WASHINGTON -- With the conquest of Iwo Jima, U.S. fighting men have killed more than 450,000 Japanese in the Pacific since the enemy tide was turned.
In the fighting comeback which has carried them almost to Japan's doorstep, U.S. forces also have by-passed and marooned 240,000 enemy troops in the south and southwest Pacific, and 200,000 more in the East Indies.
With the destruction of more than 20,000 Japanese on bloody Iwo, American warriors have killed at least 467,590 Japanese in bitter island campaigns from 1942 to now.
This estimate is based on figures obtained at the war and navy departments. It does not, however, include Japanese losses in most of the great naval battles. The only sea fight for which the navy had data on enemy casualties was the battle of Midway, the historic engagement in which the Japanese lost their initiative in the Pacific never to regain it.
Nor does this compilation include the price which Japan paid for her conquest of the Philippines at the war's beginning. U.S. sources have estimated Japanese dead in the first Philippines campaign at 100,000. However, Brig. Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, Philippines resident commissioner, believes the figure should be around 240,000.
No official source has attempted to estimate Japanese wounded. Japanese prisoners of war, however, total about 5,500, according to the office of war information. They include 2,800 in continental U.S. prison camps and a slightly smaller number in the field.
The 467,590 total of Japanese dead includes:
South and southwest Pacific -- 155,000.
Second Philippines campaign, including some 50,000 Japanese killed in convoys bound for Leyte -- 200,000.
Central Pacific -- 78,790.
Iwo Jima -- 20,000.
Aleutians -- 9,000.
Battle of Midway -- 4,000.
