The Battle of Iwo Jima took place in February 1945. The capture of Iwo Jima was part of a three-point plan the American had for winning the war in the far east. By 1944, America and its allies in the Pacific War had the ascendancy. In the west the Japanese were being turned back in Burma and island hopping had isolated Japanese forces in the eastern sector. America's desire to finally destroy Japan's merchant fleet so that the Japanese mainland could not be supplied from the food rich sectors of South East Asia which Japan still had control over. The United States won the battle.