribayashi told his troops that they were never going to come back. This was a totally different mindset from the U.S. Marines who hit that island. They were hopeful they were going to come back. Kuribayashi also wanted to make sure the U.S. was inflicted with so many injuries and casualties, that they would have second thoughts about doing an invasion of mainland Japan, which might preserve what was left of the Japanese empire,” Mergen said.

In the end, 6,800 U.S. Marines were killed and more then 23,000 wounded, Mergen said.

The Japanese also suffered casualties, with more than 22,000 killed, and less than 1,000 captured, Mergen said.

“Between the two countries, almost 30,000 people were killed at Iwo Jima, Mergen said. “Imagine going around Litchfield and laying 30,000 bodies across that town. That’s about how big that island was. That was how many people died.

“It was a massacre for the Japanese. It was a massacre for the U.S.,” Mergen said. “Was it worth it? Consider, five months later, the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. Was it worth it, if the U.S. knew it was that close to developing the atomic bomb? Should they have just waited and dropped it on Iwo Jima? It was all military personnel there anyway. I can tell you that each one of these three men that were part of that battle, will tell you, it was worth it. The U.S. absolutely had to control that island to continue that war … to stop the bombing runs the Japanese were making on the U.S. troops, whether on their carriers or on land. It was worth it.”

The United States returned Iwo Jima to Japan in 1968. Today, it’s basically uninhabited. Although the Japanese do keep one of the air strips open to do training exercises and occasionally allow the United States to do some training, as well, Mergen said.

Here to remember

While Tipka, Nordlie and Mortenson lived through the Battle of Iwo Jima, Mergen knows many lost their lives, including people who once lived in the area. Wendall Miller of Atwater was killed in Iwo Jima; and Don Nygaard, who grew up south of Grove City, died Feb. 17 at Iwo Jima, Mergen said.

“The U.S. started their pre-invasion bombings three days beforehand. Don was on a ship that got hit from artillery off of Iwo Jima and died two days before the invasion started. He died on the ship,” he said.

“That’s why we’re here today We’re here to remember that,” Mergen told an attentive crowd of about 100 people who gathered at a Memorial Day presentation in Grove City this spring to listen to his talk.

Mergen’s presentation “is wonderful,” Mortenson said afterward. He likes that Mergen has been able to give the presentation to more people to share the stories of Iwo Jima.

Tipka agreed. “He did a beautiful job. I enjoy Tim’s presentation. I didn’t think people would care about it because we had enough war.”

Mergen deflects any praise saying, “I’m just honored that they trust me to do this. I’m humbled by the whole experience.”