F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets on the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea in 2018. Photo: AP
What is the US Navy doing on Japan’s Iwo Jima, nearly 75 years after World War II?
- While the island – where a key battle took place in 1945 – is sovereign Japanese territory, it is also a strategic facility for US and Japanese troops
- For 20 years, US fighter pilots have used it to practise the high-pressure manoeuvre of taking off and landing on aircraft carriers
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Japan
F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets on the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea in 2018. Photo: AP