Only about 5 percent of the Japanese defenders survived.
Only 1,083 of the 22,786 Japanese defenders survived to be captured.
The Japanese defenders were overwhelmed and many of them abandoned their weapons as they fled.
But Japanese defenders, if they ever existed, had departed long before.
The men then swept forward against the Japanese defenders.
He reflected on a 36-day battle in which almost 7,000 marines died and all but 1,000 Japanese defenders were killed.
At the time, the island had only five hundred Japanese defenders.
The rest of the company followed, taking the Japanese defenders by surprise.
Only 28 of the estimated 2500 Japanese defenders survived the battle.
The Japanese defenders numbered less than 1,000 in the area.