U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Ioto, the far-flung Japanese island known widely as Iwo Jima, on Saturday as part of his first visit to Japan as defense chief for an event honoring those who died in bloody fighting there 80 years ago during World War II.
“The U.S.-Japan alliance shows those brave men of 1945 — yesterday's enemy — has become today's friend,” Hegseth told a jointly held ceremony on the island. “As we remember the many who gave their lives here for the peace we now enjoy, let us recommit ourselves to our friendship and to our alliance.”
Hegseth, who is due to hold talks with Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Sunday in Tokyo, the final leg of his first visit to Asia, was visiting amid a growing scandal over leaked details about U.S. military strikes on Yemen earlier this month and concerns in Japan about the resilience of U.S. President Donald Trump’s commitment to the alliance.
In Saturday’s speech, Hegseth cast the alliance as “the cornerstone of freedom, prosperity, security and peace in the Indo-Pacific,” which he said “will continue.”
The U.S. defense secretary was joined at the commemoration ceremonies by Nakatani and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who became the first sitting Japanese leader to visit the island since 2013, when Shinzo Abe made a stopover.
“We must never forget that the peace and prosperity we enjoy today was built on the precious sacrifices of the war dead and the tireless efforts of people over the past 80 years since the war’s end,” Ishiba said.
Nakatani reiterated this, emphasizing that the lessons learned from the war “must be passed on to future generations.”
Both Ishiba and Nakatani also stressed the importance of the two countries’ bilateral alliance, with the prime minister calling it “stronger than ever” and expressing his determination to further boost the partnership.
Saturday’s event was intended to show reconciliation and the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance, following Trump’s statement on Feb. 19, the 80th anniversary of the battle’s start, that “in spite of a brutal war, the United States-Japan Alliance represents the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
Almost 30,000 Japanese and U.S. troops were killed in the battle on Ioto between February and March 1945 in the final phase of the Pacific War. Now part of Tokyo, Ioto is located some 1,250 kilometers south of the capital and was viewed by Washington as a crucial foothold for U.S. bombing raids on the Japanese mainland and by Tokyo as key to defending the homeland.
The island was overseen by the U.S. following the war and returned to Japan in 1968. Self-Defense Forces are currently stationed there, while the U.S. military has also used the island for field carrier landing practices.
Prior to the start of his visit to Japan, Hegseth visited Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines.
His first Asia-Pacific tour comes amid a growing scandal at home over leaked details about U.S. military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month. The U.S. defense chief has been under fire for sharing the sensitive details over a commercial messaging app and mistakenly adding a journalist to a group chat.
He will also arrive in Tokyo just days after media reports said the Pentagon is considering halting a planned expansion of U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) as part of a broader push to significantly slash the Defense Department’s budget of more than $800 billion.
Stopping the plans to convert USFJ into a joint force headquarters could save about $1.1 billion in costs related to personnel and command and control upgrades.
But rolling back the plans would be a dramatic U-turn for an increasingly integrated alliance, following the announcement last July to upgrade the U.S. military in Japan “to expand its missions and operational responsibilities” — a move labeled “the most significant change to U.S. Forces Japan since its creation.”
While it was unclear if a total halt would happen, a report Saturday said the upgrade would go forward, though it would temporarily forgo bringing major elements of the U.S. military in Japan under USFJ command, effectively watering down an earlier plan.
The Sankei Shimbun, quoting multiple unidentified U.S. and Japanese diplomatic sources, said Japan-based elements that also carry out operations outside of the country, such as the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, the U.S. Marines III Expeditionary Force and the Fifth Air Force, had judged it would be difficult to transfer command authority from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.
Discussions on the issue are expected to dominate Hegseth and Nakatani’s meeting on Sunday.
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