Marcoleta, a useless Kuribayashi

In my high school days, there was a United States Information System (USIS) library located at Jones Avenue this city.

- Aven Piramide

I would always find time to go there and enjoy reading books which were not easy to find somewhere else. It is sad to note that it no longer exists.Among the books that I remember having read there was about the Battle of Iwo Jima. The specific title of the book escapes my memory now but I still remember that it was considered among the last defense lines of Japan in the Second World War. A brilliant Japanese general named Tadamichi Kuribayashi, was the commanding officer of the Imperial Japanese Army forces of more than 20,000 soldiers. Kuribayashi expected the Americans to overwhelm his forces so he resorted to a highly effective, innovative defense by constructing extensive tunnel systems and bunkers, designed to inflict maximum casualties on U.S. forces rather than stopping the landing on the beaches. As the battle unfolded, Lieutenant General Holland Smith led an amphibious assault of the United States Marine Corps, called Expeditionary Troops, Task Force 56. For purposes of this article I like to name it the Kuribayashi (Japan) versus Smith (America) chess duel.