3d Project Underway to Re-Create Peaceful Prewar Iwoto, Providing Chance for Islanders to Experience Island’s Heyday

By Koji Hasebe / Japan News Staff Writer

14:59 JST, September 26, 2025

A fierce battleground during the Pacific War, Iwoto Island, then known as Iwo Jima, was once a “southern paradise” home to over 1,000 people.

A project is underway to re-create the island’s prewar times using 3D imaging technology. Expectations are high among a group of descendants of former islanders who want to see the island’s heyday for themselves and give their grandparents a chance to relive it.

In late July, Tetsuo Tomizawa, 46, a professor at National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College (Tokyo Kosen), and his students equipped themselves with 3D sensors and surveyed the island’s ruins. They worked under the intense tropical sun and with the occasional scent of sulfur.

The team measured the dimensions of a shrine and Iwo-to Islander Peace Cemetery Park, which was built on the site of a former cemetery. They also used the sensors to capture measurements of decaying wartime anti-aircraft guns and an old sugarcane juicer.

The team spent a full day walking around the island, including a trek up Mt. Suribachi, a former battlefield and, before the war, a destination of school excursions.

The sensors use lasers to simultaneously record shapes and colors across a 30-meter-wide radius. The team also used video cameras to capture detailed sections of the sites so that they could create 3D color images of them.

Since 2021, Tomizawa has been involved in a project in Hachioji, Tokyo — where his college is located — creating 3D images of the Asakawa underground bunker complex built by the Imperial Japanese Army during the final stages of the Pacific War. The goal of the project is to preserve the site as a war relic for future generations.

Ryoma Nishimura, a member of the national association of third-generation Iwoto islanders, formed in 2018 to preserve the island’s memories, heard about Tomizawa’s project and sent the professor a request in 2023 asking him to create a 3D model of Iwoto.

“Our grandparents are getting old and can’t visit the island anymore,” said Nishimura, 43, who is from Itabashi Ward, Tokyo. “We want them to be able to visit graves and the places they cherish on the island via virtual reality while they still have the energy.”

Nishimura’s grandmother, who was born and raised on the island, used to tell him about life there. She called the island a “paradise” with vast fields of sugarcane and pineapples and told him that the sea yielded an abundance of fish like flying fish and bonito.

“My grandmother loved the beautiful starry skies of her hometown,” Nishimura said. “I want to re-create the island’s peaceful times of the past in contrast to the war ruins.”

The 3D images will be completed next spring.

“If civilians can access the island in the future, Iwoto could become a destination for school trips and a place to pass down history to future generations,” Nishimura said.