Basically once the US navy gained dominance why did they still attack islands like Iwo Jima? Could they not just bomb the airfields to be useless to the Japanese and then wait for their food to run out?
Maybe I’m missing something but it seems that once the islands were surrounded, there was very little ability for the Japanese to get food.
Why not just wait a month or so?
What was the pressure to capture these islands so quickly? Do you think this was a smart strategy or somewhat of a waste of lives?
This question isn’t regarding the main land and the use of the atomic bombs / strategic bombing. I’m primarily interested in the defensive islands themselves that the brutal battles were fought on.
They did this for some bases. The classic example is Rabaul, where the garrison still numbered 70,000 at the end of the war. One some Pacific islands, most of the Japanese garrison died of starvation or disease. Only a small number of Japanese-occupied islands were invaded - these were intended to be used as US bases. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to starve out a garrison that prefers to starve rather than surrender, and an enemy garrison makes it difficult to use as a base. For example, when the invasion of Iwo Jima began, the garrison had supplies for 4 months, and could have stretched this by going on part-rations and eating pack animals. It would not have been a matter of waiting a month or so, but at least 6 months.
For a long answer, see my answer to this question specifically about Iwo Jima: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/lzb1cf/why_did_the_us_military_invade_iwo_jima_instead/