Pentagon cancels Iwo Jima heroes in Trump's war on diversity

Telegraph

28-03-2025

A commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of Iwo Jima has been overshadowed by the removal of the battle's most iconic image from the Pentagon's website.
The photograph, of six war-weary marines hoisting the US flag on Mount Suribachi, was deleted this month on the orders of Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, in an effort to erase all traces of the previous administration's policy of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The offending element was not the flag itself, but a description focusing on Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian and one of the six soldiers.
Hayes became a symbol of the heroism of Native Americans during the war, which in the Battle of Iwo Jima was exemplified by Navajo code talkers. They are credited with securing strategic communications as 100,000 US troops stormed the positions of 22,000 Japanese imperial soldiers, who had built a complex system of tunnels and cave defences.
Almost 7,000 Americans were killed, and only 1,000 Japanese soldiers survived.
During the battle, the Navajo code talkers sent more than 800 messages, many of which were intercepted by Japanese intelligence. Before Pearl Harbour, Imperial Japan had in fact dispatched a team of agents to study Native American languages, well aware they had been used in the First World War to outwit Germany's high command. Navajo, however, due to its complexity and a code system based on some of its unique linguistic elements, proved impenetrable.
Numerous articles dedicated to the service of the Navajo code talkers were also removed from the Pentagon website, along with the famous image which has even been used on postal stamps.
John Ullyot, a Pentagon spokesman, has refused to backtrack, and praised his staff for their 'rapid compliance' with the directive. Amid a media backlash, however, and ahead of the commemorations this weekend, Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation in support of the heroes of Iwo Jima.
The commemorations, which Mr Hegseth will attend on the island this Saturday, will also provide the venue for tense security talks between the US and Japan, amid fears that Pax Americana, which has maintained order in the Asia Pacific for 80 years, is now unravelling.
The sudden reversal in relations with Washington has surprised even Japan's most seasoned diplomats. Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, kept it simple during his high-stakes audience at the White House last month, when he pledged to invest $1 trillion to boost Trump's America First policy.
The strategy appeared to pay off. A beaming president, well known for his love of big numbers, declared his full backing for existing US security guarantees, including for Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands. Those islands, also claimed by Beijing, are strategically located roughly 115 miles from Taiwan.
In addition to reaffirming security guarantees, Mr Trump also declined to threaten his guest with the same punitive tariffs that he targeted at the EU and other allies. The omission was considered another diplomatic coup for Tokyo, and Mr Ishiba was feted as an unlikely hero.
But since then, relations have quickly soured, and the guarantees he received have begun to unravel. Following a similar playbook he used to attack Nato, the US president denounced the long-standing security treaty with Japan as 'unfair', and accused it of free-riding on US taxpayers.
'We have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don't have to protect us,' Mr Trump said. 'That's the way the deal reads, we have to protect Japan, and by the way, they make a fortune with us economically.'
In response to the attack on the treaty, China wasted no time dispatching four of its coastguard ships last week to contest the territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands.
Japan has in fact been the top foreign investor to the US for five consecutive years, and has created tens of thousands of jobs in Mr Trump's electoral strongholds.
Toyota and Nissan alone are expected to complete new manufacturing plants in the US this year, and Tokyo is set to increase imports of American LNG to offset its current trade surplus.
But in addition to tariffs on car imports which Mr Trump announced this week, Japan is facing a raft of additional measures targeting steel, aluminium, computer chips, the pharmaceutical sector, and even its small domestic rice growers.
'To take Trump at his word is naive'
Known for their inscrutable approach to diplomacy, officials in Tokyo are hoping that the US president is simply posturing for a better deal that will ultimately bolster Japan's security.
'The fact is there is no trade win they can offer Trump, no matter how big, that will change the reality that the US is simply no longer committed to defending Japan or Taiwan,' Robert Dujarric, co-director of Temple University's Institute of Asian Studies in Tokyo, told The Telegraph.
'For Japan to take Trump at his word on security is about as naive as believing he's a model husband and lifelong monogamist.'
Leaks from the Pentagon have also revealed plans to scale back the much vaunted 'pivot to Asia'.
The geostrategic shift was cited by Mr Trump as a reason for downgrading US military commitments to Nato, but the strategy could be deceptive.
'[Sir Keir] Starmer and [Emmanuel] Macron need to understand that the old world order is being dismantled everywhere,' said Mr Dujarric. 'Not just in their own backyard.'
Tokyo has also been rattled by reports that Elon Musk is pressuring for military downgrade. A self-proclaimed 'friend' of China, it is Mr Musk's department of government efficiency that is demanding $50 billion in cuts annually from the US defence budget.
Efforts to restore good relations will go into overdrive
The Pentagon's change of tack could even affect the UK, as reforms planned under former president Biden would have enabled Japanese collaboration with Aukus. The trilateral agreement between UK, US, and Australia to build a fleet of nuclear attack submarines is being challenged by J D Vance, the US vice-president. Some form of Japanese participation could help secure the project's viability.
Chinese ships finally left the waters around the Senkaku Islands this week after a record-breaking stand-off with the Japanese coastguard lasting almost four days. There is now a growing realisation in Tokyo that it needs to hedge not only against the risks of US isolationism but Mr Trump's unpredictability.
As if to highlight this point, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, an anti-US firebrand and member of the Brics group, was welcomed on a state visit to Tokyo for security talks ahead of Mr Hegseth's arrival.
'Another option for Japan which is still taboo to talk about,' said Mr Dujarric, 'is that if there's a risk Trump will cut a bad deal with [China president] Xi Jinping, and sell out your strategic sovereignty, you might as well get in there first, sell out Taiwan, and cut your own deal.'
On the island of Iwo Jima this Saturday, diplomatic efforts to restore good relations will go into overdrive. The US defence secretary will meet veterans for a photo opportunity, and visit Mount Suribachi, where the victory flag was raised and famous photo taken.
The battle itself has remained fresh in popular US memory thanks to two films directed by Clint Eastwood. The second film was shot entirely in Japanese, and from the perspective of the 'enemy'.
Japanese diplomats will be hoping that Mr Hegseth, an outspoken champion of Mr Trump's America First policy, will also prove capable of viewing Asia-Pacific security from their perspective.